In Anglo-American interwar modernism, poetics of impersonality might be tracked along two chief lines—that of T.S. Eliot and that of William Carlos Williams. The two, it should be noted, were antagonists. (Or, at least Williams hated Eliot and...

The complication of the individuated self is one of the central themes discussed during the modernist period. Both William Carlos Williams’ Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and T.S Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock identify the problem...

The title of Wallace Stevens’ poem “Nuances of a Theme by Williams” implies that he intends to comment on, possibly celebrate, and almost certainly explore the potential distinctions and variations available in the poem by William Carlos Williams...

William Carlos Williams’s poem “The Last Words of My English Grandmother” departs from traditional elegies in many ways. The composition does not follow elegiac meter or structure, though normally a poem with elegiac meter should consist of four...

In his poem, ‘The Widow’s Lament to Summer’, William Carlos Williams explores themes of mortality, the fleeting beauty of life and emotional attachment through the perspective of a recently widowed woman. Through limited descriptive techniques and...

In the early 1900s, a woman’s purity was viewed as her most important aspect. So much so that it effected society’s perception of her personality and subsequent treatment of her. It often was a deciding factor in marriage arrangements. In fact, if...

Although established as nonhuman, poets often use animals, nature, and other objects to comment about the human condition in poetry. While in some cases this may lead to a clear distinction between human and non-human, William Carlos Williams’s ...

William Carlos Williams’s poem titled “The Red Wheelbarrow” paints a picture of a wheelbarrow outside in the rain. It is composed of just sixteen words that are divided equally into four stanzas. At first glance, it may seem like a concise and...

The period of modernism in the literature has brought the new forms and the new ways of expressing the ideas. With the development of the imagist movement in the poetry, the free verse and the clarity of expression as well as clear language came...

Far from the elegiac or lamenting tone the reader may approach a poem with the premise of death implied in the “last words” of the title, Williams delivers an uncompromising picture of the mental and physiological effects of aging. The extent of...

William Carlos Williams’ work “The Use of Force” is told from the narrative perspective of a doctor reminiscing on a home visit he made to a sick child. The visit starts off normal as the doctor takes stock of his patient’s symptoms and...

Society has been fascinated by the power struggle between men and women since the conception of gender. Movies and television shows about the battle of the sexes intrigued both men and women, but the real life version of the battle of the sexes is...