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William Carlos Williams was one of the leading players in the Imagist movement, a significant development within the “Modernist” literary landscape of the first half of the 20th century. Williams’s Imagist poetry, like that of his contemporaries Ezra Pound and H.D., emphasized concise language, vivid imagery, and a focus on concrete objects and experiences. This Imagist emphasis is typically supported by stylistic devices such as free verse, short lines, and minimal punctuation. These characteristics can all be found in Williams’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” which is one of the poet’s later works, and thus representative of the style for which he was known.
In his final book, Pictures from Brueghel, Williams used his distinctive Imagist style to produce ekphrastic poems, that is, poems that describe visual artworks. In these poems, including “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” Williams uses vivid language to recreate the paintings while infusing the scenes with his interpretation of the relationship between art, myth, and daily life. This approach represented an innovative take on the poetic tradition of ekphrasis, which began in Western literature in ancient Greece (examples include Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles in Book 18 of the Iliad or Theocritus’s Idyll 1).
By William Carlos Williams
Approach of Winter
Approach of Winter
William Carlos Williams
Between Walls
Between Walls
William Carlos Williams
In the American Grain
In the American Grain
William Carlos Williams
Paterson
Paterson
William Carlos Williams
Spring and All
Spring and All
William Carlos Williams
Spring Storm
Spring Storm
William Carlos Williams
The Red Wheelbarrow
The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams
The Young Housewife
The Young Housewife
William Carlos Williams
This Is Just to Say
This Is Just to Say
William Carlos Williams
To Elsie
To Elsie
William Carlos Williams
To Waken An Old Lady
To Waken An Old Lady
William Carlos Williams