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William Carlos WilliamsA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
"Poem I (Spring and All)" by William Carlos Williams (1923)
The titular work in the collection in which Poem XXII appeared, “Spring and All” (Poem I) captures the rigorous and slow process of spring reclaiming the scruffy fields around a hospital. Unlike more traditional spring poems, Williams here delights in immersing the poem in exact detailing, forsaking emotional indulgences and lyrical ornamentation to present a picture of an early spring day. In tone and in metrics, this is a helpful gloss to Poem XXII.
"Tall Nettles" by Edward Thomas (1916)
An expression of the lean and stripped visual argument of Imagism, this brief lyric captures in clear and undecorated language the landscape of a rural farm, specifically the delight the poet feels when he sees nettles, resilient flowers, pushing through rusting farm implements. As with Williams’ poem, the poet resists converting the image into a tidy lesson about nature, time, or mortality. Rather the poem delights in the colors, lines, and unexpected collision of shapes and textures.
"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound (1913)
Ezra Pound was the philosophical force behind the rise of Imagism. This couplet captures a moment in a Paris underground train station with its usual press of eager and hurried passengers.
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
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
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 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