Name: Jirayu Mahatongkum (Bright)

Instructor: Mr. Matthew Bishop

Class Number: 1202
Date: 01/10/2017

Williams Poetic Devices

The philosopher Samuel Johnson once said, Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with

truth. This quote illustrates that poetry is often written in truth and reality not abstract ideas.

William Carlos Williams was born on September 17, 1883, in Rutherford, New Jersey. He finished

his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and he decided to be a doctor and a writer. His writing

was influenced by Ezra Pound, his friend. As time passed by, Williams realized that Pounds poetic

style was attracted to European tradition and culture, so he started to reject it. Later on, became

more popular as a writer who came up with an idea of the modernist. His style of writing rejected

all literary traditions by avoiding symbolism, using simple language to show a clear image, basing

on common circumstances, etc. Williams uses repetition in Complaint and personification in

Willow Poem, to demonstrate the emotion of the narrator.

In Complaint, Williams uses repetition to emphasize the compassion of the doctor and

painfulness of the mother. In his poem, around midnight, a pregnant woman called the doctor who

is the narrator to treat her. He felt grievance to visit her; however, as the doctor, this duty to help

patients. He met a lot of obstacles during the way to womans house. Once he arrived at her house,

he saw a pregnant woman was laying on her side and experiencing a painful labor. For example, the

author describes the emotion of the woman; it says, She is sick, / perhaps vomiting, / perhaps

laboring / to give birth to a tenth child. Joy! Joy! (11-15). Williams emphasizes the moment of the

misery of the pregnant woman while giving birth to her child. Meanwhile, he also uses of repetition

word to create intensity to this poem. Moreover, the repetition of the word perhaps by the author

uses to highlight the strong feeling of pain of the woman as she is vomiting and laboring. Lastly, the

writer wants to reveal a sense of sympathy of the doctor by using the word Joy and repeated it
Name: Jirayu Mahatongkum (Bright)
Instructor: Mr. Matthew Bishop
Class Number: 1202
Date: 01/10/2017

twice to make the word outstanding. Consequently, the narrator tried to encourage the woman, but

he felt compassion for her.

Furthermore, Williams poem, Willow Poem, uses personification to highlight the despair

and confusion of the narrator. A small, brief poem consisting of only fourteen lines, Willow Poem

focuses on emotions of the narrator reflecting on the action of a willow tree. When reading this

poem, it becomes vivid that the character reflects the hopelessness of the narrator: the drooping

branches of resemble tear parallels his sorrowful life. The beginning of the poem read, The leaves

cling and grow paler, / swing and grow paler (6-7). Interestingly, this sense of despair is

highlighted through the leaves cling together and do not want to fall which usually this action is

acted by a human, so it can help create the clear image; however, they fall. Moreover, the remaining

of the poem read, They are so cool, so drunk with / the swirl of the wind and the river (10-11),

illustrate the confusion of the author. Williams plainly reveals disorder of the narrator by using the

word drunk which leaves swing as people get drunk and cannot control themselves. Therefore,

the actions of a willow tree within the poem emphasize the confusion and forlornness by the

narrator.

In conclusion, in these two poem, Williams explains the feeling of the narrator through the

use of poetic devices namely repetition and personification. He chooses repetition to express the

sense of the misery of a pregnant woman by repeating the word perhaps to highlight the physical

pain through vomiting and laboring, and he successes in making readers be able to imagine the

image of feeling of pain in their mind. Moreover, personification is also used to bring inanimate

things to life. With this technique, he can reveal his strong emotion of confusion and despair

through the action and characteristic of a willow tree. Consequently, Williams can completely

expose different kinds of feeling by using these poetic devices and presents it in ordinary

circumstance and physical object.

Name: Jirayu Mahatongkum (Bright)
Instructor: Mr. Matthew Bishop
Class Number: 1202
Date: 01/10/2017

ROTC
Sun-ray burning my neck
heavy boots, stiff shirt
bothering me to death
Strong men in camp uniforms
shouting over my head
Roll to the right!
Yes, Sir! we replied
Get up! we complied
Mud and rain water
soaked my flawless uniform
Hahahahah! Nice
Nice and Wet
Strongman grinned
Name: Jirayu Mahatongkum (Bright)
Instructor: Mr. Matthew Bishop
Class Number: 1202
Date: 01/10/2017

Reflection:

I decided to mimic William Carlos Williams' poetry style and pull events from my day with
ROTC. I also write in the first person and based on the common circumstance that almost Thai men
need to face with as Williams often does. I wrote this poem using experiences of the diary life in
ROTC and memories I have met it with myself in every week at ROTC center which located in
Wipawadee Rangsit, Bangkok. I chose to write it from the perspective of myself while having a
hard training. I want to write about what happened to me, whether, and my emotion. Thus, I will
express this emotion through this poem.
Normally, I went to ROTC Center every Saturday to pre-course training for the military.
Now, I was in year 3 for training, and this is the last year for me to be trained. The inspiration for
creating this poem was my real experiences on last Saturday. It was a sunny day with an hour of
rain; I went there as usual and wearing a black heavy boots and camo uniform. When I arrived at
the Center, the rain stopped to fall. The temperature there was boiling; it can make me sick. In this
day, we trained in the paintball field with mud ground. As soon as the trainer came, they told us to
crouch in the field, so I need to do it although I did not want to. Mud made my uniform get dirty
and wet. Then, the trainer laughed at us and said, Nice and Wet which is a kind irony.
As imitating Williams poetry, I tried to make my poetry style similar to him as much as I
can. My poem consists of 13 short lines. Firstly, I considered his modernist style of writing on
Complaint which related and based on the ordinary circumstance that doctor need go out to help
pregnant women who were laboring. Thus, I was thinking of the situation that happens to myself,
and finally, I came up with an idea of telling about the experience in ROTC.
Secondly, I also mimic the poetic devices that Williams use in his poems which are
enjambment, imagery, and rhyme. I used of enjambment, as Williams did, in my poem to make the
poem smoothly flow. For example, Strong men in camp uniforms / shouting over my head to use
enjambment, it will make the smoothly connect between this two line and to show the motion. As
an imagery, simplicity in language and giving details are the significant factors that help make clear
images. For example, I demonstrated by describing, heavy boots, stiff shirt, etc. Moreover, I
also use a rhyme as Williams did in Willow Poem which play the ended sound at the last words
between a line. Hence, I presented by using the word replies and complies to help the ideas and
imagery can flow.
Moving on the other technique, as Williams creates a poem which ultimately shows the
irony in Danse Russe, I considered that this literary technique was also interesting to me.
Therefore, I created this poem by using irony as in my poem read, Nice and Wet / strongman
grinned, to created intense mood and tone of joyful by the trainer; however, actually, at that time
we felt uncomfortable with it. Also, I provide a lot of exclamation marks in this poem to help create
intensity in mood and tone in that action and make it outstanding.
In my opinion, it is surprising to me that Williams can efficiently demonstrate his modernist
style of writing through various of technique which breaking all literary tradition. Each of his
poems has a unique style that seems very interesting. As I have read a lot of his poem, now his
poetry style influences to my work regarding simplicity in language and other techniques.