Chuthasita Thaebanpakul

Matthew Bishop

1202

3 October 2017

The Association between Ordinary Objects and Human Emotions in Williams’ Poem

“Have you ever stared at an object then feel that its appearance is similar to our feelings in

some ways?” William Carlos Williams, the American poet who invents a new way of writing poems

by focusing on the human circumstances. In his poems, he usually pays an attention to the imagism

by using the ordinary objects; moreover, he gets rid of all the poetic devices in his writing

techniques to provide a simplicity of the poem. As a result, those factors introduce his poems to the

modernism. The theme of each poem is different; however, he always keep using the typical objects

to narrate the story in common. Therefore, William Carlos Williams associates ordinary objects

with humans’ emotion in the poems.

In the willow poem, Williams associates the willow leaves with mournful. This poem

describes about the action of willow leaves that locates beside the river. The narrator describes the

appearance of willow leaves during the autumn that the tree still has leaves which are clinging on

the branches and no leaves on the floor; however, the leaves’ colour already starts to become more

pallid. In addition, the narrator explains the action of the leaves during the transition from autumn to

winter that they start to fall on both the ground and the river. In the text it says, “The leaves cling

and grow paler,/ swing and grow paler” (6-7). From this quote, we realise that it is going to enter

the winter season so the colour of the leaves is changing to be worse than they did; in addition, this

quote demonstrates the degeneration of the leaves from being strong to being weaker. Moreover,

when the leaves become more pallid, it imitates that their departure is continually approaching to

them. However, since all of them used to be together; so, it is hard for them to say good bye.
Therefore, the willow leaves develop a condolence feeling because it shows how the life

termination is coming closer to them and being apart from each others is going to happen.

Additionally, in the Nantucket, Williams relates white curtains with the relaxation. This

poem was written during the narrator’s vacation. He mostly mentions about particular objects that

are surrounding him. Most of the objects in the poem have an appearance which implies to the

leisure. Furthermore, the poem is written in four stanzas without using any full stop but hyphen at

the end of the line in order to make the tone of the poem to be more relax. For example, when the

author describes the white curtains, it says, “changed by white curtains —/ Smell of cleanliness

—” (3-4). The quote intimates that the white curtain is giving him a sense of purity due to the

curtains’ colour that has a white colour which normally used for presenting the purity since it’s a

colour that has no additional colour. Besides, it shows that the colour has an impact on his emotion

by using the word “smell” because it is a sensation of human. The other items’ visions in the poem,

for instance, a vision of glass try and glass pitcher, provide him a relaxation as well since their

appearances are transparent which also imply to purity. Therefore, the white curtain is one of the

objects having an appearance that emphasises how the narrator be able to feel relieve during the

vacation.

In conclusion, Williams links the common objects to the human’s temper in his poems. In

the willow poem, the leaves of the willow tree are collaborated with grieve due to the appearance

which their colour is keep changing to be more pallid; in addition, their action of being sway which

shows the weakness of the leaves. So, those aspects supports how it gets weaker and gives a sense

of sadness. Besides, the white drape is associated with the amusement according to its appearance

which the white is implied to the purity; so, it provides a sense of comfort and leads to a relaxation.

For a further study, the way of how Williams uses the ordinary objects having a straight meaning in

the poems introduces him to the modernism.

Poem:

The promise

It is a vast filled with

the fresh rose,
rose with a chalky white
Pouring water over
Every day, every night
I promise...

Over the night,

the sunlight comes out—
write a dark shadow
on the whites
Colour do not
turn back

Brown replaces white

in all part of the rose
Petal drops one by one
only the stalk left
gone together with
the promise
Reflection:
I decided to develop the poem’s style from the willow poem because I noticed how the poem shows
a sense of sadness that is caused by the time. I made a decision to use the roses for developing my
ideas because I think that people usually give the roses as a representation of the feelings. I decided
to write the poem that gives the picture of a white rose since white colour can show the purity and
the beginning point since white has no additional colour so it implies that the rose have not got
through much experiences yet; moreover, white can represent the feeling in a positive way. The
water that is added every day represents the attentiveness that I have. The purpose of this poem is to
show how the time passes can change people. For instance, people always show only their good
sides to us for the first time; however, when the time passes it is a nature that people usually get
bored to what they face everyday; so, it can easily change their behaviours that they used to be. In
addition, in this poem, I use how the rose’s colour changes to represent the changes of feelings.

In the poem, there is no fullstops to give the image of how the time flows and does not turn back.
Also, all the lines include not more than six word to show that only the short time can make people
change a lot. Overall, the structure of my poem contains three stanzas which all stanzas have the
same number of line which is six. The last line of every stanza have the same number of word; so,
the Williams’ technique on “The Red Wheelbarrow” is used. In this case, there are two word in the
last lines. Moreover, the repetition of the word “promise” is used in the poem to emphasise the
importance when we make the promise. The reason that I used rose as my object in the poem is that
roses are the common flower for human to give to another person and also giving the roses is a
human circumstance; so, rose can be a good choice for reflecting the Williams’ technique
effectively.

In my first stanza, I described the appearance of the roses which has a chalky white colour since I
want to show the actual pleasant feeling in there by having no flaws on the flower at all; so, the
word “chalky” is intimating how the first impression that people usually have when their first met
since they still don't have any bad experiences to each other. Therefore, I described it as a fresh
flower to support the idea that the rose is just in the vast like the feeling just starts. In the last line of
this stanza, “I promise” shows that I will always take care of it as best as I can.

When the time passes, the ignorance between me and the rose occurs since it is rarely provided
some water which implied that I feel bored to take care of it; so, conflict between the beginning of
the poem and this stanza happens since I have promised to take care of it but now I am not. As a
result, the lack of attentiveness occurs to the rose. In the third line of the stanza, I used the verb
“write” to show that I am a student like the way that Williams uses the medical terms in the
“Compliant”. According to the ignorance, how the rose starts to turn brown is developing idea that
the feeling is gradually destroyed and becomes worse. In the poem, the brown is caused by the
shadow who leaves the permanent wound to the white rose.

In the last stanza, how all the white changes to be brown explains that there is no good feelings left
anymore; therefore, the petals of the rose is gradually going away since it feels unwilling to live
anymore. Furthermore, as the action of petals falling, the promise that I gave is also gone at the
same time. And this action is the reason why I decided to have only one rose in the vast since I want
to emphasise on the changing of the roes’s colour clearly. In this poem, I want to present that the
feelings that are already destroyed, showing by the falling of those petals, cannot be brought back to
be the same as the first time.