Chotika Kittithitikul

English 1202

2 October 2018

This Is Just To Say

In the poem “This Is Just To Say,” by William Carlos Williams, Williams uses free verse to

reveal the theme of modernism and imagism. In the poem, Williams avoids using the old way of

writing poems and break an old tradition to writing the new style of writing poem by using new

patterns and simple languages which are modernism and imagism. This makes his poem did not

contain rhyme and meter like other’s poems. As a modernist poet, he focuses on imagery to clarify

the expression, the action of the character and decides to use a few words, not a fancy word to

describe the thing in his poem directly instead of using many complicated words like other

traditional poetry. According to the text on the first stanza, “I have eaten the plums that were in the

icebox” (line 1-4) which means a person has eaten the plum fruits where they were placed in the

icebox. On the next stanza on line 5-8, “and which you were probably saving for the breakfast.” Its

meaning is the plums were saving for someone else breakfast and the plums that he already eats are

the things that do not belong to him. On the last stanza, “forgive me they were delicious so sweet

and so cold” (9-12) which mean he felt sorry for eating the plums, while he also indicates about the

taste of the plums which is so good and tasty. This indicates the narrator who eating the plums

which do not belong to him, he apologizes for eating plums which are for another person and

talking about the plums’ taste good to him. Overall, Williams uses only 8-10 words in each stanza

and uses free verse which makes the quote do not rhythm, no meter and the words he uses are just

simple words which tell its meaning directly and no hidden meaning in it.
Complaint

In “Complaint”, Williams uses imagery and free verse to reveal the theme of imagism and

modernism. In this poem, Williams uses imagery and a simple language to create a picture in the

reader’s mind, make them think of their own experience and connect their emotion with his poem.

In a short line with a few words, Williams makes the reader experiences a new experience and

creating a new world that they have imagination in their mind by using imagery. According to his

poem, Williams uses a new style of writing which is modernism, that makes his poem did not

contain rhyme or meter and the language he uses is very simple and easy to understand, unlike a

traditional poem. It makes his poem easy to understand and drove the reader to have an imagination

about his detail easily. This is demonstrated by “They call me and I go. It is a frozen road past

midnight, a dust of snow caught in the rigid wheel tracks” (line 1-5) which means someone has

called him to go to her place at midnight, he goes and the place is cold and the wheel tracks were

full of snow by the frozen road. On the next line, “The door opens. I smile, enter and shake off the

cold. Here is a great woman on her side in the bed” (line 6-10). These lines are talking about a

narrator already arrive at the person who called him's house, the door opens for him, he smiles,

shake off the cold and see a woman on the bed. “She is sick, perhaps vomiting, perhaps laboring to

give birth to a tenth child. Joy! Joy!” (line 11-15) On the next line, it reveals that a woman is sick,

she vomits sometime and trying to give birth to her tenth child, the words ‘Joy Joy!!’ are clarifying

the expression of the mother. Although, she is suffering as she is trying to giving birth but she also

feel joyful as she is going to see her son’s face soon. It explains the reason why the narrator comes

to her house, he is a doctor and comes to help his patient giving birth. Next line “Night is a room

darkened for lovers, through the jalousies the sun has sent one golden needle!”(line 16-19) show

that a woman finally gives birth to her tenth child. Lastly, “ I pick the hair from her eyes and watch
her misery with compassion” (line 20-22), a doctor picks the hair from his patient’s eyes and watch

her with sympathize as she is suffering after giving birth. These quotes explain how Williams uses

modernism and imagism excellently, he uses only simple words which is the new way of writing in

the poem to clarify the expression and every action of the characters which make reader has pictures

in their imagination about the story they reading and can understand the poem’s detail easily.

Change

The clear sky has no limit

Vast and shine

Blue and pink

Time has passed

And the sundown

The mist comes, cover with cold

The light has gone

Change the vision

Darkness cover all the beauty of sunshine

But in the morning

the sunrise and shine

And all the beauty returned

Reflection

In my poem “Change”, the parts that were inspired by William Carlos Williams are the style

he wrote the poem which is the new way of writing poem, Modernism. Williams wrote his poem in

a different way from other traditional poets, he uses free verse and does not a difficult word which

makes it easy to understand the detail. It inspired me to create my own poem in the way he did, the

way that the reader will easily understand its true meaning. Another part that inspired me is the way

Williams describe the view and the situation that happened, he describing thing with a simple

language and create the reader’s imagination which when I read his poem it gives me the image he

describes and that inspired me to do like he did in his poems, “Spring Storm” and “Willow Poem”.

The purpose of writing this poem is to encourage people when they had a bad day. I try to write a

poem which makes people feel better when there is terrible thing happen in their life, tell them

every cloud has a silver lining and there is always tomorrow to start a new better thing.

The literary device I use is imagery. I try to make reader has an imagination about the picture I want

them to see while they are reading my poem. When they have a picture about my poem, they will

see things I want them to see and will understand my purpose. In my poem, I compare people’s

lives to one day which there is a time when the sunshine and everything shine brightly but in the

same day, there is a time when the sundown and the darkness cover the world which is like people’s

lives that it normal to have an up and down moment so, do not give up there is still tomorrow to

shine again. In addition, I feel it is very necessary to include imagery in my own poem because it

will show a whole picture of my poem, it is not like I tell them but I show them to see how it is like

which I think it will make my poem appeal in five senses. After study Williams as a mentor, the

thing that surprised me the most is his modern poem structure and the thing I notice that I had not

noticed before is that Williams’s poem is all about the situation in life and the lives of people.

Finally, after I study about Williams, he influences me to write a poem like he did, he really good at

it and he wrote many good poems which influence me to want to write a good poem like he did.