Tuesday, November 20, 2007

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams is a very well known poet whom many poetry writers look up to, and of course, many readers look up to as well. He was born in 1883 and passed in 1963. I picked up William Carlos Williams’ Selected Poems edited by Charles Tomlinson at the local library and below I have provided another link to the Poetry Foundation’s information and poems of this poet. Ezra Pound discovered his talents in 1913 and brought Williams’ work to a wider readership. Williams was a poet and novelist who explored America in all its glory. He describes simple scenes and intimate moments, his poems range in length of page and in length of lines. Some are very short lines such as in the poem “At the Faucet of June:”

to solve the core
of whirling flywheels
by cutting
….

and longer lines such as the poem “The Yachts:”

brilliance of cloudless days, with broad bellying sails
they glide to the wind tossing green water
from their sharp prows while over them the crew crawls
….

All in all, his poems are easy to understand when they are read, and they are so very beautiful. I highly recommend brushing up on poetry in general by reading Williams and please use the link below to find out more about him.

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81496

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more linked poems from around the on-line literary journals…

4 comments:

Jim Murdoch said...

Williams was a major influence on my as a young poet as was the British poet Philip Larkin, another master of his art, who also wrote straightforward, accessible poetry that young poets could learn much from.

Poet Hound said...

I am also a fan of straightforward and accessible poetry, thanks for mentioning Philip Larkin as well!

Jim Murdoch said...

Could I also suggest you check out the living poet Dick Jones? I discovered him recently and haven't read a poem yet that wouldn't serve as a fine example to put before an English class. It is heavy with metaphor but rather than making you feel bogged down it has the beauty of a bog on a crisp Autumn morning.

Poet Hound said...

Absolutely, I love being referred to more poets because that can only benefit in expanding a love for poetry. Keep the references coming!