Biography
Williams Carlos Williams
was born on the 17th of September 1883 and died on the 4th of March 1963, an American poet intimately connected with the modernism and imagism movements.
Among the contemporary poets commonly connected to him are Robert Frost who was born in 1874, Wallace Stevens, who was born in
1879; and Hilda "HD" Doolittle, who was born in 1886. Of these four,
Williams was the last one to die after Frost.
It should be noted that
Williams also had a long career as a doctor, he exercised pediatrics and
general medicine. Having become pediatric hospital boss at Passaic General Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey until his death.
Hospital that now pays tribute to Williams with a memorial plaque declaring
"we walk in the wards that Williams walked".
Imagism
A poetical movement
poetry that began in 1912 and was represented by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and
others, with the purpose of clarity of expression through the use of accurate
visual images. An initial period often arises in written form in French.
Imagism was inspired by the critical views of TE Hulme, in his revolt against
the sloppy thinking and against the romantic optimism that he saw being used.
The Imagists wrote succinct verses that sought to project effects based on accurate visual images. Imagism was a successor to
the French symbolist movement, but while Symbolism had an affinity for
music, Imagism sought connection with the visual arts.
In 1914 Pound turned to Vorticism, and Amy
Lowell, largely took over leadership of the group.
In short, Imagism:
Advocated the use of
colloquial language
Creation of new sound
rhythms
Freedom of choice of
subject
Free verse
Clear poetry
Poetry released from the sobriety of rhetorical devices and the
sentimentality of poetic productions. It also emphasized the meaning of the
writings.
From an Imagist
manifesto:
1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ the exact
word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.
2. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be
better expressed in free verse than in conventional forms. In poetry, a new
cadence means a new idea.
3. Absolute freedom in the choice of subject.
4. To present an image. We are not a school of painters, but we
believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague
generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we
oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real difficulties of his
art.
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear,
never blurred nor indefinite.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the
very essence of poetry.
Williams Carlos
Williams Poetic Style:
According
to the poet and critic Randall Jarrell, "William Carlos Williams is so
magically alert and mimetic as a good novelist He plays the details of what he
sees with startling freshness, clarity and economy - refers to short verses. Sometimes
he just notices the land forms, the spirit that moves behind the letters. His
transparent lines have a nervous system and a strenght that moves sharply and
intently like a bird. "
Williams's major collections
are Spring and All (1923), The Desert Music and Other Poems (1954),
Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems
(1962), and Paterson (1963, repr.
1992). His most anthologized poem is "The
Red Wheelbarrow."
Williams is strongly
associated with the American modernist movement in literature and saw his
poetic project as a distinctly American one; he sought to renew language
through the fresh, raw idiom that grew out of America's cultural and social
heterogeneity, at the same time freeing it from what he saw as the worn-out
language of British and European culture. In 1920, this project took shape in
Contact, a periodical launched by Williams and fellow writer Robert McAlmon:
Williams
sought to invent an entirely fresh and uniquely American poetry style that
would be centered on everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common
people. He came up with the concept of the "variable foot", a metrical
device to resolve the conflict between form and freedom in verse. With this, he sought American (in opposition to the European) rhythm that he claimed was
present in everyday American language. Stylistically, Williams also worked with
variations on a line-break pattern that he labeled "triadic-line
poetry" in which he broke a long line into three free-verse segments. A
well-known example of the "triadic line [break]" can be found in
Williams's love-poem "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower."
Rewriting
“Asphodel, That Greeny
Flower”
William Carlos Williams' long, late poem
"Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"
is the fullest example of his work in the variable foot and in the triadic (or
three-foot, stepped-down) line, a breakthrough form. It is also
one of the most beautiful affirmations of the power of love in--and
against--the nuclear age, and one of the few memorable love poems in English written not for a mistress but for a wife: his
spouse of 40 years, Florence Herman Williams, or Flossie.
First published in Journey to Love (1955),
"Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" came into existence during a time of
nearly overwhelming crisis in Williams' life.
The original poem
For our wedding, too,
the light was wakened
and shone.
The light!
the light stood before us
waiting!
I thought
the world
stood still.
At the altar
so intent
was I
before my vows,
so moved by your presence
a girl so
pale
and ready to faint
that I pitied
and wanted
to protect you.
As I think of it now,
after a lifetime,
it is as if
a sweet-scented flower
were poised
and for me
did open.
Asphodel
has no odor
save to the
imagination
but it too
celebrates the light.
It is late
but an odor
as from our wedding
has revived
for me
and begun again to penetrate
into all crevices
of my
world.
Our rewriting
Nesta sala de aula,
as
luzes ténues eram
todavia exibindo …as luzes!
As luzes esperavam-nos
aguardavam-nos!
Cuidava que o mundo
se aquietava
quando da secretária
me
aproximava,
os livros eu tirava
face à tua figura imponente
tão pálida
eras
que parecias desmaiar
até me compadecia
querendo
proteger-te.
Agora que penso nisso,
no fim de contas
tudo leva a crer que
uma certa doce flor
se havia pousado
e desabrochado para mim.
A verbena
possui um odor inodoro
salvo no imaginário
mas também ela
tem a sua luz.
Está a entardecer
mas o odor
assemelhado à sala de aula
se tornou intenso para mim
e principiou a penetrar
em todos os poros
do meu mundo.
The differences between the original poem and our
rewriting are that, instead of a marriage, we have a classroom environment
(something of our modern-day everyday lives); instead of a bride, we have a
school teacher; instead of an altar, we changed it into a classroom desk for
students; Williams was accused of borrowing 13th century poets
and we decided to have some inspiration on Portuguese classic writers such as
Luis de Camões (“tem um odor inodoro”) and Gil Vincent (“cuidava que o mundo se
aquietava”); instead of Asphodel, we found another herb that as also
connections with the supernatural which is vervain.
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