{"id":54,"date":"2015-08-25T03:21:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T03:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/eng528f15\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2015-08-25T03:21:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T03:21:30","slug":"william-carlos-williams","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/texts\/william-carlos-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"William Carlos Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

“To Elsie” (1923)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pure products of America
\ngo crazy\u2014
\nmountain folk from Kentucky<\/p>\n

or the ribbed north end of
\nJersey
\nwith its isolate lakes and<\/p>\n

valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves
\nold names
\nand promiscuity between<\/p>\n

devil-may-care men who have taken
\nto railroading
\nout of sheer lust of adventure\u2014<\/p>\n

and young slatterns, bathed
\nin filth
\nfrom Monday to Saturday<\/p>\n

to be tricked out that night
\nwith gauds
\nfrom imaginations which have no<\/p>\n

peasant traditions to give them
\ncharacter
\nbut flutter and flaunt<\/p>\n

sheer rags-succumbing without
\nemotion
\nsave numbed terror<\/p>\n

under some hedge of choke-cherry
\nor viburnum-
\nwhich they cannot express\u2014<\/p>\n

Unless it be that marriage
\nperhaps
\nwith a dash of Indian blood<\/p>\n

will throw up a girl so desolate
\nso hemmed round
\nwith disease or murder<\/p>\n

that she’ll be rescued by an
\nagent\u2014
\nreared by the state and<\/p>\n

sent out at fifteen to work in
\nsome hard-pressed
\nhouse in the suburbs\u2014<\/p>\n

some doctor’s family, some Elsie\u2014
\nvoluptuous water
\nexpressing with broken<\/p>\n

brain the truth about us\u2014
\nher great
\nungainly hips and flopping breasts<\/p>\n

addressed to cheap
\njewelry
\nand rich young men with fine eyes<\/p>\n

as if the earth under our feet
\nwere
\nan excrement of some sky<\/p>\n

and we degraded prisoners
\ndestined
\nto hunger until we eat filth<\/p>\n

while the imagination strains
\nafter deer
\ngoing by fields of goldenrod in<\/p>\n

the stifling heat of September
\nSomehow
\nit seems to destroy us<\/p>\n

It is only in isolate flecks that
\nsomething
\nis given off<\/p>\n

No one
\nto witness
\nand adjust, no one to drive the car<\/p>\n

“This is just to say” (1934)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have eaten
\nthe plums
\nthat were in
\nthe icebox<\/p>\n

and which
\nyou were probably
\nsaving
\nfor breakfast<\/p>\n

Forgive me
\nthey were delicious
\nso sweet
\nand so cold<\/p>\n

“The Poor”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By constantly tormenting them
\nwith reminders of the lice in
\ntheir children’s hair, the
\nSchool Physician first
\nbrought their hatred down on him.
\nBut by this familiarity
\nthey grew used to him, and so,
\nat last,
\ntook him for their friend and adviser.<\/p>\n

“Spring and All” (1923)<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the road to the contagious hospital
\nunder the surge of the blue
\nmottled clouds driven from the
\nnortheast\u2014a cold wind. Beyond, the
\nwaste of broad, muddy fields
\nbrown with dried weeds, standing and fallen<\/p>\n

patches of standing water
\nthe scattering of tall trees<\/p>\n

All along the road the reddish
\npurplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
\nstuff of bushes and small trees
\nwith dead, brown leaves under them
\nleafless vines\u2014<\/p>\n

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
\ndazed spring approaches\u2014<\/p>\n

They enter the new world naked,
\ncold, uncertain of all
\nsave that they enter. All about them
\nthe cold, familiar wind\u2014<\/p>\n

Now the grass, tomorrow
\nthe stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf<\/p>\n

One by one objects are defined\u2014
\nIt quickens: clarity, outline of leaf<\/p>\n

But now the stark dignity of
\nentrance\u2014Still, the profound change
\nhas come upon them: rooted they
\ngrip down and begin to awaken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“To Elsie” (1923) The pure products of America go crazy\u2014 mountain folk from Kentucky or the ribbed north end of Jersey with its isolate lakes and valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves old names and promiscuity between devil-may-care men who have taken to railroading out of sheer lust of adventure\u2014 and young slatterns, bathed in filth from … Continue reading “William Carlos Williams”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":24,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-54","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.lfhanley.net\/english528fa17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}