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6th out of 55 books
—
9 voters
The Collected Poems, Vol. 2: 1939-1962
'And when the second and final colume of Williams' 'Collected Poems' is published, it should become even more apparent that he is this century's major American poet.' --Larry Kart, 'Chicago Tribune'
Paperback, 533 pages
Published
September 17th 1991
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
(first published June 1967)
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You really need to read the Collected to understand Williams. The various Selecteds out there really don't do this remarkable poet justice (though the review I read of Pinsky's new edited volume of Williams was positive--haven't checked that out yet). Williams was not just an Imagist poet, writing about how much depends on that red wheelbarrow, not just a free verse confessional poet of the late books, inspiration to Robert Lowell, the one who allowed him and Snodgrass and Plath and Sexton to "b...more
Just as the nature of briars
is to tear flesh,
I have proceeded
through them.
Keep
the briars out,
they say.
You cannot live
and keep free of
briars.
- from "The Ivy Crown"
WCW is a mixed bag: romantic, prolific, innovative, influential and often deeply moving, but he fails as often as he succeeds. Fortunately, his successes are truly phenomenal. Everyone knows The Red Wheelbarrow and far too much self-conscious ink has been spilled on that little poem for me to add any here. Many of...more
The Desert Music/Journey to Love
These two books epitomize William's variable foot and three line triads that represented much of his later poetry, and no where else does he make better use of this form (except, maybe, parts of Paterson). These books also brood on many themes and images common in Williams: love, imagination, flowers, mortality, and poetry. In fact, these appear themes appear so often in both books that they give the sense of one long piece.
The Descent and The Desert Music stand o...more
These two books epitomize William's variable foot and three line triads that represented much of his later poetry, and no where else does he make better use of this form (except, maybe, parts of Paterson). These books also brood on many themes and images common in Williams: love, imagination, flowers, mortality, and poetry. In fact, these appear themes appear so often in both books that they give the sense of one long piece.
The Descent and The Desert Music stand o...more
Essential collection of a great American poet
***** A Five Star Poetry Book: Recommended for All Readers
W. C. Williams's poems are about as important to modern American poetry as the Rocky Mountains are to the American contintent: you can't get around them. As the reviews here indicate, he's still not to everyone's taste, but his influence is enormous, largely defining great areas of subsequent American verse (most of which however in my opinion isn't nearly as good as Williams himself.) If you a...more
***** A Five Star Poetry Book: Recommended for All Readers
W. C. Williams's poems are about as important to modern American poetry as the Rocky Mountains are to the American contintent: you can't get around them. As the reviews here indicate, he's still not to everyone's taste, but his influence is enormous, largely defining great areas of subsequent American verse (most of which however in my opinion isn't nearly as good as Williams himself.) If you a...more
I read each poem in this book hoping that the next one would be better, or at least, make more sense. I was actually looking for a poem that I had heard at a writer's workshop and thought was really cool. The speaker had read a couple poems by this author and I was piqued to read more of his writing. But when I finished this book, I was majorly disappointed. I didn't find any poems that I thought were awesome or deeply moving. Instead I was annoyed that I had just wasted my time reading this boo...more
The Rewaking
Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving
to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose
but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely
by
your love until a whole
spring
rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's slipper
and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived
Williams is amazing, his poetry feels like breathing to me. He crammed in his writing at night after busily delivering babies all day and his poems are bursting with real life as seen by someone with all his senses open....more
Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving
to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose
but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely
by
your love until a whole
spring
rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's slipper
and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived
Williams is amazing, his poetry feels like breathing to me. He crammed in his writing at night after busily delivering babies all day and his poems are bursting with real life as seen by someone with all his senses open....more
There's definitely a maturity in his later work, but he lost a bit of that youthful passion that made his early works so good.
This book of poems had to grow on me. At first I wasn't touched by some of the early poems in the volume, but as I read further I came to love William Carlos Williams' use of imagery and language. Much of humanity and life are in these poems: average Americans including a few black people,scenes from other countries and eras, "translations" of some ancient Chinese poets. Also poems from Pictures from Brueghel are here for which he won a posthumous Nobel Prize. It took me a very long time to get...more
Where Vol. 1 puts WCW's work in perspective, Vol. 2 gives us this good stuff.
Jan 29, 2009
Josh
added it
Best Modernist.
As much as I loved Volume I - I loved this collection better. It shows a more mature poet. It shows a poet both expanding his talents and also spreading them in and through his other passions and loves. It is a very strong collection of the poems of this doctor/writer/artist/lover of life. Brilliant!
You must read the poems in Dessert Music and Journey to Love. Well, if you're a poet and at all interested in that wonderful triadic line that Williams does, you must read those poems.
W.C.W. is one of my all-time favorites.
I love his pared down words. And images.
I love his pared down words. And images.
So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow
This one was better.
May 19, 2013
Ashley
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
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May 18, 2013
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May 18, 2013
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William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine. Williams "worked harder at being a writer than he did at being a physician," wrote biographer Linda Wagner-Martin. During his long lifetime, Williams excelled both as a poet and a physician.
Although his primary occupation was as a doctor, Will...more
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“A poem is this:/A nuance of sound/delicately operating/upon a cataract of sense/...the particulars/of a song waking/upon a bed of sound.”
—
14 people liked it
“THE THOUGHTFUL LOVER
Deny yourself all
half things. Have it
or leave it.
But it will keep—or
it is not worth
the having.
Never start
anything you can't
finish—
However do not lose
faith because you
are starved!
She loves you
she says. Believe it
—tomorrow.
But today
the particulars
of poetry
that difficult art
require
your whole attention.”
—
5 people liked it
More quotes…
Deny yourself all
half things. Have it
or leave it.
But it will keep—or
it is not worth
the having.
Never start
anything you can't
finish—
However do not lose
faith because you
are starved!
She loves you
she says. Believe it
—tomorrow.
But today
the particulars
of poetry
that difficult art
require
your whole attention.”
