Eng 12 - Unit 1 Prj 1

Distressful Sentiment In “Willow Poem,” William Carlos Williams set a tone of distress to the poem by using imagery and punctuation. This poem is about a willow tree by the river, which it about to let go of its leaves as the season is changing. It is described in the poem, “The leaves cling and grow paler” (6). The action and appearance of the leaves described in the poem shows the sense of misery of the tree. The author chose to use the word “cling” to express the action of those leaves that they really hold on to each other tightly. By being strongly attached, it gives the meaning of being afraid or unwelcome, which implies that the tree is not happy to let go of its leaves. The willow’s leaves are also getting paler and paler. This can be referred to the reaction of human when being nervous or frightened. People’s faces or hands usually turn white and pale because they are panic or worry about something. They sometimes also hold or squeeze both of their hands together in order to maintain their fear. These actions that the tree is experiencing provide a sign of depression because it doesn’t want to die when winter come and pass away its leaves. The hyphen used at the last section of the poem also indicate the distressful feeling of the tree; "...and of the river-/ oblivious to winter," (11-12). Hyphen signals a break between the poem, telling that the willow is conscious of its death, and is now accepting the reality. Therefore, the tree feels desperate because it knows that it can’t escape death. In “The Desolate Field,” the tone asserted by Williams using imagery is distress. The setting of the poem takes place in a field, which the narrator described it as wide and isolated. The narrator described how he see the sky, saying “Vast and gray, the sky/ is a simulacrum/ to all but him whose days/ are vast and gray, and -” (1-4). “Vast and gray” is repeated two times in this quote to really emphasize the feelings and perspective of the narrator toward his life and the world. From this quote, it can be interpreted that the narrator is desperate as he is now

experiencing a disillusionment. Because vast and gray sky represents how the narrator view the world, it shows the perspective of the narrator that he/she didn’t see the world like before, and that the world is changing. He is now seeing the world as a very wide place and it seems darker to him because he sees more realistic side of the world, which doesn’t match to his previous belief of the world, which is the beauty side. It is also said in the poem, “In the tall, dried grasses/ a goat stirs/ with nozzle searching the ground.” (5-7). The action of the goat finding something on the ground draws out the feeling of loss and depress of the poem. It is useless to find something on the ground that has long and dried grass as the grasses will mostly covered up the floor and make it hard to see, but the goat still searches the ground, despite knowing that it is hopeless. In “Nantucket,” William Carlos Williams used imagery and symbols to create a tone of distress. The poem is describing its setting, which is a room, as quiet and tranquil. It can be assumed that the poem settled on an island called Nantucket, where it is a quiet and peaceful island with sea water and warm sun. However, “Nantucket” seems to give out negative emotions of loneliness and abandoned as it is an isolated island in the middle of the sea with a few people living on, unlike in a city. Williams use the description of the room and how it contrast to the outside environment to show the feeling of the narrator that he/she feels lonely and trapped. It is wrote, “Lavender and yellow/ changed by white curtains” (2-3), Williams use the contrast between the colorful flowers and the white curtain to state the tone of poem because flowers with colors gives the feeling of being cheerful and lively. However, white curtain symbolized plain and simplicity of the room because it is not colorful, and it gives the feeling of being lonely and lifeless. By clearly shows the contrast between these two things, it strengthens the tone of the poem because it creates a clear image of the colorful flower by the white curtain. Williams also used objects such as glasswares and key to illustrate the feeling

of distress and desolated. The poem wrote, “On the glass tray/ a glass pitcher, the tumbler/ turned down, by which/ a key is lying - And the/ immaculate white bed” (6-10). Glass tray, glass pitcher and tumbler represent freedom as they are clear and can be seen through. However, they are just a hope to the narrator because they are transparent, but they cannot be reached or passed through. The position of these objects also help telling the tone of the poem. The tumbler is turned down, meaning that it is unused. Therefore, it gives the sense of lifeless to the room. So does the immaculate bed; it is white and clean, which indicates that it hasn’t been used. The key lying on the glass tray also expresses the entrapment feeling of the narrator. Key can symbolize freedom as it is used to lock or unlock the door. This means that the narrator can choose whether he will unlock the door and go outside, or ignore the key and stay in. Yet, “ a key is lying” tells that the narrator doesn’t choose the freedom and unlock the door, instead, he left the key lying on the glass tray. The narrator might has his/her own reason to not choosing to go out, or maybe he/she doesn’t have the choice to choose, leaving him/her trapped inside the room.

Memorable Girl

Telling from what I remember she was young and pure.

Her cute round face with her nose rose up and her little mouth moving unstoppably as she talked.

Her eyes shone signaling me her happiness Where the eye closed and her mouth grinned wide she’s smiling-

But the clock runs time flys, she changes, leaving her cheering soul behind, in the time back then.

Reflection This is my original poem, “Memorable Girl,” which is written with an inspiration from William Carlos Williams’ poem writing style. The poem is a description of a girl who changed as time pass. The purpose of this poem is to reflect how I view myself and the change that I sense it had occurred to me due to many factors such as environment and society. I used the perspective of the narrator to describe the girl in the poem. The narrator is telling the appearance, emotion and action of the girl by recalling old memories. The girl in the poem is actually representing me, and the narrator of the poem is also me. I chose to make both the narrator and the character I talked about to be myself because the person who know best about myself is myself. Therefore, the poem is indeed telling about the change that I think had impacted me. The girl described in stanza one until stanza three is contrasted with the girl in the last stanza. I didn’t straightly tell the appearance and the personality of the girl that has change in the last section, but instead, I wrote down “leaving her cheering soul/ behind…” (15-16). This implies that the girl is now becoming more serious and mature and she is a grown up. It also indicates that she is being less happy and cheerful than before because there is more thing she need to do, meaning that she is having more responsibilities than before. Therefore, there is less time for her to play around and be happy all the time. However, in stanza one to stanza three, the girl is described to be very lively. This is because I want to emphasize the childhood time that it is the most precious time. When we were younger, we can do whatever we want and play whatever we like without having anything pulling us back. We can be as happy as we want and we rarely stressed. Devices that I used in this poem are imagery, enjambment, end-stopped, sibilance and rhyme. There is one place of sibilance at “she’s smiling-” (12), and rhyme between the words

“nose” and “rose” (5). The use of sibilance and rhyme create rhythm and melody to the sentences, which it helps emphasize the joyful and flowness of childhood. Enjambment between lines also indicate the flow of life that there is very few burden that we have to worry about when we were young. The end-stopped, which is the hyphen used at the end of the third stanza is telling that the girl had changed; the delighted time of freedom when being a child is ended. Imagery is the main device used in the poem. I used imagery to create image and make the contrasting ideas in the poem seem clearer as we can imagine the image of a graceful girl with a smile upon her face, which different from the grown up one. My decision to use imagery, end-stopped and enjambment to the poem is influenced by Williams because most of his poems have enjambment and end-stopped to help express the theme of the poems. He is also a imagist, meaning that he describes objects and surroundings in detail in order to reach the idea of his poem. This is Williams’ unique writing style, which I felt it is necessary to include in my poem. The theme of my poem, changes and life cycle, is also influenced by Williams as his poems are mostly based on reality, birth and death. When learning Williams as a mentor, I’m really surprise by the use of imagery in all of William’s poems. It is amazing how Williams manage to describe all objects and make them seem meaningful, which help build up the one theme of the poem. I also enjoy reading Williams’ poems because they sounded very smooth and beautiful. even though they are free verse. After studying Williams as a mentor, I’m now understand clearly about modernism and imagism.