The Project

In ​“Willow Poem,”​ William Carlos Williams uses personification and repetition to convey that death is inevitable. ​The main idea that Williams tries to express is that no one can win over death. He suggests this through the representation of the Willow tree. The setting is established through the season and the exact location is stated clearly in the poem. The willow tree is still standing by the river, resisting to let go of its leaves although summer has already passed by. The introduction to the theme is being set by the author since the beginning of the poem. From the first five line of the poem, “It is a willow when summer is over, / a willow by the river / from which no leaf has fallen nor / bitten by the sun / turned orange or crimson.” Williams gives readers the idea that there is no change to the willow tree because of the changing of season. Not a single leaf has fall down to the ground or harmed by the sun. Moreover, the color of the leaves remain the unchanged. It is clearly seen that this willow tree is not normal because the color of leaves on normal trees would have changed during the transition of season. We can sense an indirect personification since here. The leaves of the willow could be a representation of human bodies that do not change, do not deteriorate as time supposed to do so on them. In the next line, repetition is used by Williams to provide more information about the tree. “The leaves cling and grow paler, / swing and grow paler” (6-7). The “grow paler” part indicates that although the tree is physically unchanged, it does age as time passes. It does grow old. This indicates that the Willow is resisting and reluctant to follow its phrase as an emphasis to the theme. After that in line 9 to 12, personification is being used significantly. “as if loath to let go, / they are so cool, so drunk with / the swirl of the wind and of the river— / oblivious to winter,” (l9-12). The personification in these four line gives an image of a person who still can’t get over the past and admit his or her fate. The person is already so drunk, having enough with having to withstand all that he or she did in the past. The swirl of the wind and of the river represents all the hindrances that the person has been combating all these time. The part where it says “oblivious to winter” implies that the person endures it so much that he or she forgets about the present, the reality. The theme that death is inevitable is being described again through these line. And in the last two line, “The last to let go and fall / into the water and on the ground.” (13-14). This explains that no matter how hard someone tries resist to die and undergo through the transition of life, they could not escape it, like the Willow’s leaves that eventually fall to the ground. In “Complete Destruction,” William Carlos Williams uses of imagery to illustrate that the only certain thing in life is death and no one could escape from it. In this poem, it is obviously notice that death is the only certain thing in life which could not be escaped is the central theme he tried to convey. This is being expressed through the small scene in a backyard where a group of people is burying their dead cat in the box and burn it down. The death of the cat is followed by an extra scene of the fleas that supposed to be dying in the fire, were found death in the cold weather.

It is a sunny day

in the morning. Going to the beach for having full breathe. See a various types of birds going out to find food.