Willam

The Theme of change in our life in William Carlo Williams poems.

In “Winter Tree” Willian Carlos Williams use the image of nature to illustrate the change in our life. This poem describes moonrise on a winter night and a tree has protected itself from Winter cold by lost it leaves and sleep so it can awake again when spring comes. On the line 1-3 state “All the complicated details /of the attiring and /the disattiring are completed!”, the text refers to the tree has completely lost its leaves. The change from Fall to Winter symbolize the moment when life is changed and death is about to come, and the tree represents a person who knows that the end is coming, like the tree, it does not denial winter nor seek a way to avoid it but it prepares for this sure moment and be ready when it comes. Another example is in line 4-6, it says, “A liquid moon /moves gently among /the long branches”. This describes the moon is rising gradually like liquid flow between tree’s branches which tell the time is twilight because we know that the sun is complete gone and the moon is rising. This implies another change in life. Day and night could symbolize life and death because the day usually represents warm, light, happiness and life while night usually represents cold, dark, misery and death. From the quote, it could mean that it is time for the tree to adjust to Winter and a person to be ready for death.

“Willow Poem” is a poem about a willow tree by a river, where its branches lean over the water. This poem is talking about how the willow tree act toward the change from Summer to Winter. Throughout the poem, William Carlos Williams uses personification to express the theme of change in our life. On the line 1-2 the text refer to,” It is a willow when summer is over, /a willow by the river”, this describes the time and the setting that it by the river and the time is between Summer and Winter. In the quote Summer frequently represent life, happiness, warm, youth or anything that most people like, while Winter regularly

signifies cold, sorrow, fear and old age because Winter always comes last in each year. another example, when Williams describes how the willow leaf is like during this change, it says, “from which no leaf has fallen nor / bitten by the sun/ turned orange or crimson./ The leaves cling and grow paler,/swing and grow paler” (line 3-7) which illustrate the willow leaf does not change its color to oranges or red like other tree nor its leaf has fallen like an evergreen, but instate of change to orange, its leaves grow paler and paler. The word “bitten” in this quote personification the sun to act like an animal that bites tree leaf and forces them to change its color and personification the tree like a person that can get bitten. However, in the poem, the sun did not bite the willow tree and instate of change it resists the change by growing pale on its leaves. Moreover, in line 12, state “oblivious to winter”. This indicates that the willow poem ignores the fact that Winter is coming. this part Williams compares the willow tree to a person who refuses to change and come out of comfort zone and try to resist by staying the same and ignores it, while other prepare them self.

In “Blizzard” William Carlos Williams use metaphor to express the theme of change in our life. In this poem, Williams describes a person walking in snow as it falls and covers everything. An example of metaphor can be found in line 1-3, which state, “Snow: /years of anger following /hours that float idly down — “. This first part of the poem setup the poem by using the word “Snow” which is also what the poem is about. The phrase “year of anger” (line 2), is talking about the blizzard act like it is angry at the world and giving all it got to berried everything with snow. Lastly, the phrase “Hours that float idly down” (line 3), after the main storm pass the snow fall for an hour. All of this could be a metaphor to a personal life that is lost and blind by anger but finally, after years of lost a person is able to see clearly again. Another example is in line 13-15, it says, “The man turns and there — /his solitary track stretched out /upon the world”. In these final lines, the narrator looks back and he sees

his own tracks, only his own tracks. This could mean that he is alone or other that was behind had left him. This is another metaphor to the person that looks back in his life and see how far he comes and just realize that he is alone.

This Morning.

sun raised in the morning, its gentle light shine, light up the room. a bird nesting a branch, tweeting a cup of latte, empty and here I sit, working.

Reflection

The poem “This Morning” is a poem about my regular Sunday morning when I usually do my homework and sometimes project, and enjoy a cup of homemade latte. This poem is written to imitate William Carlos Williams’s style of writing and tell a piece of my daily life. Williams usually writes about an ordinary object or a commonplace with an exact image so, to imitate Williams’s style, I use concrete words and idea to illustrate an image in the poem like most of Williams works. For example, “a bird nesting on a branch/tweeting” (line3-4), is something I intentionally describe it as simple and accurate as I can. Also, I use line-break to emphasize the state of an object and the being of the narrator in the poem, for example, “empty” in line 6 highlight that the cup is empty.

At the end of this unit when we were about to finish studying Williams’s poems I notice that I have seen some of the poems before, like “The Red Wheelbarrow”, I read it during grade 11, I didn’t go through the detail. I thought it just a simple poem that describes what the author saw, but now I realize that within this simplicity hide a great meaning in it. I was mind blown by how ingenious his poem is. I enjoy discovering the themes, meaning of his poems, and how he uses poetry device to do it, so I feel like I need to put this in my poem. However, due to my time and skills, I don’t see how I will do it, so I include the simplicity in my poem instate, just to make it feel similar to Williams style. After we finish this unit I think I cannot see think like I use to because this unit make me think that this might mean something greater than itself.