Tag Archives: reading poetry

TWENTY-FOUR: A GREAT RAILWAY JUNCTION (pages 79-82)

Posted on April 25, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

There follow two poems before Williams gets back to the theme of prose vs. poetry. Poem XXIII reads Romantic to me, a little bit like a throwback. Plus there’s a lot of personification. We know that Keats was an early … Continue reading →

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EIGHTEEN: TO ELSIE (pages 64-67)

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Poem XVIII, anthologized as “To Elsie” is one of Williams’ best. In the video below (the whole of which is well worth watching) at about the 39 minute mark Williams reads the poem, and this is followed by a few … Continue reading →

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SEVENTEEN: A WEEK’S WORTH OF POEMS (pages 54-64)

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Now come seven poems interrupted only by one page of prose, a continuation of the prose section we looked at in the previous entry. If we were to say something about these poems as a group the first thing to … Continue reading →

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FIFTEEN: THE COURAGE TO BE INSPIRED (pages 45-48)

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

By now we can’t ignore Williams’ obsession—I don’t think that’s too strong a word—with vision, not just seeing, but physiological vision itself, and the relationship that a visual or a language artist forges between sight and engagement with the world … Continue reading →

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FOURTEEN: IN MY LIFE THE FURNITURE EATS ME (pages 38-45)

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

We’re up to poem IX and as with VIII we’ll look at the prose section that follows and then go back and reread it. Allen Ginsberg gives a nice reading of this poem. But the poem is not as clear … Continue reading →

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THIRTEEN: OF SPANIARDS AND MORGANS (pages 32-38)

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

By now we have noticed that the prose sections reiterate a small constellation of ideas about making art, how it relates to the all-important word “imagination”, how it connects to “life”, and how this new art is different than illusionistic … Continue reading →

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TWELVE: THE ROSE IS OBSOLETE (pages 26-32)

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

We now turn from these rather uneasy pages to, in my view, some of the best prose pages and one of the best poems in the entire book. The prose that follows poem VI (page 26) elucidates the poem, marking … Continue reading →

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ELEVEN: A BLACK WIND (pages 19-26)

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Next we have, for me, a few of the least impressive pages of the book, followed by some of the most impressive. Let’s start with the least.

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TEN: FLIGHT TO THE CITY (pages 17-18)

Posted on April 11, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Poem number IV merits its own entry. It is one of my favorites in the collection. Some readers may detect a sexual energy sublimated into it, with its orgasmic feeling of yearning and bursting into calm. The poem makes me think of … Continue reading →

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NINE: FARMER, ARTIST, ANTAGONIST (pages 15-17)

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

As if anticipating my doubts, Williams titles the next section, “CHAPTER I” and it even has a subtitle. Are we going to properly begin now, if to begin is to start with the number one? Or is the “one” the … Continue reading →

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