Spring+and+All

William Carlos Williams:
====William Carlos Williams (17 Sept. 1883-4 Mar. 1963) studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Ezra Pound. After his internship in Philadelphia, Williams went to Germany to study advanced pediatrics, after which he established a private practice in his hometown, Rutherford, New Jersey. Later, he would become head pediatrician of the Paterson, New Jersey General Hospital.==== ==== While maintaining a long and successful career as a pediatrician, he also contributed heavily to the New York City avant-garde poetry scene. He also continued to be close friends with Ezra Pound, who connected Williams to poets and others in the literary world in Europe. ====

//William Carlos Williams//
  By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter. All about them the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf One by one objects are defined- It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of entrance-Still, the profound change has come upon them: rooted, they grip down and begin to awaken ___

Literal Interpretation:
The speaker is describing the scenery on the way to a hospital. He depicts the lifelessness of winter and contrasts that with an image of new life and awakening in the beginning of spring. 

Historical Context of the Poem:
===="Spring and All" was a first published in a book of the same name in Paris in 1923. Williams stated that //"Nobody ever saw it--it had no circulation at all--but I had a lot of fun with it. It consists of poems interspersed with prose. It was written when all the world was going crazy about typographical form and is really a travesty on the idea. Chapter headings are printed upside-down on purpose, the chapters are numbered all out of order, sometimes with a Roman numeral, sometimes with an Arabic. It is a mixture of philosophy and nonsense. It made sense to me, at least to my disturbed mind--because it// was //disturbed at the time."// World War I had recently ended, and the world had undergone a dramatic change. Williams' modernism was part of a wider attempt to try to make sense of the novelty and chaos in the world at the time.====

Theme:
In this poem, Williams expresses a message that the human world and the natural world have become distanced from each other in a way that causes a cold disconnect between man and his surroundings. However, the poem also expresses the idea that the natural world (including humans) goes through a cycle of rebirth and resurrection.

Figurative Language & Literary Devices:
Connotation: The word "contagious" in the first line has a strong negative connotation. It implies disease and danger, feelings that complement the detached tone.

====Personification: "They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain..." Williams' description of the plants as naked, cold, and uncertain evokes human emotions and allows the reader to connect with the poem on a more personal level. As Williams begins to describe the coming of spring, he also begins to describe the setting in an emotional way rather than a visual way, which reflects the theme of spiritual renewal in connection to nature.====

Visual Imagery: "The waste of broad, muddy brown with dried weeds" "The reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes"

Kinesthetic Imagery: "Rooted, they grip down and begin to awaken" "It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf" "The stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf" "The surge of blue, mottled clouds"

Meter:
"Spring and All" is a free verse poem. The loose structure reflects chaos and lack of control, concepts that relate to nature in general and to Williams' life at the time. The speaker is not clearly defined, but it is likely that Williams is the speaker, himself, as he was a doctor.

Tone & Mood:
The tone and mood are mostly detached, which relates to the theme of the poem. However, the tone becomes hopeful at the end as Williams writes that the earth begins "to awaken." The mood is cold and is created by phrases like "familiar wind" and "dead, brown leaves." Williams also directly uses the word "cold" three times in a relatively short poem.

Works Cited

Rosenthal, M. L. “Williams’ Life and Career.” Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 18 Mar. 2000, www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/bio.htm. “Spring and All.” Imaginations, University of Washington, staff.washington.edu/schenold/chid390/readings/supplemental/Williams-Spring%20and%20All.pdf.