Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Overture To A Dance Of Locomotives
Men with picked voices chant the namesof cities in a huge gallery: promisesthat pull through descending stairwaysto a deep rumbling.The rubbing..
© William Carlos Williams
Classic Scene
A power-housein the shape ofa red brick chair90 feet highon the seat of whichsit the figuresof two metalstacks--aluminum--commanding an areaof..
© William Carlos Williams
The Tulip Bed
The May sun--whomall things imitate--that glues small leaves tothe wooden treesshone from the skythrough bluegauze cloudsupon the ground.Under the..
© William Carlos Williams
March
IWinter is long in this climateand spring--a matter of a few daysonly,--a flower or two pickedfrom mud or from among wet leavesor at best against..
© William Carlos Williams
Light Hearted William
Light hearted William twirledhis November moustachesand, half dressed, lookedfrom the bedroom windowupon the spring weather.Heigh-ya! sighed he..
© William Carlos Williams
The Birds
The world begins again!Not wholly insufflatedthe blackbirds in the rainupon the dead topbranchesof the living tree,stuck fast to the low..
© William Carlos Williams
These
are the desolate, dark weekswhen nature in its barrennessequals the stupidity of man.The year plunges into nightand the heart plungeslower than..
© William Carlos Williams
The Thing
Each time it ringsI think it is forme but it isnot for me nor foranyone it merelyrings and weserve it bitterlytogether, they and I
© William Carlos Williams
The Cold Night
It is cold. The white moonis up among her scattered stars--like the bare thighs ofthe Police Sergeant's wife--amongher five children . . .No answer...
© William Carlos Williams
The Gentle Man
I feel the caress of my own fingerson my own neck as I place my collarand think pityinglyof the kind women I have known.
© William Carlos Williams
To A Friend
Well, Lizzie Anderson! seventeen men--andthe baby hard to find a father for!What will the good Father in Heaven sayto the local judge if he do not..
© William Carlos Williams
Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!
You sullen pig of a manyou force me into the mudwith your stinking ash-cart!Brother!-if we were richwe'd stick our chests outand hold our heads..
© William Carlos Williams
The Lonely Street
School is over. It is too hotto walk at ease. At easein light frocks they walk the streetsto while the time away.They have grown tall. They holdpink..
© William Carlos Williams
The Spring Storm
The sky has given overits bitterness.Out of the dark changeall day longrain falls and fallsas if it would never end.Still the snow keepsits hold on..
© William Carlos Williams
January Morning
II have discovered that most ofthe beauties of travel are due tothe strange hours we keep to see them:the domes of the Church ofthe Paulist Fathers..
© William Carlos Williams
The Term
A rumpled sheetOf brown paperAbout the lengthAnd apparent bulkOf a man wasRolling with theWind slowly overAnd over inThe street asA car drove..
© William Carlos Williams
Hunters In The Snow
The over-all picture is wintericy mountainsin the background the returnfrom the hunt it is toward eveningfrom the leftsturdy hunters lead intheir..
© William Carlos Williams
Primrose
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow!It is not a color.It is summer!It is the wind on a willow,the lap of waves, the shadowunder a bush, a bird, a..
© William Carlos Williams
Tract
I will teach you my townspeoplehow to perform a funeralfor you have it over a troopof artists-unless one should scour the world-you have the ground..
© William Carlos Williams
The Uses Of Poetry
I've fond anticipation of a dayO'erfilled with pure diversion presently,For I must read a lady poesyThe while we glide by many a leafy bay,Hid deep..
© William Carlos Williams
January
Again I reply to the triple windsrunning chromatic fifths of derisionoutside my window:Play louder.You will not succeed. I ambound more to my..
© William Carlos Williams
Apology
Why do I write today?The beauty ofthe terrible facesof our nonentitesstirs me to it:colored womenday workers—old and experienced—returning home at..
© William Carlos Williams
The Great Figure
Among the rainand lightsI saw the figure 5in goldon a redfiretruckmovingtenseunheededto gong clangssiren howlsand wheels rumblingthrough the dark..
© William Carlos Williams
The Dance
In Breughel's great picture, The Kermess,the dancers go round, they go round andaround, the squeal and the blare and thetweedle of bagpipes, a bugle..
© William Carlos Williams
First Praise
Lady of dusk-wood fastnesses,Thou art my Lady.I have known the crisp, splintering leaf-tread with thee on before,White, slender through green..
© William Carlos Williams