Williams Poem, commentary by Erina Dominick

1. I’m not entirely sure what Williams intentions are in the Red Wheel Barrow poem. I have a lot of questions about it. I don’t know what he means when he says so much depends on the red wheel barrow. Why are these items important? Who do they belong to? Why are these important to who they belong to? Do these items help this person survive? Is this person materialistic?

I think Williams is trying to describe a moment that he felt in his heart more than what he saw with his eyes. The poem feels nostalgic but clean and crisp without the haze of passing time. I noticed that the syllables of the poem are important because they follow a pattern. The first and last stanzas have a line with 4 syllables and the following line has 2. The other two stanzas have a first line with 3 syllables followed by a line with 2 syllables. The first line of the stanzas have 3 words and the second line has 1 word.

2.

so much depends

upon

heart in love

letters

i knew you

before

breathless i grew

blue