Spring And All By William Carlos Williams

1. Spring And AllBy William Carlos Williams Thesis: William Carlos Williams contrasts the winter and springtime imagery with the cycle of life; birth (springtime) and death (wintertime).

2. Interpretation • First sentence • “contagious hospital” • Home life: Doctor at hospital • Second and third stanza • Very bleak and negative • “patches” and “the scattering” • Things are unorganized in winter • “Lifeless in appearance” • You cannot see spring enter • “sluggish dazed” • Spring slowly makes its presence

3. Interpretation (cont.) • Fifth and sixth stanza • “new world naked” • Could be referring to something beyond the real world • Could be referring to the beginning of spring • Could be referring to new plants emerging from the ground • “one by one objects are defined” • Everything becomes more clear and less boring at the beginning of spring • Seventh Stanza • “stark dignity” • Highly respected • “Rooted, they grip down and begin to awaken” • Referring to plants/flowers • Could also be referring to a newborn child

4. Interpretation (cont.) • Overall interpretation • The poem is about the transition from winter to spring • This concept can be connected to “all” things • Winter being death and spring being the beginning of life

5. Sense • Written from the point of view of the writer • Third Person • Mood/Tone: depressed then changes to enthusiastic • “…sluggish dazed spring approaches-” • Diction • “Contagious” and “Hospital” & “standing” and “fallen” • Contradictions • “The scattering of tall trees” • Could be fallen or standing • Themes: • Nature • Death vs. life

6. Sense • Diction/imagery/image patterns: • Use of color: “blue” “brown” “reddish” “purplish” • Plants: “weeds” “leafs” “leafless vines” ”grass” “rooted” “wildcarrot” “trees” • Repetition: • “cold” repeated 3x • “standing” repeated 2x • “wind” repeated 2x • “one” repeated 2x • “cold wind” repeated 3x • Tone: changes

7. Purpose and Effect • Sudden change in mood is to show how mood can change quickly • Mood changes from depressing at first to joyful toward the end • Color words are used to emphasize how lack of color can make things look “lifeless” • Words are repeated to help incorporate the feeling of the winter-to-spring change

8. Senses • Wintertime imagery • “broad, muddy fields” • “dried weeds” • “cold wind” • “forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines” • Symbolizes how everything is dead in the winter

9. Senses • Springtime imagery • “grass” • “rooted they grip down and begin to awaken” • Birth • “enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all” • “cold, familiar wind” • Color imagery • Use of color: “blue” “brown” “reddish” “purplish”

10. Why these image patterns? • Contrast the bleak winter with the joyful springtime • Comparing the emergence of springtime with the birth of a newborn • Allows the reader to make connections easier

11. Style • Metaphor/personification • “they enter the new world naked, cold” • New plants are being compared to the birth of a new child • “the profound change has come upon them:” • Could be referring to a newborn child or new plants • Juxtaposition • Springtime - Wintertime

12. Structure • Enjambment • set certain lines apart from each other • “patches of standing water the scattering of trees” • … 6 line stanza  2 line stanza  5 line stanza … • Williams does not break apart the first stanza • First sentence is about commuting to work • Second half is describing the scenery • Purpose: to provide high contrast between spring and winter

13. Structure • End stopped • Some lines ended with hyphens when there is a significant change in the story • When spring “approaches” • Poem is lacking punctuation throughout • Ending • Discussion Question: How does using no punctuation for the last line cause the poem to end ambiguously? (What does it make the reader think about? What does it mean?)

14. Sound • Rhythm • Lines 2,3 – 7,8 – 9,11 – 10,12 ect. • Rhyme • “reddish”, “purplish” • “leafless”, “lifeless” • Rhyming to show how winter lacks emotion and is very uncertain • Repetition • “One by one”

15. Other Works By WCW • Most of his poems incorporate imagery • Mostly springtime imagery • Incorporates nature/outdoors into his poems • The widow’s lament in Springtime • The Bitter World of Spring

16. Do this, or else • On the packet or separate sheet of paper (if you have the book), give each stanza of Spring and All an emotion. Do this quickly. • Do this as a group and discuss it • Here’s some ideas to get you started: • Anger • Fear • Disgust • Calm/Contempt • Joyful/Happy • Sadness • Surprised

17. Do this, or else • Why is WCW’s poetry so hard to find emotion? • Imagist – poet who uses common language to express very clear image throughout a poem • WCW does not want to look at the sentimental value of things