The Bitter World of Sprin g

1. The Bitter World of Spring Thesis: William Carlos Williams uses a variety of literary devices to represent the difficulties of writing poetry that a reader will be able to understand. Luis Rivera & Brittney Biggs

2. Overall Interpretation • Objects are upside down because they are reflected on water • On a wet pavement, the white sky recedes mottled black by the inverted pillars of the red elms (1-3) • And brown smoke Is driven down, running like Water over the roof of the bridge- (6-8) • Readers need to understand • -Shall the philosophers capture it?- (11) • Reader – other half • The poet relies on the reader to interpret the poem the way it’s meant to be

3. Sense: Meaning & Language • Point of View: 3rd person • Mood: Lonely/Empty • Bridge-keepers Cubicle • No mentioning of human figure • Announced by the silence of a white bush in flower, close under the bridge (13-16) • Repetition: • Down 2x (7, 12) • Water 3x (8, 13, 20)

4. Sense: Imagery & SymbolsVisual & Auditory • “On a wet pavement, the white sky recedes” (1) • “Running like water over the roof of the bridge keeper’s cubicle” (7-9) • “The shad ascend midway between the surface and the mud” (16-17) • “Water headed, unrelenting, upstream.”(20)

5. Sense: Imagery & SymbolsVisual & Auditory • Colors • “the white sky recedes” (1) • “mottled black” • “pillars of the red elms” • “And brown smoke is driven down” • “announced by the silence of a white bush in flower” • “red-finned in the dark”

6. Style: Poetry Techniques • Personification • “that lift the tangled net of their desires” (4-5) • “and you can see their bodies” (18) • Simile • “the fight as to the nature of poetry” (10) • Metaphor • “And brown smoke is driven down, running like water” (6-8)

7. Structure • Interjection • “-Shall the philosophers capture it?-” (11) • Constant use of water • “On a wet pavement” (1) • “tangled net of their desires hard into the falling rain” (5-6) • “running like water” (7-8) • “casting an eye down into the water” (12-13) • “water headed, unrelenting, upstream.” (20)

8. Sound • Assonance • And brown smoke is driven down, running like water over the roof of the bridge- keeper’s cubicle. And, as usual, the fight as to the nature of poetry… (6-10)

9. Connection to Other Works • Similar Poems • The Widow’s Lament in Springtime • Spring and All • The Mind Hesitant

10. Activity

11. Conclusion The literary devices found throughout the poem help describe the difficulties of producing poetry a reader will understand.