Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Well, an attempt to get fancy and add html just resulted in a jump to another page and the content being lost. So those of you who don't like long reviews can rejoice.

I continued to enjoy Williams' poetry throughout the 437 pages of this second volume of his collected poetry. However, I marked far, far fewer for rereading after 1949, not quite half way through this volume. The poet was 66 at that point and had begun suffering strokes. Yet he still wrote copiously until his death and some of my favorites occur in those later years, such as The Orchestra, which can be read here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetr.... It's a long poem, which is not characteristic of Williams. Those who prefer shorter poems would enjoy reading Williams.

Here is one of my favorite shorter poems titled "Approach to a City":

Getting through with the world--
I never tire of the mystery
of these streets: the three baskets
of dried flowers in the high

barroom window, the gulls wheeling
above the factory, the dirty
snow--humility of the snow that
silvers everything and is

trampled and lined with use--yet
falls again, the silent birds
on the still wires of the sky, the blur
of wings as they take off

together. The flags in the heavy
air move against a leaden
ground--the snow
pencilled with the stubble of old

weeds: I never tire of these sights
but refresh myself there
always for there is small holiness
to be found in braver things.

The love of the everyday world expressed in that poem saturates most of his poetry. He is aware and in love. I think that is a large part of what I love about him. And he clearly has a keen mind that exercises itself on what he sees.

The last poem of this volume, written in his late 70s, is another favorite.

The Rewaking

Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving

to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose

but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely

by
your love until a whole
spring

rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's-slipper

and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived

He wrote more about his relationship with his wife Flossie as he grew older. In this one the enjambment, so takes on a new meaning, a reluctance to let things finish ultimately. After 1954, he began writing in three line stanzas almost exclusively. If there was a philosophy underlying that decision, I didn't catch it in the many notes at the end of the book.

I've read several collected volumes over the past few years and these (vol 1 and 2) have been the least onerous. Even those poems that didn't strike a particular spark for me were still enjoyable. It was like going on a walk with a particularly perceptive and intelligent guide. His later poems became more internal and had less of this feel, which may explain why I was less smitten by them. It's a shame he didn't win the Pulitzer earlier in his career. It was awarded posthumously for his last volume and I can only think it was amending an error ("Oops, we never gave Bill a Pulitzer, did we?") But perhaps there's something in Pictures From Brueghel that I'm missing. Or perhaps they were surprised that he was still writing so much and so well when he was almost 80. He remained fascinated with the world and he continued to write.

Hmm. I guess I did manage to ramble on, didn't I? Brevity clearly isn't my forte.

Great review, Jen. I've only read bits and pieces of WCW's poetry and prose here and there, and though I find what I've read of his work to be congenial, I still can't imagine sitting down with a collected volume and reading every word he wrote. "The Rewaking" is an old favorite of mine as well, though.

You could say, I sipped him morning and evening, Jenna. Not an onerous task at all. Because most of his poetry is engaging but not lengthy, it's really suitable for someone who is busy. Except that these volumes (1&2) are too large to lug around. But if digital copies are available . . .