Smell!

[feathered]

My obsession with William Carlos Williams has taken me quite by surprise. I had none of his poems in Europe: my companions there were mostly Sylvia, Keats, Wallace Stevens, and dear old Eliot. I've always liked Williams, but right now I can't read any other poet. This has nothing to do with school. I was trying to write about Wallace Stevens

Comments

[goingofthings]

Thats funny, I was just reading him the other day when I was thinking about all the poets I used to read in American Poetry class and how I wanted to get back into reading them. I love the simplicity of his works, though not all of his poems are like Red Wheelbarrow.

[feathered]

What I really love about WCW is his clarity. He always seems very precise and crisp without going so far as to be an Imagist. I think he moves away from the simplicity of "The Red Wheelbarrow" and others in his later poems -- though I do also love the book, um, I think it's called Notes on Brueghal or something similar, but anyway, it's one of his last. I love almost every single poem from the collection Spring and All, of which "The Red Wheelbarrow" is the last poem. Do you know " Danse Russe" and "Elsie"? They are probably my favourite poems of his.

[goingofthings]

Danse Russe sounds familiar but I've definitely read Elsie. I agree - I like this later poems more, although I find what he tries to say about poetry in the simple poems awesome....that great poems can exist in something so straightforward and simple like a poem about a red wheel barrow. But as I re-read Elsie (which I just did) I come to love it more and more.... I haven't read it since sophomore year in college, so its been awhile. I'm asking for a bunch of poetry books for christmas, his works might be on the list.

[goingofthings]

I also noticed you had some Anne Sexton poetry on your journal and HAD to comment on that, as she is my favorite poet of all time.... I adore her stuff and every time I read it I find a new emotion. I also find myself quoting her stuff almost as much as I quote Prufrock. "If you danced from midnight to six A.M. who would understand?" - that line runs across my mind at least twice a day.