Home / Authors / William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams Quotes

Poet

William Carlos Williams was an American poet born on September 17, 1883, and died on March 4, 1963. His poetry style emphasized colloquialism and the depiction of everyday life, which had a profound impact on American poetry.

Filter quotes by topic

All Writing Ifs Imagination Men Art May Knows Poetry Thinking Love Love Is Mind Wind World Facts Flower Made Tree Age Dark

Famous William Carlos Williams Quotes

“The Hurricane The tree lay down on the garage roof and stretched, You have your heaven, it said, go to it.”

Poetry Heaven Tree The Hurricane

Book:The Collected Poems, Vol. 2: 1939-1962

Source: The Collected Poems, Vol. 2: 1939-1962

“To make a start, out of particulars and make them general, rolling up the sum, by defective means Sniffing the trees, just another dog among a lot of dogs.What else is there? And to do?”

Mean Tree Dog Rolling Defective Sniffing Rolling Up

Author:William Carlos Williams

“Old age is a flight of small cheeping birds skimming bare trees above a snow glaze. Gaining and failing they are buffeted by a dark wind - But what? On harsh weedstalks the flock has rested - the snow is covered with broken seed husks and the wind tempered with a shrill piping of plenty.”

Age Dark Failing Tree Wind Broken Bird Seeds Snow Old Age Flight Plenty Covered Harsh Flocks Skimming Bare Trees

Author:William Carlos Williams

“Old age is a flight of small cheeping birds skimming bare trees above a snow glaze.”

Age Tree Bird Snow Old Age Flight Skimming Bare Trees

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

“Danse Russe If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,-- if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: "I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so!" If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks against the yellow drawn shades,-- Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?”

“Say it, no ideas but in things - nothing but the blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees bent, forked by preconception and accident - split, furrowed, creased, mottled, stained - secret - into the body of the light!”

Ideas Body Light Faces House Secret Tree Accidents No Idea Splits Blank Bent Preconceptions

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

About the Author

Born: September 17, 1883
Died: March 4, 1963
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 161

Books & Sources

The Collected Poems of William Carlos WilliamsRelated source material

The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1939-1962Related source material

ImaginationsRelated source material

The William Carlos Williams ReaderRelated source material

Selected poemsRelated source material

PatersonRelated source material

Asphodel, that Greeny Flower & Other Love PoemsRelated source material

In the American GrainRelated source material

Selected essaysRelated source material

The Selected Letters of William Carlos WilliamsRelated source material

Similar Authors

William Butler YeatsBrowse related quotes
Ursula K. Le GuinBrowse related quotes
Wallace StevensBrowse related quotes
Mehmet Murat IldanBrowse related quotes
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBrowse related quotes
W. H. AudenBrowse related quotes
Virginia WoolfBrowse related quotes
Samuel JohnsonBrowse related quotes
Toni MorrisonBrowse related quotes
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeBrowse related quotes