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Quote by William Carlos Williams

“The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic.”

Quote by William Carlos Williams

Author

William Carlos Williams

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. more

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“Why do I write today? The beauty of the terrible faces of our nonentities stirs me to it: colored women day workers- old and experienced- returning home at dusk, in cast off clothing faces like old Florentine oak.”

Writing Home Today Faces Terrible Workers Casts Clothings Oaks Dusk Womens Day Returning Home Nonentity

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

“the set pieces of your faces stir me - leading citizens - but not in the same way.”

Way Faces Pieces Citizens Your Face

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of 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

“Among of green stiff old bright broken branch come white sweet May again”

May White Sweet Broken Green Branches

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

“The War is the first and only thing in the world today. The arts generally are not, nor is this writing a diversion from that for relief, a turning away. It is the war or part of it, merely a different sector of the field.”

World Writing Firsts Art Different War Today Fields Relief World Today Diversion

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

“Let the snake wait under his weed and the writing be of words, slow and quick, sharp to strike, quiet to wait, sleepless. - through metaphor to reconcile the people and the stones. Compose. (No ideas but in things) Invent! Saxifrage is my flower that splits the rocks.”

People Writing Ideas Waiting Rocks Flower Quiet Stones Metaphor Strikes No Idea Weed Splits Snakes Reconcile

Book:The Collected Poems of Williams Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

Source: The Collected Poems of Williams Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

“I think of the poetry of René Char and all he must have seen and suffered that has brought him to speak only of sedgy rivers, of daffodils and tulips whose roots they water, even to the free-flowing river that laves the rootlets of those sweet-scented flowers that people the milky way”

People Thinking Way Speak Water Sweet Flower Rivers Roots Milky Way Daffodil Flowing River

Book:The Collected Poems of Williams Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

Source: The Collected Poems of Williams Carlos Williams: 1939-1962

“Covertly the hands of a great clock go round and round! Were they to move quickly and at once the whole secret would be out and the shuffling of all ants be done forever.”

Done Whole Hands Would Be Moving Secret Forever Rounds Clock Ants Shuffling

Author:William Carlos Williams

“Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter.”

World Cold Approach Spring Appearance Naked New World Uncertain Lifeless Sluggish Dazed

Author:William Carlos Williams

“so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.”

Water White Depends Red Rain Wheels Chickens Rain Water Wheelbarrows

Author:William Carlos Williams