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Quote by William Carlos Williams

“The art of the poem nowadays is something unstable; but at least the construction of the poem should make sense; you should know where you stand. Many questions haven't been answered as yet. Our poets may be wrong; but what can any of us do with his talent but try to develop his vision, so that through frequent failures we may learn better what we have missed in the past.”

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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“Being an art form, verse cannot be "free" in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principle.”

Art Form Principles Limitation Verses Guiding Principles

Author:William Carlos Williams

“So different, this man And this woman: A stream flowing In a field.”

Men Different Fields Streams

Book:Early Poems

Source: Early Poems

“By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast - a cold wind.”

Wind Cold Blue Clouds Driven Hospitals Contagious Cold Wind

Book:William Carlos Williams

Source: William Carlos Williams

“The pure products of America go crazy”

America Crazy Products Pure

Book:The William Carlos Williams Reader

Source: The William Carlos Williams Reader

“Among the rain and lights I saw the figure 5 in gold on a red firetruck moving tense unheeded to gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling through the dark city.”

Light Moving Dark Cities Saws Figures Red Rain Gold Wheels Tense Howl Sirens Gongs Dark City

Book:The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

Source: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams

“Who isn't frustrated and does not prove it by his actions - if you want to say so? But through art the psychologically maimed may become the most distinguished man of his age. Take Freud for instance.”

Ifs Men Want May Doe Art Age Action Prove Instance Frustrated Distinguished Prove It

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

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

“There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made of words.”

Made Machines Sentimental

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

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

“Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matters like a ship. But poetry is the machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.”

May Matter Perfect Economy Machines Ill Ships Defined Prose Poetry Is Load

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

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

“Each speech having its own character, the poetry it engenders will be peculiar to that speech also in its own intrinsic form. The effect is beauty, what in a single object resolves our complex feelings of propriety.”

Character Feelings Form Effects Objects Speech Complexes Resolve Peculiar Propriety

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

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

“When a man makes a poem, makes it, mind you, he takes words as he finds them interrelated about him and composes them - without distortion which would mar their exact significances - into an intense expression of his perceptions and ardors that they may constitute a revelation in the speech that he uses. It isn't what he says that counts as a work of art, it's what he makes, with such intensity of perception that it lives with an intrinsic movement of its own to verify its authenticity.”

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