Introduction

Imagine a world where the libraries are open
always !
and the words break free of their pages
and go screaming down the street.



Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Red Wheelbarrow

 

I posted below the poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams, the trigger for this poem was the part in the poem by Billy Collins titled "Picnic, Lightening" that I posted yesterday, were he discusses a wheelbarrow. My first introduction to the poem was about 15 years ago when i took a poetry class at UCLA extension. It was in the required reading material for the course. I cannot say the poem did much for me then or now even, except that the poem keeps finding me. Recently my wife used the book "Love that Dog" in her fourth grade class poetry section at Montair Elementary School, In Danville, California which featured the Red Wheelbarrow Poem.

In Billy Collin's Poem "Introduction to Poetry" he says the following:

"But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it."

I think the Wheelbarrow Poem is the perfect example of a poem that has been tied to a chair over and over again by endless people.

The poem possesses a  sort of  "chicken and egg"  feel. "So much depends on the wheelbarrow" begs the question would the white chickens even be there if it were not for the wheelbarrow. The rain is necessary to the chickens and for the need of the wheelbarrow. The white chickens give one the clue that we are talking about a farm or backyard garden area. The rain glaze on the wheelbarrow evokes a pleasant pastoral image.

In Woody Allen's movie "Annie Hall" one of the last lines in the movie is "perhaps we need the eggs".  Maybe so much depends on the wheelbarrow simply because we need the eggs.

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams


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

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