so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
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From guest Rob P. Allson (contact)
okay, william carlos williams is a fantastic poet, and has done some great work. this comment does not imply anything contrary to that statement. this is poetry, no question. however, i don't think its good poetry. if you're honest with yourself, this wouldn't even win one of those pointless contests on allpoetry.com. but people rave about it. i think we have a classic case of the king has no clothes to be honest. -
ok
From guest gina (contact)
Well, i am not sure but, the wheel barrow, in this poem seems to act as a catalyst, or a supposed catalyst for change, for motion. It is a work horse with fiery, innate passion. Yet is vulnerable to elements of nature, society, dirt, grime, and love. It is not pure, yet more beautiful than anything pure, because the motive for all it does in unblinded progression, willingly falling into its role. And this allows the seemingly pure things to exist around them. It glistens and thrives in chaos, while the purity around it is in danger of being tainted by it. -
He's an imagist
From guest Damien (contact)
I studied this poem in college: WCW's poems are mostly imagistic--they're supposed to get straight to the point and be as bare as possible. The effect should come from a mental picture that the simple words conjure and everything else (from superfluous adjectives to literary devices) should be stripped away. My professor also confirmed the story that he looked out the window of the home of a gravely ill girl on a house call, and this is what he saw. -
What is hanging from this object, this red
wheel
barrow?
Is the wheel red too, or just the barrow?
Work left undone? -
ugh
From guest Fuller (contact)
The poetry in this poem is not evident in it but in what you assume it is talking about. The meter reminds me of a flat tire. Perhaps this wheelbarrow's job is to scoop the chicken poop but it has a flat. The chickens are white now, but its raining and that won't last long unless someone airs up that tire! I get nothing else from this. -
its not over rated at all infact carlos williams is one of the best poets that ever lived.
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This poet, was well known for writing about 'things'.
This particular poem is a wonderful example of how simple, everyday objects are able to be transformed into something of beauty.
Von -
Of course this is poetry. It is small, concise and shines like a gemstone. Poems don't have to be grandiose to mean something.
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From guest lobo (contact)
this has long been one of my favorite poems. i thik that i like the simplicity of the words and of the image. the beginning is near. -
From guest David (contact)
I think it's a dumb poem that ought to be removed from serious anthologies. It would be okay if he used the images in a longer, more impressive poem, but this is pretentious. For poetry to become respected as an art form again, this stuff has to go. -
true?
From guest Ms. Michel (contact)
Is it true that Williams was sitting next to a sick girl's bedside when he wrote this poem? I'm an English teacher and need "proof" :) -
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The Red Wheelbarrow
From guest Holly (contact)
I believe this poem speaks of permanance protecting innocence as evidenced by "...a red wheel barrow...beside the white chickens." -
There is no ambiguity in this peom. All of it is contained in four minute stanzas. Look at the objects and their typical connnotations. Very simple if you just go with instinct rather than over cloud the work with sub-contextual meaning that doesn't exisit. I can't make it any easier than this:
wheel barrow= labor, work -
Folks love short poems 'cause they're easy to read
If the sentence "so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens" appeared in a novel, would critics dub it "the greatest sentence in modern fiction"? I doubt it. But bleeding wheelbarrows are awesome just the same... -
I think I only like this poem because I wrote one about a bleeding wheelbarrow before I ever read this, and then when I found this one, I thought, hey, it must be somehow valid.
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This poem is mundane and vastly overrated.
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This may help with the understanding of the meaning:
As you may now, Williams was also a working doctor. He was sitting in the bedroom of a sick little girl who was going to die, and looked out the window and saw this scene. This supposedly was the inspiration for the poem. -
I think color has a lot to do with this piece. The 'red' wheelbarrow and the 'white' chickens. The rain is significant as well and all three to a degree.
I feel it lays on social economy, but in what sense? I don't know .. perhaps it's not about any of that, perhaps it's just about what it describes, and it could be.
Either course, it's a good piece that Williams has written here.
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I believe it's beauty can be easily referred to as, sublime.
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I love this poem too! I just discovered oldpoetry.com. This is probably my favorite poem also. It calls to mind such beautiful imagery. It's simplistic, and the spacing... the flow is gorgeous, I don't know what else to say about it.
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this is the one poem i can honestly call my favorite. the image in my mind is so vivid... a poem has never brought such a nearly tangable sight as this one has. i adore the simple and blunt describtions, words...
this is simply amazing.
^^ love you williams.
Katie o)
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