poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

Some memories, without the symbolic images to remind one of mother's love, or the smell of her apple pie, can be not so comforting. The Red Wheelbarrow captures the essence of reflection bringing life to the past.

There seems to be a cycle going on; rain waters wheat which is turned into chicken feed, chicken feed transported in wheelbarrow to feed chickens, chickens produce eggs, farmer eats eggs and lives.

Wrote this when my wife was pregnant.

Overdue Six Days

so much is hard
awaiting

a bulging brown
belly

taut with baby
pressure

beside the white
husband



two/twenty/two thousand

Many of the observations here are excellent. The poem however, is not so obscure. This is the image of a farm crystalized into a single moment. What does the farm depend upon to function? Chickens, rain, and wheelbarrows. Without these simple but essential things the farm fails. Therefore "So much depends upon so much depends
upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white
chickens.

This is a simple and elegant poem with a simple and elgant explaination.

so much depends
upon

(the way real work has historically gotten and preceively still gets done)


a red wheel
barrow

(universally represents the timeless expenditure of blood - barrow's full of bleeding - from the labor of the dark skinned or black worker or slave)

glazed with rain
water

(represents both the endless - as often as rain - tears and sweat of the laborer which is dismissed as simply as, and appreciated as much as, and compared to the endless and taken for granted resource: common rainwater)

beside the white
chickens

(this is the only literal line in the poem, which is fittingly, blaringly last. )

WCW wrote what an observation of history protrayed to him in this obviously but well disquised and surfacely simple little poem. It is probably the only way he could have gotten away with it without being tared and feathered. It worked.

My teacher gave me an essay topic saying: According to Ars Poetica by Archibald Macleish, "A Poem should not mean/ But be" Relate this assertion to "The Red Wheelbarrow." Even though you may not be analysing the same poems my essay may be helpful. Here it is-
Analysis of “The Red Wheelbarrow”
“The Red Wheelbarrow” can be related to the phrase, in “Ars Poetica” by Archibald Macleish, “A poem should not mean/ But be,” because it is a snapshot in time, the reader notices the objects and their position of “being” in life, and the poem is contained within itself. “The Red Wheelbarrow” can be seen as a snapshot in time. According to “Ars Poetica,” A poem should be motionless in time…” (9), and this is exactly what the poem is. It is a motionless still frame of a moment in time. The way that the scene is described gives it the feel of a postcard, painting, or photograph. There is the red wheelbarrow as the subject of the picture, and the white chickens and rain provide for contrast against it. The imagery that William Carlos Williams provides through the description of vibrant colors appeal most obviously to the reader’s sense of sight. It simply is a red wheelbarrow that has been rained on and some chickens, composed through words as a still-frame image in time.
The straightforwardness of the poem causes the reader to notice the objects and their position of “being” in life. One definition for the word “being” is to exist in actuality or have life or reality. Archibald MacLeish meant that a poem should exist and be reality when he wrote, “A poem should not mean/ But be.” This means that the wheelbarrow, the chickens, and the whole scene do not truly mean anything - they exist. They are a reality that stands for the farm life. The wheelbarrow stands for the work and duties that must be performed, and the chickens are providers. This is their purpose or position of “being“ in life. The same goes for the poem as a whole. It only exists as a reality that describes the picture of the barnyard scene. The scene is a reality and is actually composed of the objects in it.
“The Red Wheelbarrow” can be related to “Ars Poetica“ because it is completely contained within itself. Although “Ars Poetica” says a poem should be silent it still talks to the reader, and even though it says that a poem should be motionless in time the moon still climbs. But still it stays contained at the end like a “globed fruit” or a “memory” in time. The poem itself simply exists and does not mean anything. All these contradictions do not accomplish anything except to say that the poem just “is.” The contradictions keep the poem within the theme that a poem should not mean anything. “The Red Wheelbarrow” is also contained within itself. There are no contradictions, but it is contained its in frankness and motionlessness. Nothing happens and it does not accomplish anything. It too is a poem that just exists because it describes a scene that is completely limited within the poem. There is no mystery or meaning behind it because it does not have any point.
“The Red Wheelbarrow” is a mirror of what Archibald MacLeish felt poetry should be. It is a stationary snapshot that has objects which simply exist. It is completely contained within the lines of the poem and needs no speculation of meaning. This poem is a mirror-image of the reality that the scene possesses.
P.S. Give me some critique

This is the only poem that I remember from a college English lit class from almost 20 years ago.

Back then, the teacher suggested that the biggest injustice people often do to art is to overinterpret, and overanalyze beyond the intention of what the artist was presenting.

Why can't we just take Williams's poem for what it says in the literal form?

Why does the red have to represent blood, or communism, or the many other personal inferences?

Red is a typical color for implements on farms.

So what is the bottom line of the poem? Perhaps it's just to say that it's a red wheel barrow that happens to be glazed with rain and there are a bunch of white chickens standing near it...oh yes, and someone -- maybe Williams's hard working farmer uncle -- depends on it.

For me it was always "So much depends upon a blue BMX bicycle, covered in mud, leaning against the grey picket fence"

That's all.

This poem is very compelling despite its short text. I belieive that it represents the method in which power(in society) balances itself out. In that sense it is the way that great power must rely on its junior weilders and vis- versa. This is represented by the way that the wheelbarrow is placed next to the chicken to (seemingly) to perform a cause in which server it. Without the wheelbarrows services these chickens (the great power in society) would perish and become nothing more than the empty spaces in this poem.

So yeah, I like poems that make sense so Im not crazy about this one but I do enjoy trying to figure it out though. I think that there is some definite symbolic meaning, I'm just not sure what...

I have been supprised that no one seems to have thought about this concept, but if you take into account William's medical backround it makes sense. The Red wheelbarrow is a heart, it is glazed in rainwater - blood, beside the white chickens - the lungs and a great deal - human life- depends on it. I relise that the lungs are actually pink in color not white... but I still think that this interpretation makes sense.