poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

This poem has numerous meanings, though it may not seem as it does at first look. Poetry is great because everyone has their own take on what a poem can mean. Meanings of the poem This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams include literal, religious and sexual. The religious and sexual meanings both have to deal with temptation. The sexual interpretation could be looked at as an affair or a girl losing her virginity. The literal menaing is very obvious. It is what people think about this so-called “poem” if they don’t think about it. The poem could be viewed on as a note to a loved one, we thought his wife. He is apologizing because he stole her plums from the icebox. Not very deep, but if a person thinks, there is deeper meaning.

The first meaning we saw was a religious meaning, going as far back to the time of Adam and Eve. Even though Eve knew their would be a consequence for taking the apple, she still took it. This shows the idea that humans connot resist temptation. They even may enjoy when they sin. Williams says “forgive me/ they were delicious/ so sweet / and so cold.” He is saying sorry, yet he is describing how delicious they were to eat. Stealing them made them taste even better, thus is human nature. He could not resist the temptation to take the plums, because they looked so good. This is just as eve could not resist the temptation to eat the apple. Both eve and the stealer of the plums

The next meaning is the sexual meaning. The words in the poem “saving” led us to believe this. Their could be symbols used in the poem, these include the plums and the icebox. The plums could represent the girls virginity, which she was saving, or keeping in the icebox. Then, the narrator takes the plums, or the girls virginity. The narrator also enjoys what he has done, as he decribes it as being delicous and good. He enjoys it even though is was a sin, because the girl was “saving” herself. He might even have enjoyed it more because it was a sin. Again, the narrator could not resist the temptation of the girl.

Williams uses diction in his poem. One line that shows this is the line “forgive me.” These words sound sincere, whereas a word such as sorry does not have as deep of a feeling. Though he is apologizing it seems like he recieves fulfillment either way. He gets to eat the plums, which are delicious, and he also is to be forgiven for what he has done. He is satisfied well for stealing plums.

He also uses imagery at the end of the poem. He says that the plums were “delicious/ so sweet / and so cold.” This is almost cruel to the owner of the plums. It is even more that he is saying this in his apology. What person wants to hear another man describe how good a food is, without being able to taste it for himself? Noboby does, but the person must still forgive the person who stole the plums. Thus that person receives pleasure for their sin.

On the surface, this poem is simplistic, even to be seen as a not left on the fridge. But when it is read with deep thought, it has many deeper meanings that can be rooted out. Williams may have even felt the need to publish the poem to see what people would think when they saw it.These meanings have many of the same ideas, including those of temptation and the pleasure in sin. Many different meanings can be concluded from reading a poem, and the all the meanings have significance.

it sparked my curiosity when i read that the plums meant he was having an affair or a girl's virginity.

i only saw the plums as plums. i've always adored this poem. i imagine it being this note between to lovers. one at the plums but instead of leaving this im sorry for eatin the plums they left this beautiful little note. i love that he writes they were so sweet and delicious. instead of saying i ate them he told how good the plums actually were, at least stating he enjoyed them. perhaps because they were sweet, but maybe there was a satisfaction in knowing that the plumes belonged to his lover, making them even better.

i just imagined this overall pleasantness in this poem. i was shocked to read about interpretations of sex.

This is just to say that my poem Little Kirsch Face has NOTHING to do with fruit or sex -- it's about how the German Dermatologist burned my baby daughter's chest using laser to remove a port wine stain, and how because she is my third child, my pain about this is more muted and hopeless than it would have been had something this dreadful happened to my first child or had it happened before all the other medical blunders I have experienced living here in Germany happened. Sorry to have to spell it all out for you like this, Dave, but I, on this one, don't want there to be any doubt. Unlike the medieval courtly love poems which are all about equivocation and how the meanings of poems change depending upon what situation thw writer or the reader finds themselves in or what placement they are given in a novel.

He's just taking a certain moment of time and capturing it with the least words possible. Much like a painter paints a picture with colors, he paints with words. I really enjoy how one can see so vividly in one's mind the things and moment he has captured with his poems.

I do detect a hint of sarcasm though. His apology would be like someone saying," I'm really sorry that I ate those plums, but DANG were they ever good. You should have had some. They were soooo delicious and tasty. MMMM."

I think it's just about a bunch of plums... and I want one.

As opposed to his intentions in the poem, I like to focus on his sensory stimulation in his writing. His descriptive form allows us to taste the cool plums with which he absconded. He manages to make a part surreal, part real experience through his writing.

I do not think at all that it has to to with sexuality or being slefish.When i first read this poem at 11 yrs old i just thought it was a funny poem.And i imagined that this guy had eaten his girlfriends or wifes plumb intentionally because he wanted some thing cold to munch on in a hot night and in a clever act of his itsy bitsy misbehavior of stealing some ones elses saved cold fruit he wrote a note to her and left it on the frigde so she would laugh about it and wouldn't get mad about her missing plumb.i am 21 right now and i still think of the poem that way.

Nobody yet has mentioned Kenneth Koch's variation:
1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

i found the different interpretations regarding sex and other things qute interesting and i believe thats the beauty of poetry-discovering our perceptions.

i believed this poem was a kind of revenge mechanism. The plums could be interpreted as something valuable to a couple-like their savings-and a partner used it for his benefit to spite the others feelings.he/she did it because he/she was angry that the partner used his savings. the last coment is sarcatic-like ha,ha, ha-I got you back!

Are you crazy? He made this poem out of a note he left his wife, he just added the line breaks because he thought it sounded good.

My interpretation of this poem is completely different from others. I think the plum represents something that the author wants or is jealous of. By writing "Forgive me the "plum-eater" pretends to be innocent, but "they were delicious, so sweet, and so cold," shows that he took something precious from someone. I think that by using everyday life stuff such as a plum, Williams is criticizing one's jealousy. Plum is used to convey this idea because it has a pit, just like in human's heart. A person may pretend to be sorry, but deep inside, he/she may have hate, grudge, jealousy, etc.