William Carlos WilliamsOn poems as machines made out of words To make two bold statements: There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is redundant. Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matter like a ship. But poetry is a machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy. As in all machines, its movement is intrinsic, undulant, a physical more than a literary character.
"To Elsie" or "The pure products of America / go crazy" The rose is obsolete The Red Wheelbarrow Item Back to the poet's page |