On “Complaint”

William Carlos Williams uses contrasting setting to emphasize the contrasting emotions

in the poem “Complaint”. This poem is about when Williams is called to help a woman at the

middle of the night. He arrives at a woman’s house at midnight. This woman is sick from giving

birth of her tenth child. She is very exhausted and painful. He feels pity for her. Williams writes

“It is a frozen road past midnight, a dust of snow caught” (2-4) and “through the jalousies the sun

has sent one golden needle!” (18-19) to describe setting of the poem. Williams also writes “to

give birth to a tenth child. Joy! Joy!” (14-15) and “and watch her misery” (21) to describe feeling

of the woman. From first and second quotes, there is a contrast between settings. The first quote

shows that this poem is happening in dark cold midnight. There is no light and there is a snow

dust falling down. But in second quote the content is disproving the setting that happens in the

first quote. The second quote is about sunshine in the morning and warmness of light shining

through the window. The third and the fourth quotes are about woman’s emotion. The third

quote shows that woman feels very happy because she just gives a birth to her tenth child. It is an

amazing and spectacular moment which makes her happy. Then, he mentions misery and sadness

as stated in the fourth quote which is totally opposite to the emotion of woman in third quote.

This is how the emotions of the woman contrast each other in this poem. Through the use of

contrasting setting, Williams stresses the contrasting emotion in the poem. It was done by

introduce opposite idea of night and day before showing contrary feeling of the woman. We

notice that he uses a different setting in poem and we starts to question the poem. Then, we point

out that woman feeling is totally opposite. Therefore, the use of different setting helps we notice

the contrasting emotion of woman easier.