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Peeraya Rujjanavet

Mr. Schelz

English 12

October 2, 2018

Depression is from the fragmentation of the society.

William Carlos Williams use of disillusionment reinforces the expressing of the

depression feeling inside within “The Desolate Field”. The Desolate Field was written in 1921

which is after WWI. This poem is consists of 13 lines. The setting in the poem is the field that filled

with the “tall, dried grasses”(5) and the sky is “vast and gray”(1). There is the goat “with nozzle

searching on the ground” that looking for something lonely by itself in the middle of the dried field.

The narrator also describes that he is standing with the loneliness and isolation feeling and he

compares himself with the goat. As the goat is searching for something, he also searched for love,

“at the thought of love/ vast and gray”(11 - 12) because he is really lonely. He feels that without his

loved one, he is no one. According to the text, “my head is in the air/ but who am I…?” (8 - 9). This

implies that Williams used the disillusionment to define his depression feeling because he feels like

himself doesn’t exist even he was standing and breathing. One of the reason is his love. He

compares his love is vast and gray as the sky is vast and gray. Around 1921, people started moving

into the city for the civilization and for a job. The society has changed because a lot of people are

moving into the city, isolating more people. When you walk in the street, you know no one. People

just walk past each other and don’t even smile and that makes you feel really lonely. But in the

countryside, people knew each other, they greet each other and exchange their product to each other

which makes you feel like you always have someone beside you even you are living alone. The

disillusionment of the social stress people to become the depression.

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In “Willow Poem”, William Carlos Williams uses enjambment to creates the continuity

emotion of the depression. The Willow Poem was published by 1921. The setting describes that

there is a willow tree next to the river. As the season starts to change from summer to autumn, the

leaves of the other trees start to fall to the ground. But for the willow tree, there is “no leaf has

fallen nor/ bitten by the sun/ turned orange or crimson” (3 - 5). The willow’s leaves just get paler

and unwilling to let their leaves go. The willow tree is just “ so drunk with/ the swirl of the

wind”(10 - 11), they are unaware of the changes. But then, when it turns to winter, the leaf just fall

off from the willow tree and the tree just have to let it go because of the season changes. This is

evident when the writer states “oblivious to winter,/ the last to let go and fall” (12 - 13). This

indicates that when the time changes the tree doesn’t really want to change, but when the time goes

by the tree has to adapt itself to the new season. Like people, when they change to the new society,

the depression feeling might be the problem because you don’t use to the new environment. You

sometimes feel lonely. Ultimately, the society will force you to change your character to suit you

with the society even you didn't want to change.

Through the use of imagery, William Carlos Williams shows the visual emotion of the

depression within the “Complete Destruction”. The “Complete Destruction” was also written in

1921. The poem is consist of 8 lines which is one of the short poems that written by Williams and

the poem is divided into an equal section. The backyard on an icy day is the setting of the Complete

Destruction. The poem illustrates about buried cat process that they put the cat in the box and buried

at the backyard. There is a flea on the cat and it might be the reasons that the cat died. The fleas

escaped from the fire but at last, it died because of the cold. The authors write, “Those fleas that are

escaped/ earth and fire died by the cold”(6 - 8), detailing about the fleas that though it can escape

from something, lastly it has to die by other factors. In the Complete Destruction”, Williams didn’t

mention about any personal interior only the exterior. But the imagery that he used set the mood of
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the poem to be some sort of sad and depressing. These images can be interpreted as when the

society make people be the scapegoat. Sometimes people didn’t do something wrong but they just

got pushover and lead them to depression. People can escape from that situation or not is

unchanging, every people will die eventually.

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Recalled

The delighted daisy

has nothing that can

damage its beauty.

The obscured dandelion,

no one sees in

the lawn as the daisy.

The wind blows

blows all the dreaming.

— I just want to be

seen and remembered.

Still the dandelion fortune

are same as blowing its florets.

The florets will be spread

to the different direction

as it was blown.
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Reflection

I mimicked William’s poem style by making the sad mood in the poem like the way

Williams often write. The purpose is to show that sometimes people who always got forgotten just

want a little attention. I compare those feeling with flowers in the lawns. The daisy is very pretty

and it always gains more attention compared to the dandelion. The dandelion feel neglected by the

forgotten feeling and want to gain more attention. But the fortune of the dandelion is not going to be

like what it wants comparable when you blowing the florets of dandelion, the florets will fly to the

different direction from the way you blow. So, the poem’s topic is recalled because the main

purpose of the poem is about forgotten. So, I want the poem’s topic to continue in contrast with the

poem.

The literary devices and techniques I use in the poem is repetition, imagery,

personification, and enjambment. The repetition in the poem is in part “The wind blows/ blows all

the dreaming”(7-8). I use the repetition to recurrence the action of blowing. The first blowing is

from the wind blow and the second one after the wind blows, all the thing dandelion’s dreaming is

gone. I use the imagery to show the visual image to make it more realistic in “ … blowing its

florets./ The florets will fly/ to the different direction.”(12-14). In the poem, personification is using

through all the poem. I compare the feeling with the flowers and show how they feel and to make

the feeling understand easily. Lastly, the enjambment also use through all the poem and it help the

poem not to have dead-ending in the sentences, for an example “The obscured dandelion/ no one

sees in/ the lawn as the daisy.” (4-6).

My experience studying Williams as a mentor, the surprising thing for me is that he can

write about the simple thing that makes it feel really impactful such as the Complete Destruction

poem. I notice that all the poem, he use the enjambment to make the poem more smoothly and his
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poem is also famous for using the enjambment technique. The thing that I hadn’t noticed earlier is

that most of his poem is related to the social problems. After I finished writing my TIQA and reread

his poems again, it makes me feel more understanding of what he wants to mention about. Williams

influenced me to use my own feeling in the poem because it will make the reader perceive the same

feeling from what you want to express when they read it and that what the good poetry should

construct.