Distressful Sentiment

In “Willow Poem,” William Carlos Williams set a tone of distress to the poem by

using imagery and punctuation. This poem is about a willow tree by the river, which it about

to let go of its leaves as the season is changing. It is described in the poem, “The leaves cling

and grow paler” (6). The action and appearance of the leaves described in the poem shows the

sense of misery of the tree. The author chose to use the word “cling” to express the action of

those leaves that they really hold on to each other tightly. By being strongly attached, it gives

the meaning of being afraid or unwelcome, which implies that the tree is not happy to let go

of its leaves. The willow’s leaves are also getting paler and paler. This can be referred to the

reaction of human when being nervous or frightened. People’s faces or hands usually turn

white and pale because they are panic or worry about something. They sometimes also hold or

squeeze both of their hands together in order to maintain their fear. These actions that the tree

is experiencing provide a sign of depression because it doesn’t want to die when winter come

and pass away its leaves. The hyphen used at the last section of the poem also indicate the

distressful feeling of the tree; "...and of the river-/ oblivious to winter," (11-12). Hyphen

signals a break between the poem, telling that the willow is conscious of its death, and is now

accepting the reality. Therefore, the tree feels desperate because it knows that it can’t escape

death.

In “The Desolate Field,” the tone asserted by Williams using imagery is distress. The

setting of the poem takes place in a field, which the narrator described it as wide and isolated.

The narrator described how he see the sky, saying “Vast and gray, the sky/ is a simulacrum/ to

all but him whose days/ are vast and gray, and -” (1-4). “Vast and gray” is repeated two times

in this quote to really emphasize the feelings and perspective of the narrator toward his life

and the world. From this quote, it can be interpreted that the narrator is desperate as he is now
experiencing a disillusionment. Because vast and gray sky represents how the narrator view

the world, it shows the perspective of the narrator that he/she didn’t see the world like before,

and that the world is changing. He is now seeing the world as a very wide place and it seems

darker to him because he sees more realistic side of the world, which doesn’t match to his

previous belief of the world, which is the beauty side. It is also said in the poem, “In the tall,

dried grasses/ a goat stirs/ with nozzle searching the ground.” (5-7). The action of the goat

finding something on the ground draws out the feeling of loss and depress of the poem. It is

useless to find something on the ground that has long and dried grass as the grasses will

mostly covered up the floor and make it hard to see, but the goat still searches the ground,

despite knowing that it is hopeless.

In “Nantucket,” William Carlos Williams used imagery and symbols to create a tone

of distress. The poem is describing its setting, which is a room, as quiet and tranquil. It can be

assumed that the poem settled on an island called Nantucket, where it is a quiet and peaceful

island with sea water and warm sun. However, “Nantucket” seems to give out negative

emotions of loneliness and abandoned as it is an isolated island in the middle of the sea with a

few people living on, unlike in a city. Williams use the description of the room and how it

contrast to the outside environment to show the feeling of the narrator that he/she feels lonely

and trapped. It is wrote, “Lavender and yellow/ changed by white curtains” (2-3), Williams

use the contrast between the colorful flowers and the white curtain to state the tone of poem

because flowers with colors gives the feeling of being cheerful and lively. However, white

curtain symbolized plain and simplicity of the room because it is not colorful, and it gives the

feeling of being lonely and lifeless. By clearly shows the contrast between these two things, it

strengthens the tone of the poem because it creates a clear image of the colorful flower by the

white curtain. Williams also used objects such as glasswares and key to illustrate the feeling
of distress and desolated. The poem wrote, “On the glass tray/ a glass pitcher, the tumbler/

turned down, by which/ a key is lying - And the/ immaculate white bed” (6-10). Glass tray,

glass pitcher and tumbler represent freedom as they are clear and can be seen through.

However, they are just a hope to the narrator because they are transparent, but they cannot be

reached or passed through. The position of these objects also help telling the tone of the

poem. The tumbler is turned down, meaning that it is unused. Therefore, it gives the sense of

lifeless to the room. So does the immaculate bed; it is white and clean, which indicates that it

hasn’t been used. The key lying on the glass tray also expresses the entrapment feeling of the

narrator. Key can symbolize freedom as it is used to lock or unlock the door. This means that

the narrator can choose whether he will unlock the door and go outside, or ignore the key and

stay in. Yet, “ a key is lying” tells that the narrator doesn’t choose the freedom and unlock the

door, instead, he left the key lying on the glass tray. The narrator might has his/her own

reason to not choosing to go out, or maybe he/she doesn’t have the choice to choose, leaving

him/her trapped inside the room.

 Memorable Girl

Telling from what I remember

she was young

and pure.

Her cute round face

with her nose rose up

and her little mouth

moving unstoppably as she talked.

Her eyes shone

signaling me her happiness

Where the eye closed

and her mouth grinned wide

she’s smiling-

But the clock runs

time flys, she changes,

leaving her cheering soul

behind, in

the time back then.

 Reflection

This is my original poem, “Memorable Girl,” which is written with an inspiration from

William Carlos Williams’ poem writing style. The poem is a description of a girl who

changed as time pass. The purpose of this poem is to reflect how I view myself and the

change that I sense it had occurred to me due to many factors such as environment and

society. I used the perspective of the narrator to describe the girl in the poem. The narrator is

telling the appearance, emotion and action of the girl by recalling old memories.

The girl in the poem is actually representing me, and the narrator of the poem is also

me. I chose to make both the narrator and the character I talked about to be myself because

the person who know best about myself is myself. Therefore, the poem is indeed telling about

the change that I think had impacted me.

The girl described in stanza one until stanza three is contrasted with the girl in the last

stanza. I didn’t straightly tell the appearance and the personality of the girl that has change in

the last section, but instead, I wrote down “leaving her cheering soul/ behind…” (15-16). This

implies that the girl is now becoming more serious and mature and she is a grown up. It also

indicates that she is being less happy and cheerful than before because there is more thing she

need to do, meaning that she is having more responsibilities than before. Therefore, there is

less time for her to play around and be happy all the time. However, in stanza one to stanza

three, the girl is described to be very lively. This is because I want to emphasize the childhood

time that it is the most precious time. When we were younger, we can do whatever we want

and play whatever we like without having anything pulling us back. We can be as happy as

we want and we rarely stressed.

Devices that I used in this poem are imagery, enjambment, end-stopped, sibilance and

rhyme. There is one place of sibilance at “she’s smiling-” (12), and rhyme between the words
“nose” and “rose” (5). The use of sibilance and rhyme create rhythm and melody to the

sentences, which it helps emphasize the joyful and flowness of childhood. Enjambment

between lines also indicate the flow of life that there is very few burden that we have to worry

about when we were young. The end-stopped, which is the hyphen used at the end of the third

stanza is telling that the girl had changed; the delighted time of freedom when being a child is

ended. Imagery is the main device used in the poem. I used imagery to create image and make

the contrasting ideas in the poem seem clearer as we can imagine the image of a graceful girl

with a smile upon her face, which different from the grown up one.

My decision to use imagery, end-stopped and enjambment to the poem is influenced

by Williams because most of his poems have enjambment and end-stopped to help express the

theme of the poems. He is also a imagist, meaning that he describes objects and surroundings

in detail in order to reach the idea of his poem. This is Williams’ unique writing style, which I

felt it is necessary to include in my poem. The theme of my poem, changes and life cycle, is

also influenced by Williams as his poems are mostly based on reality, birth and death. When

learning Williams as a mentor, I’m really surprise by the use of imagery in all of William’s

poems. It is amazing how Williams manage to describe all objects and make them seem

meaningful, which help build up the one theme of the poem. I also enjoy reading Williams’

poems because they sounded very smooth and beautiful. even though they are free verse.

After studying Williams as a mentor, I’m now understand clearly about modernism and

imagism.