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William Carlos Williams 'Wheelbarrow'

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The “Wheelbarrow” poem from Williams Carlos Williams might intrigued the readers at first with the extreme short length of the poem, its stanzas, as well as the clarity of the language. Williams wants to celebrate the simplicity and purity surrounding everyday life.
This poem is indeed only composed of four two lines stanzas with 3 words on the first line and only one word on the second line, giving the reader the time to slowly appreciate and reflect each of the words carefully chosen by the author. Each stanza also uses the enjambement technique, which highlights a single word at the end of each stanza. The author thus invites the reader to meditate and honor these four words: “upon,” “barrow”, “water” and “chickens”, which appears the pillars of the poem.
This one sentence long poem adopts an simplistic and straightforward …show more content…
From the beginning, the author recommends the reader to rethink the importance of such a common object. The absence of capital letter to introduce the first and only sentence of the poem might suggest the beginning of the sentence has been deliberately omitted forcing the reader to question about the true importance of the wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow has represented an essential tool for laborers and farmers for centuries to carry loads. So, it symbolizes the strenuous work of the common people originating from low socioeconomic levels. Through the wheelbarrow celebration, Williams encourages the reader to always cherish the little things in life: they seem obvious and banal because accessible, but someone, something created them and brought them to us. Thus, “rain water” makes crops grow. Farmers use their “wheelbarrow” to harvest crops and haul vegetables, fruits and cereals. Finally, “chickens” will provide the last vital resource to human diet: meat. So, indeed, nothing is more important than a “red wheelbarrow” “beside the white

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