Rate-a-Poem: Poem

By William Carlos Williams
(1883-1963)

Poem

As the cat
climbed over
the top of
the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot

carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot

very interesting responses. they beg the question: what is the function of poetry?

for williams, in this case (and many others with him) it is simply to offer you a snapshot of his experience. like other imagists, williams saw the accurate conveyance of an image, one that defies paraphrase, as an end in itself.

ah, but we're talking about cross-purposes here. you're talking about the expectation, which comes from the reader and is imposed on the poem. i'm talking about the function, which is built into the poem and flows from the writer to the reader.

no matter why one reads, when one reads a poem like this, one can find nothing but what is there. you can look for a hidden meaning, but you won't find it. you can look for metaphor, and you might find it, but it would be a connection in your own mind and would (in my opinion) lie outside of the poet's intent.

now, you might reject the image. deem it interesting or not, find it evocative or not. but your reasons for reading don't enter into what it is...

not a critique of your comment, paint... but just some general thoughts on the nexus of the author's agenda and that of the reader.

Unique said:

But enlighten me - why is this piece called a poem? Is there some meter I'm unaware of that lends it the status of poem? If a poem is as brief as the above, what elevates it past the realm of a sentence?

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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.

wow.

I think the presentation of the words in a poem format is what makes it "a poem" rather than just a sentence.

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there is a particular cadence to this, and the assonance of "top" and "closet"; the alliteration of the repeated "p"s in the last three lines... it has the qualities of a poem.

Will, I understand what you are saying in regard to the poet's intent, but I'm not sure that it is always the case that there's nothing beyond what the artist claims. Do you mean that as it applies to the "snapshot" poets specifically, or do you mean it in a broader way, that art is only what the creator says it is?

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heavens no. i mean that for the imagists, as one school of poetry, the "thing" is the thing. imagism was a rejection of the sentimental quality of "genteel"/victorian poetry, and simply wanted to paint a picture with language.

there is certainly a great deal of meaning, drawn out through subtext, through metaphor and symbolism, through the evocation of emotion, in most poetry, to varying degrees of success. for the imagists, however, these things did not concern them.