Sirikorn Detchanun

Matthew Bishop
1206
October 3, 2017

Color Show the Power of Nature within Williams Poetry

Do you ever read or analyze the poetry of William Carlos Williams? The person who

values the poetry more than his life. William Carlos William a modernist poet, novelist, essayist,

and playwright. He started writing poetry while he studies at Horace Mann Hight School. He met

Ezra Pound in the University of Pennsylvania and received his MD from this university.

Moreover, he decided to become both a writer and a doctor. Williams was one of the poets of the

imagist movement that wanted to deny what Pond value in his poem because he felt it too

attached to European culture and tradition. This made him invented the poetic that focus on the

everyday behavior of life and the lives of people. As a modernist poet, Williams was interested

in uses of simple and common of vocabulary and language to clarify of expression through the

use of precise visual images or called imagism. In The Desolate Field and Willow Poem,

Williams emphasizes the power of nature through the use of color.

In The Desolate Field, the uses of color reinforce the idea of loneliness and alienation,

which demonstrate the overwhelming power of nature. In brief, poem comprising of thirteen

lines and focuses on a narrator reflecting on a grey field, grey sky, and empty. For the character,

who is facing the bad days all the sky is testicular and gray, no matter he looks to which direction

everything seems dark. Also, love cannot give him comfort, instead this force is controlling him

and it all above him. After reading, it turns out to be certain that the gray color reflected his

feeling at the time he was writing, Williams writes Vast and gray, the sky (1), at the thought

of love/ vast and gray (11-12). From this quote, he uses gray color to express his emotions of

loneliness and alienation. In addition, bases on our main understanding of meaning grey color
shows affection of boring, depressing, cool, indifferent, and isolating. The fact that he sees the

sky all gray is because he is still unsuccessful seeking for this universal love force. This failure is

due to the fact that no other force is bigger and powerful than natures power. Equally important,

he feels there is no greater love that gives direction to his life this make his love gray. This

caused by the power of nature that makes him overthink and feel there is no greater love.

However, in the end, no other forces can overcome natures power. All this emotion makes his

day gray, which indicates the idea of desolation and alienation.

The color of the Willow tree in Willow Poem reveals the sense of sadness and intense

depression. In the poem, establish the idea that there are is no change in the willow tree which

remains the willow tree when the season change summer to fall, and will always be a willow by

the river. However, the season change, at last the leaves change color to orange and crimson

and fall into the water and on the ground. As it shown in the text, turned orange or crimson/ The

leaves cling and grow paler, / swing and grow paler (5-7), the last to let go and fall (13).

Based on the understanding of color, orange or crimson there are both mean in a positive and

negative way. However, from the passage in the poem that the season starts to change into fall

which makes the leaves starts to fall. This makes the passage come with the negative meaning of

the color that reflect the feeling of anger, defiance, aggression, and danger. Also, both of color

are warm tone which represents the greater intention. From the quote, the summer starts to end

and the fall is coming, but the leaves try their best until the last minute to stay cling and grow in

the willow tree. However, in fact, the color of leaves starts to change to orange or crimson and

starts to fall because what nature makes it be. At the moment of the leaves fall down, the

feeling of the leaves is reflecting through the color, which emphasizes the sense of sadness and

intense depression.
 The Desolate Field and Willow Poem have completely demonstrated that Williams

uses the color to emphasize the power of nature. The poem The Desolate Field demonstrate the

overwhelming power of nature through the use of gray color reinforce the idea of loneliness and

alienation. For the Willow Poem show feeling of sadness and intense depression over the

orange and crimson color of the Willow tree.

When Im with the Greens

as I walk
through the greens
birds are flying
above my head

ants on the ground

strolling as fast as wind
coldness of the earth
touches my skin

Reflection

This poem is a flashback to the day I went to the national park. At the time I was there,
people were already gone. It was only me at the park, but I decided to take a walk anyway. On
that day, the weather was a little bit cold, but apparently, the clothes I have worn was not as
thick. I already felt lonely because I went to the park alone, moreover, the coldness made me feel
extremely lonely. Along the way that I walk, I saw many green trees, full of lively energy. I also
saw the birds on my head, flying happily back and forth in the forest. I decided to look on the
ground to capture some details, because I was so bored and that I had no one to talk to. I saw the
ants speed themselves so fast, not knowing where they go.

The pattern of the poem is inspired by William Carlos Williams, including the way I did
not include any punctuation in this poem. Also, modernism gave me inspiration. As I was
walking in the park, I only focus about the environment that I saw and the sense that I felt. I did
not notice anything else but the nature. Not only that, walking in a park is not a fancy thing to
talk about, this park does not have anything more special than any other park, but the nature has
really touched by my heart. I did not say in the poem about what I felt, I think it would be better
if I can communicate my feelings with the reader, through the use of imagery, and with no exact
words describe.