About me
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends (1)
upon (2)
a red wheel (3)
barrow (4)
glazed with rain (5)
water (6)
beside the white (7)
chickens. (8)
It’s a simple poem. There isn’t any doubt about that. But a good question to ask of it is: How simple of a poem is it? Is there a pattern that reveals that it is more than just a simple statement, which, after all, is not be a poem.
Look at the poem as if it were a statement: So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens.
This sentence is not a poem. It’s a prose sentence. What’s the difference between this sentence and Williams’ poem? To ask the question is to ask, “Is there a poem pattern?”
Look at the elements that make up the poem. What are those elements? Words. A pattern is made up of parts. What pattern do the words take? What do you look for? Look for syllables and accents.
Here is line one: so much depends
The elements: three words / four syllables
Accents are not always easy to determine, but try speaking the poem with your natural voice. I come up with this:
so much depends [the bold = more emphasis]
Now the second line: one word / two syllables / accent: upon
These two words make up a stanza, separated by a blank line.
Line 3: three words / three syllables / accent: a red wheel
Line 4: one word / two syllable / accent: none
Line 5: three words / three syllables / accent: glazed with rain
Line 6: one word / two syllables / accent: none
Line 7: three words / three syllables / accent: beside the white
Line 8: one word / two syllables / accent: none
Look first at the visual elements that make up the overall pattern. It looks something like this. Seeing it this way, it is obvious that Williams made a conscious choice to develop this large pattern. He was four stanzas of two lines each, with all of the lines approximately the same size. He has made a picture of language.
A short course in metre:
Look at the words that I have marked with accents, using the bold type for syllables that when spoken require more emphasis. Marking emphasis in a poem is called scanning. And scanning is an art not a science. There will always be some disagreement about how a poem is scanned. But we should be able to come up with some approximations, agreeing to disagree, etc. First, you need some terminology. Below are the names of the most common metrical “feet.” With these six terms, you will be able to discuss the word patterns of almost any poem.
Emphasis at the end of the word or words, or soft then hard: (ex:comply) = iambic
Emphasis at the beginning of the word(s), or hard then soft: (ex: Johnson) = trochee
Two soft then a hard: (ex: on the roof) = anapest
One hard and two soft: (ex: diagram) = dactyl
Two hard: (ex: (hired hand) = spondee
Two soft: (ex: (in a) = pyrrhic
Now look again at the Williams’ poem.
The poem line number words syllables feet
so much depends (1) 3 4 iambic iambic
upon (2) 1 2 iambic
a red wheel (3) 3 3 anapest
barrow (4) 1 2 pyrrhic
glazed with rain (5) 3 3 1/2 iambic? iambic
water (6) 1 2 pyrrhic
beside the white (7) 3 4 iambic iambic
chickens. (8) 1 2 pyrrhic or trochee
Now you have a pattern revealing itself. It’s not a perfect pattern; nor should it be! But the elements of the poem have revealed a pattern that should convincingly demonstrate that this is indeed a poem. And there is more to this seemingly simple poem.
Let’s look more closely at the patterns revealed so far. There are four stanzas of two lines each. Each stanza has three words in the first line and one in the second line. This is a very regular pattern. The pattern is so regular that it’s like a march: 3,1 3,1 3,1 3,1.
Now look again at the syllable pattern. The syllable pattern is not so regular. It goes 4,2 3,2 3,2 4,2. It’s less like a march, perhaps more like a waltz.
Now take a look at the metric pattern. It is even less regular, more like a skip and shuffle.
The combination of all of these patterns makes up the dance of the poem.
Now that we have dealt with the poem patterns, there is another feature of the poem that we must look at: the tension developed between the poem as spoken and the poem as seen.
How would you read this poem?
Read it.
Now read it as if it were a prose sentence.
How is how you read it different from how you read the poem-as-a-sentence?
Read the poem again. This time go slow and pay attention to where you place emphasis, where you pause, and how much you pause between words and lines and stanzas.
The visual layout of the poem is a kind of musical score that allows you to approximate the intentions of the writer.
Look again at the poem but without reading it. It has, as we’ve seen, a distinct pattern. It is a visual artifact as well as an example of spoken, verbal, art. It is both visual and oral.
And, finally, there is the question of how the pattern of this poem fits into the larger pattern of poetry, literature, history, psychology, sociology, and the individual writer’s complete writings. In this class we cannot go far into exploring those patterns. But in some future class you may. You might look at how this poem fits within the book it was a part of, a book called Spring and All. You might examine how this book refers to another famous poem, The Wasteland by T. S. Elliot. You might consider this poem in relation to different types of critics: feminism, Marxism, post-modernism, psycho-analyticalism, historicism, etc. But before you can do any adequate exploration of any other patterns, you must explore the most basic one, the pattern the poem makes of itself.
My Gear
my very HARD software.
or my very SOFT hardware
