To A Poor Old Woman - William Carlos Williams

In this essay, I intend to comment on and critically assess William Carlos Williams’ poem entitled ‘To a Poor Old Woman.’ Williams published this poem in 1935, at which point he was reaching the end of what he called his ‘early career.’ During this time he was refining his skills in, and learning about, the ‘newly emerging’ methods of composition. By ‘ newly emerging,’ I mean that Williams was one of the modern American poets who rejected …

…good!’ This poem is a fine example of Williams’ lifelong goal to create a ‘pristine and clean’ kind of poetry by using simple language and highly visual details. The reader is encouraged, by Williams’ choices, to participate in the development of the image. In this poem, he gives us the ‘framework’ of the image without providing unnecessary details and hence pushes us to use our imaginations, and that is the essence of an Imagist Poet.