Flow to Unfold: The Fluidness in William Carlos Williams’s Poetry

Abstract

Regarded as one of the greatest American poets in the twentieth century and the prominent poet of the Imagist, William Carlos Williams approaches his poetic world by the special use of images and syntax. In his poems, he invites the common and small things in everyday life as images. By the irregular arrangement of line and stanza breaks, these things are endowed with richer and deeper meanings which is far more than what is shown, open to readers to interpret. The syntax itself in Williams’ poems is poetic, and the integration of images and syntax in William Carlos Williams’ poems frames the poet’s poetic world. This article will review the fluidness of Williams’ poems approached by flowing images and flowing syntax in William Carlos Williams’ poems. It attempts to prove that although the images may be seen as accumulative rather than surmounted and the lines and stanzas are broken, the sense is flowing. Concisely but accurately, William Carlos Williams applies the images featuring fluidness to reveal the essence of objects. Through the accumulation of images, the lines and stanzas starts to jump down from one to another, activating the whole scene of the poem to flow. And the flowing syntax which includes the irregular line ends and broken stanzas, the omission of capitalization in each line uplifts the limbs of the poem and make it flow.