This Is Just To Say

"This Is Just To Say" (1934) is a famous imagist poem by William Carlos Williams.

Critical analysis

Written as though it were a note left on a refrigerator, Williams’ poem appears to the reader like a piece of found poetry.cite web| title = Stephen Matterson | work = Modern American Poetry | url=http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/just.htm | accessdate = 2008-01-15 ] Metrically, the poem exhibits no regularity of stress or of syllable count. Except for lines two and five (each an iamb) and lines eight and nine (each an amphibrach), no two lines have the same metrical form. The consonance of the letters “Th” in lines two, three, and four, as well the consonance of the letter “F” in lines eight and nine, and the letter “S’ in lines eleven and twelve give rise to a natural rhythm when the poem is read aloud. A conspicuous lack of punctuation contributes to the poem’s tonal ambiguity. While the second stanza begins with a conjunction, implying a connection to the first stanza, the third stanza is separated from the first two by the capitalized “Forgive.” In a 1950 interview, John W. Gerber asked the poet what it is that makes "This Is Just To Say" a poem, Williams replied, "In the first place, it metrically absolutely regular . . . So, dogmatically speaking, it has to be a poem because it goes that way, don't you see!"cite web| title = Marjorie Perloff | work = Modern American Poetry | url=http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/just.htm | accessdate = 2008-01-15 ] Visually speaking, the three little quatrains look alike; they have roughly the same physical shape. It is typography rather than any kind of phonemic recurrence that provides directions for the speaking voice (or for the eye that reads the lines silently). Additionally, this typographical structure influences any subsequent interpretation on the part of the reader.

Interpretations

Building on sibilance and concluding on “so cold,” the poem implies that sweet, fruity taste contrasts the coldness of a human relationship that forbids sharing or forgiveness for a minor breach of etiquette.cite web| title = CliffNotes | url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Poets-William-Carlos-Williams-1883-8211-1963-Chief-Works.id-11,pageNum-21.html | accessdate = 2008-01-15 ] The words “Forgive me,” written as a command, emphasize the sense of regret conveyed by the speaker. This desperate need for forgiveness, an obvious admission of forbidden action, immediately followed by Williams’ graphic imagery of the plums suggests this poem could be concerned with the uselessness or self-entrapment of sexual desire. Ultimately, the self referential nature of this poem and that it seems to have been written as a note on a refrigerator demonstrate that profundity and beauty can be found in the simplest of places, even a note on your refrigeratorFact|date=July 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535 Authorized reproductions of the poem]
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/just.htm Modern American Poetry Commentary on the poem]
* [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Poets-William-Carlos-Williams-1883-8211-1963-Chief-Works.id-11,pageNum-21.html CliffsNotes Analysis of some of the works by William Carlos Williams]