- 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 offound 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 ofsyllable count. Except for lines two and five (each aniamb ) and lines eight and nine (each anamphibrach ), no two lines have the same metrical form. The consonance of the letters “Th” in lines two, three, and four, as well theconsonance of the letter “F” in lines eight and nine, and the letter “S’ in lines eleven and twelve give rise to a naturalrhythm when the poem is read aloud. A conspicuous lack ofpunctuation contributes to the poem’s tonal ambiguity. While the second stanza begins with aconjunction , 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 istypography rather than any kind ofphonemic recurrence that provides directions for the speaking voice (or for the eye that reads the lines silently). Additionally, thistypographical 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]
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