William Carlos Williams Early Life

William Carlos Williams, a doctor and a famous poet, was born on September 17, 1883 in Rutherford, New Jersey. He was born the first of two sons to a British New York businessman and a Puerto Rican Mother with artistic talent. William’s family had French, Dutch, Spanish, and Jewish ancestry that showed in his poetry. William’s family spoke French, Spanish, and English fluently. William’s early life was sweet and sour and terror dominated his youth from rigid idealism and moral perfectionism that his parents tried to instill in him. As an early child, William felt conflict between his parents hopes that he would become a doctor and William’s hopes which were becoming a famous poet. William’s enthusiastic pursuit of math and science was changed half through the school year William suddenly took an interest in languages and

Williams went to the University of Pennsylvania to receive his MD and he also befriended poet, Ezra Pound. Pound became a big influence on William’s poetry, and in 1913, arranged for the London publication of William’s second set of poems, “The Tempers”. After, Williams migrated back to Rutherford where he became a doctor, but still continued his poetry career publishing his poems in small magazines. As William’s career continued as a poet, he began to disagree with the views found in Pound’s and Eliot’s poem believing that they were too attached to European culture and tradition. William's began to experiment with new forms of meter and lineation trying to create a new, American, poetic which focused on the circumstances of life and everyday lives of everyday people. William started to feel overshadowed by Eliot’s latest set of poems, “The Waste Land”, which is regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century. William tried multiple times to change people’s views on poetry and why American poetry should be what poets are writing, not British