William Carlos Williams: A Modernist Poet

In the early 20th century around the time of the end to World War 1, a new era of poetry was born, the Modernism Era. Many ideas about this concept of modernism flowed around the way a person sees something through his own perspective, or first person point of view. As these ideas westernized, it reached America, many different poets in America rejected these ideas and others picked them up and ran with them. One poet in particular, William Carlos Williams, was one of the more well known names for his modernist poetry. Williams lived in Rutherford, New Jersey roughly his whole life. He wrote his poetry based off observations he would see everyday. He was a physician practicing both pediatric and general medicine. A Lot of his work in the medical

Williams lived in Rutherford, New Jersey roughly his whole life. He started writing his first forms of poetry in high school. He decided to go to medical school and be a doctor as well as be a poet in his high school years. Williams went to the University of Pennsylvania where he received his MD. At the university of Pennsylvania, he met Ezra Pound, who would soon become his friend and have a major influence on his writing. He wrote his poetry based off observations he would see in his everyday life. He was a physician practicing both pediatric and general medicine. A Lot of his work in the medical field plays a big role in his poetry. Williams continued to write poetry until a series of health issues hit him and he died on March 4th,

Saying “So much depends upon” in the poem really tells you to make up what depends on what, what is important, and what the meaning of each object in this poem is. This style of poetry really fits into the Modernism era and first person point of view. The poem is based off opinion and shows how the time period that he lived in really affected how he wrote his poetry. Another one of his poems, “This is just to say” is a poem written as a note on a refrigerator simply telling the other character that he has eaten a food that he/she was saving for breakfast and he is sorry. Williams leaves the modernist touch on this poem simply because it’s coming from the mind of the character and his view on the situation. This poem ended up becoming one of his other most famous poems as he once again uses modernism in