William Carlos Williams 'Use Of Imagery In Red Wheelbarrow'

The poem, “Red Wheelbarrow” by Williams Carlos Williams is one short poem, but this poem packs a lot meaning considering the amount of words that the author uses. Williams use of imagery in this poem is very intriguing due to the fact of how short the poem, and he still was able to install a wonderful use of imagery. As stated in Modern American Poetry, “The opening lines set the tone for the rest of the poem (Modern American Poetry, n.d.).” Continuing on, the meaning behind the wheelbarrow comes to light during lines 3-4. As Williams states, “a red wheel, barrow (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 563).” Williams splits up the word wheelbarrow to break down the central image of the red wheelbarrow to very simple parts so that the reader can fully understand what the author is

Onward to lines 5 and 6 where Williams states, “glazed with rain, water (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 563).” This is in correlation with lines 3 and 4 when the wheelbarrow is introduced to the reader. The rain gives the wheelbarrow a shiny look due to cleansing the rain gave it. This is another great use of imagery by Williams, because once again it allows the reader to visualize what is happening within the poem, and it is easier to follow along, as well. The final lines, 7 and 8, the reader sees the final use of imagery when Williams is talking about the color of the chickens. Williams states, “beside the white, chickens (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 563).” This poem was not ordinary, however the ordinary red wheelbarrow was given an unique point of view by Williams. As stated in the Modern American Poetry article, “With careful word choice, attention to language, and unusual stanza breaks Williams has turned an ordinary sentence into poetry (Modern American Poetry, n.d.).” Williams selects colors to describe the different central images in his poem. He used the color “red” when describing the color of the wheelbarrow and he used the color white to describe the chickens in