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  #11  
Unread 02-18-2015, 04:11 AM
Ed Shacklee's Avatar
Ed Shacklee Ed Shacklee is offline
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I had thought the stanzas looked like chickens with their necks outstretched, fleeing a fox. But this is what happens with the great artists: their work operates on multiple levels.

Best,

Ed
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  #12  
Unread 02-18-2015, 05:25 AM
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Oh, yes! That would explain why they're all headed in the same direction.
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  #13  
Unread 02-18-2015, 07:49 AM
Gregory Dowling Gregory Dowling is offline
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It would be nice to imagine how Stevens would have done it. And how Williams would have handled "The Emperor of Ice Cream"...
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  #14  
Unread 02-18-2015, 09:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ross hamilton hill View Post
Not sure how I feel about it, grows on you in an annoying way.
Yes. Appreciation & sometimes annoyance.

Then there's This is Just to Say. I think more than one poet has replied to the poem. Erica-Lynn Gambino here, just below the Williams's original, does a good job.

— Woody

Last edited by Woody Long; 02-18-2015 at 11:08 AM. Reason: comma
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  #15  
Unread 02-18-2015, 11:37 AM
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Default Munching

W C Williams

To a Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her


To a Poor Old Yeoman

sucking a thumb in
the field a filthy one
of them in his mouth

It tastes foul to him
It tastes foul
to him. It tastes
foul to him

You can see it by
the way he gives himself
to the filthy nail
still dark with dirt

Uncomforted
a cursing of raw thumbs
seeming to fill the field
It tastes foul to him

After WC Williams
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  #16  
Unread 02-18-2015, 12:01 PM
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Ralph —

I laughed several times as I got to the end of Yeoman....

Yes! We get the point Bill Williams. Now go away!

But then I repent & go back for more.

— Woody
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  #17  
Unread 02-18-2015, 12:16 PM
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AZ:

Along with "Prufrock", "Tyger", and "Sonnet (1979)", this poem/question often comes up in rudimentary scansion lessons, especially in defining meter as a quantification (in this case, of stresses). As presented, it is accentual heterometer: two accented syllables in the odd numbered lines, one in the even numbered ones. Remove (i.e. "decurginate") the intraphrasal linebreaks in each stanza and you have simple accentual trimeter.

HTH
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  #18  
Unread 02-18-2015, 01:13 PM
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You should go back for more, Woody.
I would think, as a poet, Williams has much to teach you.

Nemo
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  #19  
Unread 02-18-2015, 03:15 PM
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There's a wonderful parody of this poem, and I only with I could remember the author's name.

So much depends upon
A yellow goldfish

Washed down with
Bowl water

Inside the white
Kitten
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  #20  
Unread 02-18-2015, 03:43 PM
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Gail,

The Yellow Goldfish

so much depends
upon

a yellow gold
fish

washed down with bowl
water

inside the white
kitten

Henry Beard 1945
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