Филологические науки/ 2. Риторика и стилистика.

Волкова Е. В.

Санкт-Петербургский Гуманитарный университет профсоюзов, Россия

On “Young Woman at a Window” by William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with Imagism. His poem “Young Woman at a Window” is the one of great interest as there were two versions of the poem published at different time and one of them is considered to me more imagist than the other. In this paper we will close read the two versions of the poem trying to analyze them and decide which version is more imagist and why.

Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. In their poetry Imagists followed the manifesto which was structured by Amy Lowell. The manifesto says:

1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.

2. To create new rhythms -as the expression of new moods -- and not to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for a principle of liberty. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free-verse than in conventional forms. In poetry a new cadence means a new idea.

3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art to write badly of aeroplanes and automobiles, nor is it necessarily bad art to write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic value of modem life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so uninspiring nor so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 19 11.

4. To present an image (hence the name: "Imagist"). We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real difficulties of his art.

5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.

6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of poetry.

We will analyze whether the ideas of this manifesto are present in any of the poem’s versions.

Williams, “Young Woman at a Window” (version 1)

While she sits

there

with tears on

her cheek

her cheek on

her hand

this little child

who robs her

knows nothing of

his theft

but rubs his

nose

Williams, “Young Woman at a Window” (version 2)

She sits with

tears on

her cheek

her cheek on

her hand

the child

in her lap

his nose

pressed

to the glass

Analyzing these versions, the most interesting question to answer is which poem was written first. The answer could explain a lot of things: the poet’s intention, the situation he described, the form he used… We know that the second poem is the published one. It looks like a base for the first version. And this is because it’s more imagist. The second poem is more exact, and the first one looks like its extension, a developed version.

While reading the second poem you can see an exact image of a young woman with a child in her lap with his nose pressed to the glass (window). Some researchers compare this image with the image of Madonna. The poetry is clear enough but at the same time it makes your imagination work. The first poem doesn’t give you as clear image as the second one. You don’t know where the child is, you cannot see the image described by the poet, you can only guess and make a lot of different images. Reading both poems you can see that the child isn’t actually robbing, he might be stealing something abstract – like the woman’s youth, for instance (as she’s going to devote most of her time to him while being young). You cannot be sure what the poet means, but we don’t think that here the author opposes the Imagist Manifesto which says that they have to produce a poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite. “This does not refer to subject but to the rendering of subject”. Good poetry is never totally clear. Good literature is never totally clear. Otherwise they would never be good. You can always find something new inside, often the ideas about which the authors had never even thought.

There is one more point of the Imagist Manifesto that is followed in the second poem and not followed in the first one. Thus, the idea of employing the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word, is not provided in the first poem. Such words as While or there in the beginning of the poem can be described as merely decorative as they don’t bring anything to the poem’s message.

At the same time, both poems are written in vers libre (“To create new rhythms -as the expression of new moods”), and the choice of subject was absolute free. In both poems the language of common speech is used (we remember that it means “a diction which carefully excludes inversions, and the cliches of the old poetic jargon”). And it is also important to mention the presence of concentration in both poems as “To remain concentrated on the subject, and to know when to stop, are two cardinal rules in the writing of poetry”.

It may prove that even if the first poem was written later and was not so imagist, Imaginists influenced the poet strongly enough for him to follow some of their rules in his later poetry.

References:

1. Lowell, A. Tendencies in Modern American Poetry. New York: Macmillan Company, 1917. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/amylowell/imagism.htm (Retrieved October, 8, 2013).

2. Williams, W.C. The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams Volume 1 1909-1939. Ed. A. Walton Litz and Ed. Christopher MacGowan. New York: New Directions Books, 1986.