The American Idiom

Among the aspects of William Carlos Williams' life which I won't be able to discuss in my paper due to length constraints is his desire to capture the American idiom in metrical form. He called this the "variable foot," an irregular response to the strict regularities of English verse. Rather than rigid, he believed that meter should be flexible, yet still mimic the patterns of speech, particularly American speech.

While his later years consisted of experimenting with this concept, he never managed to perfect it. He claimed that even the poems that came close were "too regular." The variable foot is not a precise metrical format, and by definition it must vary with the tone and weight of the poem. Even if he had succeeded once, that would be no guarantee of continued success, because unlike iambic pentameter or hexameter or any other measured meter, it cannot be universally defined and applied.

In concept, a meter that mimics speech patterns, remains flexible but rhythmic, and does all the other things Williams sought in the variable foot would be ideal for poets everywhere. In practice, it is no better than the metrical patterns Williams scorned - merely different.

The American idiom is a matter related to the variable foot, but it is not the same thing. Williams believed that all Americans shared some characteristic speech patterns. His work typically focused on the local rather than the universal, but the American character and the American voice were ever-present themes in his poems and novels alike.

That the vast diversity of the United States America - a country larger than the European continent, and with as many subcultures - has produced one unified voice seems unrealistic and, perhaps, optimistic. Journeying across state lines reveals new dialects and customs. Even schools within the same state develop their own vocabulary of slang terminology. Maybe, with more time, Williams could have distilled the differences and found the common American voice. Maybe he could have helped a disjointed chorus harmonize.

Poem (As the cat)

As the cat
climbed over
the top of

the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot

carefully
then the hind
stepped down
into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot

William Carlos Williams mirrors the cat's careful, soft-footed motions in the way it steps from one word to the next, broken but not without form or rhythm. He forces you to pause and consider each word as the cat contemplates its next motion. The syllables fall separately rather than sliding into one another, yet feel more delicate than awkward. Without explicit description, choosing certain words and images but excluding others, he conveys the stillness, silence, and fluidity of a cat in motion.

Again, brief research revealed some interesting interpretations, though few with which I agree. Perhaps in poetry it is safest to see the literal as only a facade, a doorway leading to a far deeper meaning, message, or observation abut humanity. This is the way one online contributor thought, seeing this poem as a metaphor for a young pregnant woman contemplating an abortion, and another who was reminded of Norse legends of  the Midgard Serpent and the apocalypse. Perhaps their interpretations reveal more about the reader than they do about the poem, though that can be said about any way of thinking.

As a cat owner, I do not see an enormous serpent or a potential mother. I picture my own cat, climbing over the things she shouldn't with an oddly careless carefulness. The step into the flowerpot at the end seems unusual, and it inspired many of the symbolic interpretations I read, but I first see it as a wonderfully cattish thing to do. It is a careful, delicate action, as is the rest of the poem, but into a rather indelicate location. Cats see everything as a place to lay, sleep, sit, and step. The concept of a flowerpot being for stepping around, rather than in or on, is alien to them, and within a handful of lines Williams captures that peculiar, particular freedom.

I find it more likely that Williams wrote this poem after watching a cat do this very action, perhaps in his own home or someone else's, than that he

This Is Just to Say

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

"This Is Just To Say" was the first poem I remember reading by William Carlos Williams, and it stuck in my mind as an amusingly unapologetic apology. Brief research into the poem's critical analysis, however, goes far beyond the relatively simple literal meaning, into a realm of forbidden fruit, sexual desires, and Oedipal interpretations. While I could, at a stretch, fit those terms to the poem - "I learned things that you probably were saving for later; forgive me, they were very interesting things" perhaps, or "I stole fire from the gods which they were probably saving for themselves; forgive me, humanity is so warm now" maybe, or even "I have had sex with you when you were probably waiting for someone special; forgive me, I really enjoyed it" - my favorite reading takes its lesson from the title. This is just to say. This is not rife with symbolism. This is a note left on a kitchen counter, or stuck on the fridge, or on the lid of the ice box in which the plums used to sit. This is to you, my wife, my family. This is an apology, but you should know I'm not all that sorry, because what I stole was tasty and not so important that they can't be replaced. 

If the fruit were something more closely tied to the "forbidden fruit" myths, I might have been more inclined to lend credence to that interpretation. The plum itself has little symbolism associated with it, though the plum blossom seems more popular. 

If the poem were more specific in its allusions or target, I might accept the connections to Oedipus. As it is, I see no indication that the person to whom the poem is addressed is the speaker's mother, nor anything else that would connect the myth and the poem.

If the language sounded more consistently sensual, I might agree that sex is involved. The only two words with any hint of double entendre, however, are "delicious" and "sweet," which, in a more stable context, can certainly take a different tone than that regarding food. Alongside "icebox," "breakfast," and "cold," they remain domestic and homely. 

If William Carlos Williams were more inclined toward extended metaphors rather than the earnest representation of everyday life, from the death of a loved one to an empty icebox, I would be more inclined to scrape up the layered, subtle shifts of tone and simple, vivid imagery to dig for another meaning entirely rather than a new facet of meaning.

It is more than likely that there are essays or articles analyzing this twelve-line poem, showing how far beyond the literal it can go. All interpretations are, to someone, in some way correct. 

For this one, I just so happen to prefer very little interpretation at all.