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I Wanted to Write a Poem: The Autobiography of the Works of a Poet
WCW, I Wanted to Write a Poem. Williams discusses the procedure of poetry.
Paperback
,
132 pages
Published
October 1st 1978
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
(first published 1958)
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Editor Edith Heal does a great job of capturing Williams' honest reflections of his entire body of work from the beginning of his career up to the time of the interviews. Williams is open and honest and consistent on his desire to capture the American Idiom in both prose and verse.
Even more insightful are the commentaries from Florence Herman Williams, aka Flossie, the poet's wife. An astute reader and honest voice, these interviews cement her role as the key collaborator behind all of Williams ...more
Even more insightful are the commentaries from Florence Herman Williams, aka Flossie, the poet's wife. An astute reader and honest voice, these interviews cement her role as the key collaborator behind all of Williams ...more
If you like to read about a famous poet musing on why he started to write, the various collections he's written, and his writing process, then this is the volume for you. It's a slim, one-afternoon read (my copy is from 1978 and is exactly 100 pages).
The anecdotes that WCW provided to Columbia grad student, Edith Heal, who spent summer afternoons in 1957 interviewing him and his wife are insightful and read like a prose time capsule. (Example: They even gave her a key to their home so that she ...more
The anecdotes that WCW provided to Columbia grad student, Edith Heal, who spent summer afternoons in 1957 interviewing him and his wife are insightful and read like a prose time capsule. (Example: They even gave her a key to their home so that she ...more
I'm no Williams fanatic, but some of his poems are fantastic, and he always seemed like a great person. Yet I was surprised at how enjoyable this book is. The whole book is a series of conversations between the author and a student of his, with the author's wife adding here and there. It's a friendly, engaging book, all about his experiences writing these books, his reactions to the work now, and his life at the time of writing. They go through each and every book he ever wrote, and try to talk
...more
Each breath:
I'm learning to inhale
And exhale
Without flaring thoughts,
Without jerking about
(impulsive response)
To complete the doing--
No anticipation
(crooked, nervous man)
But slowly
Watching
What I do
And
How I breathe--
Each breath. (4-1-08)
I'm learning to inhale
And exhale
Without flaring thoughts,
Without jerking about
(impulsive response)
To complete the doing--
No anticipation
(crooked, nervous man)
But slowly
Watching
What I do
And
How I breathe--
Each breath. (4-1-08)
This is a fantastic book for any creative type. W.C. Williams is funny, poignant and clever in this quasi-autobiography about the creation of a poem and his life as he has grown older.
this book, along with three or four others, helped be unleard everything i was taught in college workshops. why write nine lines if you can say it all perfectly in one?
“Free verse was not the answer. From the beginning I knew that the American language must shape the pattern; later I rejected the word language and spoke of the American idiom—this was a better word than language, less academic, more identified with speech” (65).
“Word of mouth language, not classical English” (75).
“We lack interchange of ideas in our country more than we lack foreign precept. Every effort should be made, we feel, to develop among our seriuos writers a sense of mutual contact fir ...more
“Word of mouth language, not classical English” (75).
“We lack interchange of ideas in our country more than we lack foreign precept. Every effort should be made, we feel, to develop among our seriuos writers a sense of mutual contact fir ...more
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William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine. Williams "worked harder at being a writer than he did at being a physician," wrote biographer Linda Wagner-Martin. During his long lifetime, Williams excelled both as a poet and a physician.
Although his primary occupation was as a doctor, Will ...more
More about William Carlos Williams...
Although his primary occupation was as a doctor, Will ...more
“You remember I had a strong inclination all my life to be a painter. Under different circumstances I would rather have been a painter than to bother with these god-damn words. I never actually thought of myself as a poet but I knew I had to be an artist in some way.”
—
6 likes
“I had sent [the magazine] a batch of poems which they turned down flat. I was furious. Floss [my wife] said, 'If I were the editor of that magazine *I* would turn down what *you* sent.' So *she* picked a batch and they accepted them *all*.”
—
2 likes
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Oct 19, 2014 11:44PM