Name: ______________________ Block:
Imagist Poetry
A short poem may frequently only provide the reader with a snapshot, or a collection of a few snapshots - a few frames of a movie, but with a lot more left to the imagination. Using well-chosen words, and selecting images that evoke a personal response create these images. These words and images may be simple; poetry (and life) doesn't have to be complicated to be worthwhile.
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963) is the most famous imagist poet. He lived in Patterson, New Jersey. He is known for his keen ability to see beauty in the mundane and express powerful images using simple, accessible language. His poems often are light-hearted and fun. The poems of William Carlos Williams are like a snapshot. More concerned with an image than a story, they allow the reader to develop a storyline based on a personal response to the words. A poem does not have to be complex to be "good." Simple language and description of ordinary objects are fine fodder for poetry. Our own lives are filled with poetic moments, many of them funny and light-hearted, simple and small. The ability to see this is what brings out the poet in all of us. Form as well as words can affect the overall impact of a poem.
The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams
so much depends Notes & Reactions:
upon
a red wheel
Barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
The Toaster
By William Jay Smith
A silver-scaled dragon with jaws flaming red
Sits at my elbow and toasts my bread.
I hand him fat slices, and then, one by one,
He hands them back when he sees they are done.
Reactions:
Apartment House
By Gerald Raftery
A filing cabinet of human lives
Where people swarm like bees in tunneled hives,
Each to his own cell in the covered comb,
Identical and cramped -- we call it home.
Reactions:
Steps to Compose an Imagist Poem
1) You are going to describe something metaphorically without naming the object explicitly. You title may tell the object.
2) Pick an everyday object from around the house, such as a dryer or iron. Bring it to class tomorrow, if possible.
3) Next, you will list some things that it reminds you of or that it could be like.
4) Now all you have to do is write four lines to describe your object.
5) Your lines could rhyme AA BB just as the last two above, or your poem might rhyme only two lines or perhaps not rhyme at all, but, instead become a visual poem similar to the poems of William Carlos Williams.
6) The final version of your poem, typed, is DUE Monday, 12/10.