The Adoration Of The Kings

William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)



From the Nativity
which I have already celebrated
the Babe in its Mother's arms

the Wise Men in their stolen
splendor
and Joseph and the soldiery

attendant
with their incredulous faces
make a scene copied we'll say

from the Italian masters
but with a difference
the mastery

of the painting
and the mind the resourceful mind
that governed the whole

the alert mind dissatisfied with
what it is asked to
and cannot do

accepted the story and painted
it in the brilliant
colors of the chronicler

the downcast eyes of the Virgin
as a work of art
for profound worship

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
95

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABX XCC DXX XXA XXX XEE BDC XXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 545
Words 102
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was a Latino-American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. more…

All William Carlos Williams poems | William Carlos Williams Books

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