Blueflags

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



I stopped the car
to let the children down
where the streets end
in the sun
at the marsh edge
and the reeds begin
and there are small houses
facing the reeds
and the blue mist in the distance
with grapevine trellises
with grape clusters
small as strawberries
on the vines
and ditches
running springwater
that continue the gutters
with willows over them.
The reeds begin
like water at a shore
their pointed petals waving
dark green and light.
But blueflags are blossoming
in the reeds
which the children pluck
chattering in the reeds
high over their heads
which they part
with bare arms to appear
with fists of flowers
till in the air
there comes the smell
of calmus
from wet, gummy stalks.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
93

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIGJKLGAJMFNOPOHQHRSTJUVGW
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 697
Words 126
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 33

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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