The Uses of Poetry

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



I've fond anticipation of a day
O'erfilled with pure diversion presently,
For I must read a lady poesy
The while we glide by many a leafy bay,

Hid deep in rushes, where at random play
The glossy black winged May-flies, or whence flee
Hush-throated nestlings in alarm,
Whom we have idly frighted with our boat's long sway.

For, lest o'ersaddened by such woes as spring
To rural peace from our meek onward trend,
What else more fit? We'll draw the latch-string

And close the door of sense; then satiate wend,
On poesy's transforming giant wing,
To worlds afar whose fruits all anguish mend.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
118

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXA ABXA CDC DCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 593
Words 105
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 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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