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1 - Dr.Williams and Mr.Hyde

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Barry Ahearn
Affiliation:
Tulane University, Louisiana
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Summary

Williams's lyrics are frequently preoccupied with confinement. In the 1909 Poems, for example, “On a Proposed Trip South” expresses the poet's dissatisfaction with the season (winter) and his joy at the prospect of a trip to a warmer climate: “truth to tell I tremble with delight / At thought of such unheralded reprieve” (CP1, 22). Of course, the lyric poem has traditionally been useful for poets lamenting their particular circumstances and longing for a wider, happier venue, yet the variety and range of Williams's dissatisfactions are somewhat unusual. In the last of the 1909 Poems, “Hymn to Perfection,” he even invokes a new god to liberate him from imprisonment:

For thee, O Perfection, great ruler,

Chief God of all monarchs, I shatter

The stillness of heaven; awaken,

Like waves on an ocean which scatter

A widening tempest, the uproar.

And cry who will, “Pile the bare mountains,

All rock, in gigantic confusion!

Aye, let every desperate bellow

Of sea, earth and sky in collusion

From tripling trumpet be blasted

Upon the huge pillar! Profusion

Of space so engirds thee, as ever,

Thou wouldst hold undisrupted seclusion.”

But not I! One with man, yet immortal;

For me hast thou built no constriction.

This heart doth outvie the weak eagle.

Not sight so o'errides all restriction.

Then hail! thou great God, from my woodlands

I sing, and Thou calm'st my affliction!

Type
Chapter
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William Carlos Williams and Alterity
The Early Poetry
, pp. 10 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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  • Dr.Williams and Mr.Hyde
  • Barry Ahearn, Tulane University, Louisiana
  • Book: William Carlos Williams and Alterity
  • Online publication: 05 January 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895340.003
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  • Dr.Williams and Mr.Hyde
  • Barry Ahearn, Tulane University, Louisiana
  • Book: William Carlos Williams and Alterity
  • Online publication: 05 January 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895340.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Dr.Williams and Mr.Hyde
  • Barry Ahearn, Tulane University, Louisiana
  • Book: William Carlos Williams and Alterity
  • Online publication: 05 January 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895340.003
Available formats
×