Tristan Gans of www.inquiriesjournal.com called William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" a 'minimal masterpiece' and that is a perfect description. "The Red Wheelbarrow" had only four two-line stanzas, yet it created a solid image. The visual aspect of the poem also created an image right on the paper. I thought that the line breaks made the poem feel a bit heavy to give an underlying importance of each stanza. Should the images given be viewed literally or are there many images that can be taken away from "The Red Wheelbarrow"? The shape that Williams created with the broken lines played a vital role in engaging the readers mind and creating an image. Why does the line stop stop here? Why is wheelbarrow separated? I asked countless questions, in the end, I came to the realization that without the dropped lines it would be taken as a very literal poem. Williams open the poem "so much depends, upon" without any context the reader is left wondering what so much depends upon. "A red wheel, barrow". My first read trough I was confused as to why he would separate wheelbarrow. I think the separation personalized the wheelbarrow, because there are some people that simply call it a 'barrow'. I suppose that the line helped the poem reach more people. Williams then brings it home with his last two stanzas, "glazed with rain, water" and "besides the white, chickens". From a literal view the reader know that the wheelbarrow is important to chickens but what is the wheelbarrows importance to the reader? When I first read it I took it very literally because since I've used a wheelbarrow maybe once or twice in my life, I couldn't find a deeper meaning for a wheelbarrow. Then I thought, what if someone grew up in a time/place where a wheelbarrow was very important to their livelihood or maybe someone grew up watching their family using a wheelbarrow during those rainy days and nights? Williams wrote "a red wheel, barrow" instead of 'the' red wheelbarrow, why? He leaves it open for interpretation, maybe the red wheelbarrow can represent an underlying theme of being strong no matter what storms we are being put through. I loved how this poem was able to give the reader a specific set of images while still being able to take on multiple meanings. What does The Red Wheelbarrow" mean to you?
4 Comments
I took the red wheelbarrow to represent a person with the rain representing their sweat from having to work hard. Everything we do relies on hard work and effort. Without hard work and determination, people would never advance.
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Hayley E.
9/15/2019 11:37:35 am
Jeremy, I liked how to started off this post with another source that relates back to The Red Wheelbarrow. You made a nice inference in your last few comments about the importance of the wheelbarrow and how it may not be important to you, but it has been important to someone or something. To me, the red wheelbarrow is a symbol of dependency. We, as humans, all have something that we depend on or maybe even have something or someone depend on us!
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Ariel Parker
9/15/2019 06:07:30 pm
I liked that you talked about imagery in this poem - for such a short poem, Williams certainly had a vivid picture he wanted to paint for us! The line "so much depends" gives us a clear clue that it's not meant to be vague, but to really think about the red wheel barrow's role.
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Madison
9/15/2019 09:04:27 pm
Loved reading this blog post. I actually did my blog post on the Red Wheelbarrow as well and I took the perspective of it being something the symbolized our country as a nation using using the colors red, white, and blue. This was super well written and I could tell you put much depth into it.
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AuthorHello, my name is Jeremy Chenault. I'm an English major at Wright State University, I love to stay active, write poetry and most importantly learn. A more in depth idea about me can be found here, A Little More. Categories |