The poetry of William Carlos Williams is presented and analyzed. His use of enjambment to surprise and transform is examined in order to highlight Williams's interest in depicting creative and cognitive processes. The Imagist qualities of much of Williams's poetry is considered alongside his engagement with modernist art--particularly the preoccupation of Duchamps and Cubist painters with the process of representing sensual perception. His free verse, which includes the innovative use of white space and carefully, visually balanced lines, establishes his position as one of the most visually-oriented poets in all of modernism.

Reading assignment:

William Carlos Williams: "Danse Russe," "Queen-Ann's-Lace," "The Great Figure," "Spring and All," "To Elsie," "The Red Wheelbarrow," "This is Just to Say," "Death," "The Yachts," "Burning the Christmas Greens," "From Paterson," "The Ivy Crown," "Asphodel," "That Greeny Flower"; Norton: Prologue to Kora in Hell (pp. 954-59)