Reading Spring and All was a particularly interesting experience for me because I had only ever been introduced to Williams in the context of an anthology, from which I was assigned two of his poems. The poems I read were, of course, "The Red Wheel Barrow" and the one about the "contagious hospital" which had actually been entitled "Spring and All" in that particular collection. I know we have talked about this in class, but it really surprised me to find out that this whole long piece was actually "Spring and All" and not just the short poem I had studied previously. And now that I know, I have a completely different perspective on Williams. I have to say that in that course that I took last year, I really struggled to find anything good to say about Williams, because I only had such a narrow sampling of his work and I couldn't understand a thing he was saying.
Now, however, I do have a much bigger appreciation for him. Having said that, I still think he's absolutely nuts, and I can't honestly say I understand much of what he's trying to get across, but nevertheless I enjoyed the process of reading his words and found several places that struck me. One of my favorite quotes is, "Life's processes are very simple. One or two moves are made and that is the end. The rest is repetitious" (203). As I was working through this dense text I would occasionally come to a line that actually completely made sense to me, that stood out as plainly and simply true. This is one of those quotes. For all of the rambling that Williams does, I feel like he also manages to truly say some incredible things about writing, about art, and more generally about life and human nature. For him to say, for example, such a blunt thing about life is rather bold, but he's right. We, as humans, typically only ever do a handful of unique and profound things, and most of the rest of our lives are spent repeating our own acts and the acts of others. That, to me, is a pretty powerful thought.
One part that I really wish I understood better is the section where Williams talks about Shakespeare. Many of us, as English majors, have had an enormous amount of exposure to Shakespeare and so naturally I was intrigued to read what Williams had to say about one of the most famous writers of all time. Of Shakespeare he writes, "He holds no mirror up to nature but with his imagination rivals nature's composition with his own" (208). This seems to be a compliment but throughout this section he criticizes Shakespeare for perpetuating the copyist tendency. Honestly, I just can't fully wrap my head around what he is really saying about him.
All in all, I feel like I have gained a much better feel for Williams style and general beliefs. I appreciate his passion for original art, for art that isn't rooted in someone else's art. I think Spring and All is a great example of what he is preaching if for no other reason than it completely toys with the reader's mind. It is a challenging read that catches you off guard and forces you to throw away your preconceived notions of literature. In order to get anything out of this piece, I really had to challenge myself to forget about rules and just take in whatever ideas I could. That, to me, proves that Williams accomplished what he wanted to.
I completely understand where you are coming from, my first read through William’s work was filled with confusion. Bits and pieces of what he said made sense but a great deal of it seemed to go over my head. I did have an appreciation for his moments of simplicity, where it was clear to see his passion for writing, art and imagination in general. William’s admits to his faults, his tendency to lean on older styles that are wordy, and repetitive. However, within his rants he made solid points that had significant meaning, showing deep thought as well as challenging his reader to think. This I thought was one of the greatest qualities of his writing, which I also so as an accomplishment on his part.
ReplyDeleteAs far as William’s opinion of Shakespeare goes, I feel like he was on the fence for the same reasons his own writing seemed to bounce back and forth between traditional and experimental. He had appreciation each, but saw faults in each as well. It seems that Williams recognized the great work that Shakespeare did, but he was not blinded but Shakespeare’s popularity, but looked at it objectively and saw some qualities that bothered him.
Overall I found William’s work enjoyable, more challenging that I had imagined but well worth it.
-Emily
I, too, agree with what you said about the whole process of reading “Spring and All.” I had never gotten the chance to read any of Williams’ works either in high school or in another college course, so I had no idea what I was about to begin when I started to read this. “Spring and All” took a lot more concentration and effort to try and understand the text than I ever imagined, but I too think it was all worth it in the end. He really did have a lot of interesting and thought-provoking things to say, and I love that you brought up the line about life’s processes. It really is true; one or two actions or events really can shape a person’s life, and the rest is something that somebody else has already experienced.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, Williams might have been trying to say the same thing about poetry at that part, comparing the creative process to the process of living (like he did for most of the reading, but I just realized the poignancy of this passage). Throughout “Spring and All” he tried to break apart from traditional poetry, and urge others to do so with him; it’s like the “one or two moves” in life can be seen as the decision to move away from traditional form and content, or to stay with mainstream style.