Luis Rivera & Brittney Biggs Thesis: William Carlos Williams uses a variety of literary devices to represent the difficulties of writing poetry that a reader will be able to understand.

Objects are upside down because they are reflected on water On a wet pavement, the white sky recedes mottled black by the inverted pillars of the red elms (1-3) And brown smoke Is driven down, running like Water over the roof of the bridge- (6-8) Readers need to understand - Shall the philosophers capture it?- (11) Reader – other half The poet relies on the reader to interpret the poem the way it’s meant to be

Point of View: 3 rd person Mood: Lonely/Empty Bridge-keepers Cubicle No mentioning of human figure Announced by the silence of a white bush in flower, close under the bridge (13-16) Repetition: Down 2x (7, 12) Water 3x (8, 13, 20)

“On a wet pavement, the white sky recedes” (1) “Running like water over the roof of the bridge keeper’s cubicle” (7-9) “The shad ascend midway between the surface and the mud” (16-17) “Water headed, unrelenting, upstream.”(20)

Colors “the white sky recedes” (1) “mottled black” “pillars of the red elms” “And brown smoke is driven down” “announced by the silence of a white bush in flower” “red-finned in the dark”

Personification “that lift the tangled net of their desires” (4-5) “and you can see their bodies” (18) Simile “the fight as to the nature of poetry” (10) Metaphor “And brown smoke is driven down, running like water” (6-8)

Interjection “-Shall the philosophers capture it?-” (11) Constant use of water “On a wet pavement” (1) “tangled net of their desires hard into the falling rain” (5-6) “running like water” (7-8) “casting an eye down into the water” (12-13) “water headed, unrelenting, upstream.” (20)

Assonance And brown smoke is driven down, running like water over the roof of the bridge- keeper’s cubicle. And, as usual, the fight as to the nature of poetry… (6-10)

Similar Poems The Widow’s Lament in Springtime Spring and All The Mind Hesitant

The literary devices found throughout the poem help describe the difficulties of producing poetry a reader will understand.