The Red Wheelbarrow By Group Five

Steps: 1 Reading the poem 2 Introducing &Analyzing 3 Extra& Conclusion

Reading the Poem 1 By 车宇航

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. The Red Wheelbarrow

2 Introducing & Analyzing By 刘松、艾特南、荆俊博

Introducing the poet: William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Williams "worked harder at being a writer than he did at being a physician"; but during his long lifetime, Williams excelled at both. William Carlos Williams Passport photograph 1921

His early years: Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey to an English father and a Puerto Rican mother. He received his primary and secondary education in Rutherford until 1897, when he was sent for two years to a school near Geneva and to the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. He attended the Horace Mann High School upon his return to New York City and after having passed a special examination, he was admitted in 1902 to the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania

Although his primary occupation was as a doctor, Williams had a full literary career. His work consists of short stories, poems, plays, novels, critical essays, an autobiography, translations and correspondence. He wrote at night and spent weekends in New York City with friends—writers and artists like the avant-garde painters Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia and the poets Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore. He became involved in the Imagist movement but soon he began to develop opinions that differed from those of his poetic peers, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Later in his life, Williams toured the United States giving poetry readings and lectures

The last years After Williams suffered a heart attack in 1948, his health began to decline, and after 1949 a series of strokes followed. He also underwent treatment for clinical depression in a psychiatric hospital during 1953.Williams died on March 4, 1963 at the age of seventy-nine at his home in Rutherford.

Analysis

Structure Stress and rhythm analysis LineStressPatternSyllables 1So much depends onMMuM4 2UponuM2 3A red wheeluM S3 4BarrowMu2 5Glazed with rainMu S3 6WaterMu2 7Beside the whiteuMuS4 8ChickensSu2 key: u: unstressed syllable S: stressed syllable M: medium stressed syllable

The Read Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams So much depends Upon A red wheel Barrow Glazed with rain Water Beside the white Chickens

This poem is the representative expression of Williams’ poetic theory about “No ideas but in things!” Commentary

The Read Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams So much depends Upon A red wheel Barrow Glazed with rain Water Beside the white Chickens

Yet, when a picture is composed of words, it is presented as if seeing a film, one frame after another, with few differences to each but changes distinguish themselves gradually from solemnity to liveliness. Williams, as one of the representative imagist poets, through very fresh image, conveys to the reader imagist ideas in “things.”

3 Extra & Conclusion By 辛艾璐、车宇航

It is said that this poem was written according to the Williams’ experience. One day, he was standing by a unconscious girl who was dying. And then,he looked out the window. At that time,he saw a red wheelbarrow in the garden. He wrote the poem when he came back home.

This is a famous work of imagist. W. C. Williams got a great reputation according to this poem. Williams really hoped that his poem would be accepted by most person. So his poem was simple, clear and objective. His poems deeply influenced the works of Postmodern American Poetry.

This is the shortest poem in part I, and is also the simplest one (at least it appears to be the simplest). But we believe that few of us can understand the poem after we read it for the first time. This is also our feelings when we do the group work.

After the analyzing part, I believe that everybody can easily understand the poem, it’s really not a complicated one. We know that the poem was written when Williams was attending the patients house, and we know what it describes. Now I want to say that Interpretation of "The Red Wheelbarrow" must rely heavily on its visual imagery.

So let’s close our eyes and imagine the scene while listening to it once again: so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

? Everybody may see different images. Just try to get in it and enjoy the beauty of the poem!

Thank you! Hope you have enjoyed