1. Spring And All By William Carlos Williams
Read poem then have a classmate reread the poem *chosen beforehand*
Thesis: William Carlos Williams contrasts the winter and springtime imagery with the cycle of life; birth (springtime) and death (wintertime).

2. Interpretation First sentence Second and third stanza
“contagious hospital”
Home life: Doctor at hospital
Second and third stanza
Very bleak and negative
“patches” and “the scattering”
Things are unorganized in winter
“Lifeless in appearance”
You cannot see spring enter
“sluggish dazed”
Spring slowly makes its presence
Spring slowly makes its presence but when it is here is it very obvious

3. Interpretation (cont.)
Fifth and sixth stanza
“new world naked”
Could be referring to something beyond the real world
Could be referring to the beginning of spring
Could be referring to new plants emerging from the ground
“one by one objects are defined”
Everything becomes more clear and less boring at the beginning of spring
Seventh Stanza
“stark dignity”
Highly respected
“Rooted, they grip down and begin to awaken”
Referring to plants/flowers
Could also be referring to a newborn child
Newborn child as they grow through infantry to childhood and begin to “grip” the ground crawling and then standup and begin walking

4. Interpretation (cont.)
Overall interpretation
The poem is about the transition from winter to spring
This concept can be connected to “all” things
Winter being death and spring being the beginning of life
“all” is quoted from the title

5. Sense Written from the point of view of the writer
Third Person
Mood/Tone: depressed then changes to enthusiastic
“…sluggish dazed spring approaches-”
Diction
“Contagious” and “Hospital” & “standing” and “fallen”
Contradictions
“The scattering of tall trees”
Could be fallen or standing
Themes:
Nature
Death vs. life
You normally do not want a contagious person in a hospital
Nature = spring/winter

6. Sense Diction/imagery/image patterns: Repetition: Tone: changes
Use of color: “blue” “brown” “reddish” “purplish”
Plants: “weeds” “leafs” “leafless vines” ”grass” “rooted” “wildcarrot” “trees”
Repetition:
“cold” repeated 3x
“standing” repeated 2x
“wind” repeated 2x
“one” repeated 2x
“cold wind” repeated 3x
Tone: changes
The repetition of the word one is not significant because it is repeated within the phrase one by one meaning things are happening one at a time
Thus this means that the emergence of spring happens very very slowly and every little change can be noticed

7. Purpose and Effect
Sudden change in mood is to show how mood can change quickly
Mood changes from depressing at first to joyful toward the end
Color words are used to emphasize how lack of color can make things look “lifeless”
Words are repeated to help incorporate the feeling of the winter-to-spring change
Humans mood can change quickly during the day.

8. Senses Wintertime imagery “broad, muddy fields” “dried weeds”
“cold wind”
“forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines”
Symbolizes how everything is dead in the winter
End of winter time when the snow is melting and the air is warming up – not in the middle of winter when everything is frozen solid

9. Senses Springtime imagery Birth Color imagery “grass”
“rooted they grip down and begin to awaken”
Birth
“enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all”
“cold, familiar wind”
Color imagery
Use of color: “blue” “brown” “reddish” “purplish”
“-ish” = things are uncertain in winter

10. Why these image patterns?
Contrast the bleak winter with the joyful springtime
Comparing the emergence of springtime with the birth of a newborn
Allows the reader to make connections easier

11. Style Metaphor/personification Juxtaposition
“they enter the new world naked, cold”
New plants are being compared to the birth of a new child
“the profound change has come upon them:”
Could be referring to a newborn child or new plants
Juxtaposition
Springtime - Wintertime
Children can grip down to the ground and begin crawling, then walking just as plants start off as a seed, then create roots, then a stem and then flower
Purpose: continues to emphasize how joyful the change from winter to spirngcan be; just as joyful as

12. Structure
Enjambment
set certain lines apart from each other
“patches of standing water the scattering of trees”
… 6 line stanza  2 line stanza  5 line stanza …
Williams does not break apart the first stanza
First sentence is about commuting to work
Second half is describing the scenery
Purpose: to provide high contrast between spring and winter
He could have driven, ridden a bike, flown, walked, or taken a blimp to work that day

13. Structure End stopped Poem is lacking punctuation throughout
Some lines ended with hyphens when there is a significant change in the story
When spring “approaches”
Poem is lacking punctuation throughout
Ending
Discussion Question: How does using no punctuation for the last line cause the poem to end ambiguously? (What does it make the reader think about? What does it mean?)
The ending of all places in a poem is where you would expect the sentence to end
Question can be discussed with group,
No ending punctuation for the last line could mean that WCW is connecting this poem to the afterlife
When a human dies, some believe that they continue to live in the afterlife

14. Sound Rhythm Rhyme Repetition Lines 2,3 – 7,8 – 9,11 – 10,12 ect.
“reddish”, “purplish”
“leafless”, “lifeless”
Rhyming to show how winter lacks emotion and is very uncertain
Repetition
“One by one”
Similar line lengths create a rhythm while reading
Rhythm helps the reader know when there is a drastic change in the poem; similar to tone/mood/

15. Other Works By WCW Most of his poems incorporate imagery
Mostly springtime imagery
Incorporates nature/outdoors into his poems
The widow’s lament in Springtime
The Bitter World of Spring

16. Do this, or else
On the packet or separate sheet of paper (if you have the book), give each stanza of Spring and All an emotion. Do this quickly.
Do this as a group and discuss it
Here’s some ideas to get you started:
Anger
Fear
Disgust
Calm/Contempt
Joyful/Happy
Sadness
Surprised
Take about 4 or 5 minutes depending on the time to give their stanzas emotions

17. Do this, or else Why is WCW’s poetry so hard to find emotion?
Imagist – poet who uses common language to express very clear image throughout a poem
WCW does not want to look at the sentimental value of things
He would rather look at the image
Thus, his poems will lack emotion, or make it harder to find.