William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Willliams William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, to William George Williams and Helene Raquel Williams in 1883. His father was from Britain and his mother was born in Puerto Rico, but is of Basque and French descent. After living in a household that spoke French, Spanish, and British English, William, at the age of nineteen went to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. There he met and made friendships with some of the very best poets: Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, and Hilda Doolittle. He later did an internship in New York and then he went to the University of Leipzig in Germany to study pediatrics. Finally in 1912 William went back to Rutherford to set up his own private practice and marry Florence Hermann.

Williams, an American poet, changed twentieth century poetry. Instead of having a complex way of writing, Williams used simple and direct language to get his ideas on paper.

William Burroughs family plot

[New York City Mayor William J.] Gaynor reviewing ...

Williams [and] Young Britt (LOC)

He wanted to write poetry that people could understand. William's had very humanistic views. He believed that people should respect themselves and others, love those you can, and help make the world a better place. These ideas come across in many of his poems.

Williams's simple and direct way of writing started a new direction for poetry. With this new poetry developing, Williams had some ideas about how it should be. He had four traits that he thought should be emphasized in poetry. The first was poets should use simple subjects and themes found in everyday life. The readers must be able to relate to and respond to what the poet is writing about. The second idea Williams had was the poet should write about real events or objects in a language that all people could understand. This was Williams's language and...