William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1883. Williams fell in love with poetry when he entered high school, where he started to write poetry in his free time. By the end of high school, Williams decided to pursue a career as both a writer and a doctor. He received his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he befriended Erza Pound, who will become a big influence of Williams' writing. Pound helped Williams with the publication of his second collection of poem, The Tempest.
After college, Williams returned to his hometown, Rutherford, and setup his medical practice. In his spare time, Williams would write many things including: poems, novels, plays, and essays. He brought a typewriter to his office and wrote in between appointments. His patients were mostly blue-collar workers and their wives. About his patients he said, "I lived among these people. I knew them, and saw the essential qualities, the humor, the basic tragedy of their lives, and the importance of it.
Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, used ...
English: Circle of Bruegel the Elder " The Fall of...
Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Landscape with the Fall...Nobody was writing about them, anywhere, as they ought to be written about." This frequent interaction with everyday people may be the reason behind the style of Williams' poetry. His central topic revolves around everyday things such as a wheelbarrow, in Red Wheelbarrow, or plums, in This is Just to Say. Williams' daily interaction with everyday people has shaped his poetry into the writing of the common man, not some grandiose, highly eloquent writing of the lofty.
During his career as a doctor he gave birth to over two thousand babies, which may also be another factor in the style of his poetry. In many cases, such as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and Spring and all, Williams talks about life and starting anew. In Spring and all Williams writes, "But...