“News from poems”: the Significance of Small Things in the Poetry of William Carlos Williams

Abstract

One of the most prominent poets of the Imagist and Objectivist tradition, William Carlos Williams consistently attempted to present the thing itself' as accurately and vividly as possible. In his poetics, he tried to address the subject/object, imagination/reality dichotomies: the function of imagination is Not to tamper with reality but to successfully transform it into something – not necessarily sublime - different. And it is by letting imagination dance over a commonplace thing, he believed, that one may experience a new significance in the thing in particular and/or a fresh perception of life in general. The Present paper reviews Williams' poetics and reads in it on active, optimistic attitude to life: understanding his poetry demands readers' going through experiencing similar invocation of sensation and imagination, discovery and invention that the poet had gone through. The readers are invited to explore significance in every particular object and incident, which may render the world of objects we five in fresher; more alive, and more meaningful. in this age of media hegemony and digitized communication, the academic vision of Williams' Poetry has the potential to provide people space to explore the power of sensitivity and imagination.