William Carlos Williams’ poem “The
Great Figure” is awesome. I love it when poets are able to create a large
picture with just a few words. With very little description, I am able to be
transported back to a time when I was smaller, hearing a fire engine roar down
the road, I ran outside just to see it. Though descriptions are few, I can
still place the picture of this fire truck with the large number 5 on the side
of it screaming past me. I can describe it from the color scheme to the
stainless steel gauges that display the water pressure.
This
is what poetry should do; it should tap into your emotional subconscious and
allow you to be taken to a moment of your life to which you can relate to the
poem. With minimal description, yet using just enough description to get the
picture into the imagination of the reader, Williams successfully takes his
readers back to childhood with this short, yet image filled poem.
Diane
Di Prima’s poem “The Window” takes an opposite approach than Williams does in “The
Great Figure.” Prima, for the most part, describes the window without actually
using descriptions of the window. In this case, Di Prima gives the reader an
image of the surroundings and through some metaphor, what the window is for. I
also enjoy this type of imagery in a poem because it allows you to let your
imagination control what you see. Sometime leaving room for interpretation of
imagery is a good thing, it creates a personal feel for the poem that most
probably will not share.
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