Thursday, April 24, 2014

Image is Everything...Sometimes

            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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