William Carlos Williams: May 19, 1955

The Poetry Center presents William Carlos Williams reading and talking about his poetry.

Originally Recorded By
The Poetry Center
Location
San Francisco Museum of Art
Date
05/19/1955
Total Run Time
00:51:06
Rights
©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu
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  • "Spring and All " (00:05)
  • "The Pot of Flowers" (02:10)
  • Williams comments on how Imagism is used in his work (02:52)
  • "Rain" (04:02)
  • "The Botticellian Trees" (06:25)
  • Williams discusses the poetic rhythm that guided his early work (07:42)
  • "To a Mexican Pig-Bank" (08:54)
  • "To a Poor Old Woman" (10:17)
  • "The Catholic Bells" (11:05)
  • "A Poem for Norman Macleod" (13:55)
  • "Danse Russe" (15:40)
  • "The Late Singer" (17:08)
  • Williams discusses American poetic language in "The Late Singer" (17:49)
  • "At the Faucet of June" (18:56)
  • "The Avenue of Poplars" (20:11)
  • "The Sun" (21:21)
  • "A Sort of a Song" (22:47)
  • "The Dance" (23:23)
  • "The Gentle Rejoinder" (25:26)
  • "Seafarer" (26:22)
  • "May 1st Tomorrow" (28:09)
  • "A Unison" (29:39)
  • Williams discusses how Whitman broke free from English verse and iambic pentameter and how a new language is possible by measuring and dividing the line by way of "a variable foot" (32:46)
  • "The Descent" (36:20)
  • "To Daphne and Virginia" (38:10)
  • "The Orchestra" (43:37)
  • "I speak in figures, well enough..." excerpted from "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower, Book I" (47:20)

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