William Carlos Williams: May 19, 1955

Click here to listen to this audio file

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
Views
8387
Downloads
884
  • "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)

Related Items

Kay Boyle: April 1, 1964 Mark Linenthal: May 30, 1965 Kenneth Rexroth: July 13, 1955 George Oppen: February 21, 1968 Michael Hamburger: February 15, 1967 Louis Zukofsky: July 2, 1958 Kenneth Patchen: December 6, 1957 Yvor Winters: February 14, 1958 Stanley Kunitz: July 17, 1956 St. John the Baptist Preaching. Detail: Feet. Josephine Miles: 1954 Robert Creeley: July 16, 1959 Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove Church). Administration Building & Bell Tower. Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove Church). Bell Tower. Metrorail station. Interior with coffered ceiling. Metrorail station. Interior with escalator. Metrorail station. Interior with coffered ceiling & train. Louvre. Pyramid. Louis Zukofsky — USA: Poetry, NET Outtakes Series: March 16, 1966 Sotère Torregian and William Everson: December 15, 1976