1. William Carlos Williams
Page 665
2007 COS – 1a, 2
2010 COS – RL ; RL ; W ;W ;
L ; L ; L ; L
AHSGE – R.III.3; R.IV.2

2. William Carlos Williams
Williams created his own distinctive poetic style – objectivism.
Williams focused on the reality of individual life and its surroundings.
He deliberately wrote in a spare detached style about commonplace subjects.

3. Literary Terms Imagery -- language that appeals to the senses.
Most images create visual pictures, but they can also help us hear, feel, taste, or smell.
Personification – giving human characteristics to inhuman things

4. Quickwrite
List five common topics of poems.

5. “The Red Wheelbarrow” (pg. 667)
What words help create images in the poem?
Which word helps lift reality to a “higher level”?
Describe the scene created by the poem.

6. “The Great Figure” (p. 668) List five images from the poem.
What word in the poem is used to personify the fire truck?
Look at the painting on page 668. What elements of the painting correspond to images in the poem?

7. “This Is Just to Say” (p. 669)
List at least five images from the poem.
To which sense does the poem primarily appeal?
Whom do you think the poem is addressing?

8. Activity Writing – As Is (p. 670)
Write a brief imagist poem describing some subject from your everyday life. Use sensory images to convey the sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel of what you are describing. Try to capture your subject exactly as it is, without using it as a symbol or giving it any significance beyond what it simply is. Use Williams’s poems as a model for your poem.