The Poetry of Contact: William Carlos Williams’ Quest for American Mode of Verse
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William Carlos Williams’ concept of the “contact” is pivotal in understanding his work and poetical theories. What Williams means by contact functions as an important question putting into consideration the distinct historical and cultural identity of the period. For Symbolist poets the things of this world become symbols through which they strive to express abstract ideas above words. But for Williams Symbolist poetic tropes such as simile and metaphor stick to the associational or sentimental value and only blur the uniqueness and the individuality of things. He objects to the way that the trope of similarity deprives language of particularity and presence. Instead, Williams emphasizes the Precisionist and Objectivist language that does not describe or classify the meanings of words. Williams proposes that if there is to be artist’s own presence in his poetry, it must be impersonal and objective. And he compels his readers to focus on the vivid gestalt of “things” he presents in his poems. Williams’ poetical theory is not simply distinguishable from that of Symbolist poetry; but his Precisionist Objectivism serves as a stepping stone to his vision of both American identity and modernist culture. His awareness of American locality leads to his discovery that the American voice must be the foundation of American verse. For him a true American voice reflects “presence” and “particularity” that characterize the immediate cultural and historical ground on which the American stands. Williams’ poetry becomes a microcosm of his culture and society in which he captures and names an identifiable relation with the moment and place where he exists. Preferring to let the actual words that he finds in his immediate environment speak for themselves, Williams only shows by silently pointing in order to present the topography of his time. In Williams’ poetry every object has not simply its own locality but names the unique and particular historical context in which it is situated.
Abstract
William Carlos Williams’ concept of the “contact” is pivotal in understanding his work and poetical theories. What Williams means by contact functions as an important question putting into consideration the distinct historical and cultural identity of the period. For Symbolist poets the things of this world become symbols through which they strive to express abstract ideas above words. But for Williams Symbolist poetic tropes such as simile and metaphor stick to the associational or sentimental value and only blur the uniqueness and the individuality of things. He objects to the way that the trope of similarity deprives language of particularity and presence. Instead, Williams emphasizes the Precisionist and Objectivist language that does not describe or classify the meanings of words. Williams proposes that if there is to be artist’s own presence in his poetry, it must be impersonal and objective. And he compels his readers to focus on the vivid gestalt of “things” he presents in his poems. Williams’ poetical theory is not simply distinguishable from that of Symbolist poetry; but his Precisionist Objectivism serves as a stepping stone to his vision of both American identity and modernist culture. His awareness of American locality leads to his discovery that the American voice must be the foundation of American verse. For him a true American voice reflects “presence” and “particularity” that characterize the immediate cultural and historical ground on which the American stands. Williams’ poetry becomes a microcosm of his culture and society in which he captures and names an identifiable relation with the moment and place where he exists. Preferring to let the actual words that he finds in his immediate environment speak for themselves, Williams only shows by silently pointing in order to present the topography of his time. In Williams’ poetry every object has not simply its own locality but names the unique and particular historical context in which it is situated.
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