The first time a person reads “The Red Wheelbarrow” they feel weight behind the words. The poem is only one sentence, but it holds so much meaning that you can feel it in between the lines. It is so dense that reading it just once only begins to open the intricate symbols between the first word and the last. In only four short lines Williams draws a powerful image of man’s infinite connections with nature through a system of allegorical symbols and changes in point of view.
Williams is an imagistic poet. Imagistic poets carefully chose their words to draw a greater image for the reader. In “The Red Wheelbarrow” he gives us three separate images: the red wheelbarrow, the rain water, and the white chickens.
The three images that Williams gives the reader are important to consider as a whole because they draw the scene. Williams who liked to write about small town life was writing about a farm. The wheelbarrow is the first and most important piece of
Another consideration is that the poem is four lines long. The number four is an allusion to the four seasons another cycle of life.
The writer’s opening line serves the purpose of distinguishing the red wheelbarrow as part of a greater system. The wheelbarrow serves a primary function in the system of farming by allowing the farmer to move earth from one place to another. This is necessary for cultivating land and certainly makes agriculture possible. The fact that the wheelbarrow is red is suggestive of a more feminine symbol of the maturation cycle another cycle of life (Youngberg 153).
It is obvious that Williams took careful consideration when choosing the images in his poem. Together they form an allegory of the infinite cycle of life. However the symbols alone do not express the full weight of the poem. Williams also placed considerable emphasis on the reader’s point of view.
The third image that Williams paints is the white chickens. The chickens tie everything
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