Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Poem of the Day: "Dedication for a Plot of Ground" by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for August 19, 2014 is "Dedication for a Plot of Ground" by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month.  The poem was taken from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume 1: 1909 - 1939.  The text of the poem, as well as an audio recording of it by the poet, may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174767.  A brief biography of Williams and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Dedication for a Plot of Ground" is an elegy to Emily Dickinson Wellcome, Williams' English maternal grandmother, a profound influence on Williams who lived with his family for a time http://archive.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/wcw.html.  In a fierce, Whitmanian style, the poem recounts the highlights of her hard life; parts are semi-autobiographical, revealing much about William Carlos' Spanish roots.

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