Thursday, August 7, 2014

Poem of the Day: "The Great Figure" by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for August 7, 2014 is "The Great Figure" (1962) by William Carlos Williams, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/great-figure.  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.

It is interesting that "The Great Figure," which was copyrighted a year before William's death, harkens back to his Imagist days of half a century earlier.  The signature variable foot of his post-Imagist days is not seen here.  The poet may have been being playful with the title which evokes a great man or curvy woman instead of the crisp image of a fire engine racing through the rain.

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