The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 [Paperback]

William Carlos Williams (Author), Christopher MacGowan (Author), A. Walton Litz (Editor)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: September 17, 1991

Considered by many to be the most characteristically American of our twentieth-century poets, William Carlos Williams "wanted to write a poem / that you would understand / ,,,But you got to try hard—."

So that readers could more fully understand the extent of Williams' radical simplicity, all of his published poetry, excluding Paterson, was reissued in two definite volumes, of which this is the first.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Except for Paterson and Poems (1909), a volume that Williams himself rejected, this first volume of a projected two-volume set contains all the published poems written from 1909 to 1939, a year that Williams saw as a turning point leading to greater experimentation. Nearly 100 poems not found in Collected Earlier Poems or Collected Later Poems are included. Poems appear in chronological orderWilliams himself grouped poems thematically in the earlier collectionsand extensive annotations include early versions of poems modified later, significant textual variants, and background information. Highly recommended to scholars, this carefully edited volume will also be useful to the general reader. Walter Waring, Emeritus Prof., English Dept., Kalamazoo Coll., Mich.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

(ezra Pound)
4th Of July
Ad Infinitum
Adam
Advent Of Today
Africa
An After Song
The Agonized Spires
All The Fancy Things
And Thus With All Praise
Apology
Appeal
Approach Of Winter
April
Arrival
At Dawn
At Night
At The Ball Game
At The Bar
At The Faucet Of June
The Atlantic City Convention
The Attic Which Is Desire
Autumn
Aux Imagistes
The Avenue Of Poplars
Ballet
A Bastard Peace
Berket And The Stars
Between Walls
The Bird's Companion
The Bird's Companion
The Birds
Birds And Flowers
The Black Winds
Blizzard
Blueflags
The Botticellian Trees
Breakfast
Brilliant Sad Sun
The Bull
Butterandeggs
Canthara
The Catholic Bells
The Cats' Month
A Celebration
The Centenarian
Chicory And Daisies
Child And Vegetables
Chinese Nightingale
A Chinese Toy
Classic Scene
The Cod Head
The Cold Night
Complaint
Complete Destruction
The Composition
Con Brio
A Confidence
Conquest
The Conservation Of The Human Sub-species
Contemporania
A Coronal
The Crimson Cyclamen
Crude Lament
A Crystal Maze
Daisy
Danse Russe
The Dark Day
Dawn
Daybreak
The Dead Baby
Death
The Death Of Franco Of Cologne: His Prophecy Of Beethoven
The Death Of See
Death The Barber
Dedication For A Plot Of Ground
The Defective Record
The Delicacies
Della Primavera Transportata Al Morale: 1. 'april'
The Descent Of Winter: 1928
The Desolate Field
The Disputants
Divertimiento
Drink
The Drunkard
An Early Martyr
El Hombre
An Elegy For D. H. Lawrence
The Entity
Epigramme
Epitaph
Eve
The Eyeglasses
The Farmer
Fine Work With Pitch And Copper
Fire Spirit
First Praise
Fish
Flight To The City
The Flower
The Flowers Alone
Flowers By The Sea
Flowers By The Sea (first Version)
The Fool's Song
A Foot-note
For Viola: De Gustibus
Foreign
From The Birth Of Venus, Song
From A Book
Full Moon
Full Moon (first Version)
The Gayest Of Bright Flowers
Genesis
The Gentle Man
The Girl
Good Night
A Goodnight
Graph For Action
The Great Figure
Great Mullen
Grotesque
Gulls
The Halfworld
The Hard Listener
Healall
Hemmed-in Males
The Hermaphroditic Telephones
Hero
Hic Jacet
History
Homage
Horned Purple
The House
How Has The Way Been Found?
Hula-hula
The Hunter
Hymn To Love Ended
I Will Sing A Joyous Song
Idyl
Idyl
Immortal
Impromptu: The Suckers
In Harbor
In San Marco, Venezia
In The 'sconset Bus
Interests Of 1926
Invitation
Invitation
Invocation And Conclusion
It Is A Living Coral
It Is A Small Plant
Item
January
January Morning
The Jungle
K. Mcb
Keller Gegen Dom
La Belle Dame De Tous Les Jours
La Flor
A La Lune
The Last Words Of My English Grandmother
Last Words Of My Grandmother (first Version)
Late For Summer Weather
The Late Singer
Le Medecin Malgre Lui
Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad
Light Becomes Darkness
Light Hearted William
The Lily
Lines
Lines On Receiving The Dial's Award: 1927
The Locust Tree In Flower
The Locust Tree In Flower (first Version)
The Lonely Street
The Lonely Street
Love
Love Song
Love Song
Love Song
Love Song
A Love Song: First Version, 1915
Lovely Ad
M.b.
Man And Nature
Man In A Room
A Man To A Woman
March
March Is A Light
Marianne Moore
Marriage
A Marriage Ritual
Martin And Katherine
Memory Of April
The Men
Metric Figure (2)
Metric Figure (3)
Mezzo Forte
Middle
Min Schleppner
Misericordia
The Moon --
Morning
Mujer
My Luv
Naked
Nantucket
The New Cathedral Overlooking The Park
New England
Night
The Nightingales
Offering
The Ogre
The Old Men
The Old Worshipper
On A Propsed Trip South
On First Opening The Lyric Year
On Gay Wallpaper
The Ordeal
Our (american) Ragcademicians
Overture To A Dance Of Locomotives
Pastoral
Pastoral
Pastoral
Pastoral 1 (first Version)
Pastoral 2
Paterson
Paterson: Episode 17
Peace
Peace On Earth
Perpetuum Mobile: The City
Picture Showing
Play
Poem
Poem
A Poem For Norman Macleod
The Poor
The Poor
Porous
Portent
A Portrait In Greys
Portrait Of A Lady
Portrait Of A Woman In Bed
Portrait Of A Young Man With A Bad Heart
Portrait Of The Author
Postlude
The Pot Of Flowers
A Prelude
Primrose
Proletarian Portrait
Promenade
Queen-anne's-lace
Question And Answer
Quietness
Rain
The Raper From Passenack
Rapid Transit
Readie Pome
The Red Lily
The Red Wheelbarrow
Rendezvous
The Return To Work
The Revelation
Rhymed Address: The Lobster
Rigamarole
The Right Of Way
Riposte
Romance Moderne
The Rose (1)
The Rose (3)
The Sadness Of The Sea
The Sea
The Sea-elephant
Sea-trout And Butterfish
Self-portrait 1
Self-portrait 2
Seraph
The Shadow
She Who Turns Her Head
Shoot It Jimmy!
Sicilian Emigrant's Song
Sick African
Simplex Sigilum Veri
Simplex Sigilum Veri: A Catalogue (first Version)
The Sloughing Wind
Slow Movement
Sluggishly
Smell!
Solstice
Song
The Source
Spirit Of '76
Spouts
Spring
Spring And All
Spring Song
Spring Storm
Spring Strains
St. Francis Einstein Of The Daffodils
St. Francis Einstein Of The Daffodils (first Version)
Stillness
Stroller
Struggle Of Wings
Sub Terra
Summer Song
The Sun
The Sun Bathers
Sunday
Sunday (first Version)
Sympathetic Portrait Of A Child
The Term
These
The Thinker
This Florida: 1924
This Is Just To Say
Thistle
Thursday
Time The Hangman
To
To A Dead Journalist
To A Friend
To A Friend Concerning Several Ladies
To A Mexican Pig-bank
To A Poor Old Woman
To A Solitary Disciple
To A Wood Thrush
To An Elder Poet
To An Old Jaundiced Woman
To Be Closely Written On A Small Piece Of Paper
To Be Hungry Is To Be Great
To Elsie
To Greet A Letter-carrier
To Have Done Nothing
To Mark Anthony In Heaven
To The Outer World
To The Shade Of Po Chu-i
To Waken An Old Lady
To Wish Myself Courage
Tract
Transitional
Translations From The Spanish
Translations From The Spanish, El Romancero
Tree
Tree And Sky
The Trees
Trees
The Tulip Bed
Two Aspects Of April
The Unfrocked Priest
The Uses Of Poetry
View
View Of A Lake
Virtue
Waiting
The Wanderer: A Rococo Study (first Version)
The Wanderer: Abroad
The Wanderer: Advent
The Wanderer: Broadway
The Wanderer: Clarity
The Wanderer: Soothsay
The Wanderer: St. James' Grove
The Wanderer: The Strike
Weasel Snout
When Fresh, It Was Sweet
The Widow's Lament In Springtime
Wild Orchard
The Wildflower
Willow Poem
The Wind Increases
Wind Of The Village
The Winds
Winter
Winter Quiet
Winter Sunset
Winter Trees
Woman Walking
The Yachts
You Have Pissed Your Life
The Young Cat And The Chrysanthemums
The Young Housewife
The Young Laundryman
Young Love
Young Love (first Version)
Young Sycamore
Young Woman At A Window
Young Woman At A Window
Youth And Beauty
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 604 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (September 17, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811211878
• ISBN-13: 978-0811211871
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense, April 18, 1999

By 

Jimmy Lin (New Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 (Paperback)

The overall strength of Williams' work lies in his power to summon image from where there was previously nothing.

Forget about the conventional tactics of poetry (meter, rhyme, etc.). Williams effectively occupies the outer regions of the land which is not prose. His power always properly lay in the simple yet vivid images (visual, aural, tactile, etc.) behind the words.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All together-- the poems are even better, July 4, 2005

By 

BfloBen (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 (Hardcover)

I'm not going to attempt to talk about WCW's poetry or I could be writing for hours... rather this review is about the volume of "collected" poems as a book to read. Yes it includes some dubious items and some debris we would expect from any serious and innovative writer... but there are mostly successes here and well worth reading. Especially informative is observing WCW's development as a writer and thinker and his daring as a poet and his striving for new ways to express the response of an artist to the swelling tide of modernity and cultural failures of the 20th century.

17 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The foundation of WCW's art, September 30, 2000

By 

DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 (Paperback)

Whew, check out that list. This is the foundation of Williams' art, for fans of his selected & Pictures from Brughel.

This is the development of Williams' daily art, fine poems punctuated by an occasional masterpiece or near-surrealistic gemstone. Someone once asked John Cage, "With your methods, couldn't anyone compose music?" Cage replied, "Yes, but they don't." Many of Williams' poems make that impression. Where I live, in New Jersey, Williams is so ingrained in the literary landscape that no poet is more imitated, even if the imitator is unaware of the influence. Williams was better at setting examples than at explaining methods. He learned & invented as he wrote, & I suspect his talk & his letters had a great deal more influence than his occasional stabs at poetics.

Williams stripped down American poesy & reconstructed it as a form of talk, which it had been all along beneath Whitman's yawping & Dickinson's obsessive editing & Frost hiking though New England snow five steps at a time. Like all great American originals, he didn't know he was supposed to be a somebody-else; maybe a Stephen Benet, a William Vaughn Moody, an Edwin Arlington Robinson, all big literary stars in their time but not now counted in the first ranks of our poets.

This is roughly the first half of The Doc's amazin' journey. You'll know if you need it. Any intelligent poet friend will love it as a gift.