The Poetry of Walt Whitman versus William Carlos Williams

The Poetry of Walt Whitman versus William Carlos Williams

Perhaps the most basic and essential function of poetry is to evoke a particular response in the reader. The poet,

desiring to convey on emotion or inspiration, uses the imagination to create a structure that will properly

communicate his state of mind. In essence he is attempting to bring himself and the reader closer, to establish a

relationship. William Carlos Williams contends that "art gives the feeling of completion by revealing the oneness

of experience" (194) This argument relies on the precept that art is reality is not nature or a reflection of nature

but a completely original creation. And additionally, that art is holistic, where one can experience the whole of

reality through a particular. A poet's task is to write poetry that the reader can identify with, something congruent

with the thoughts of those he is writing for (or to). If this can be accomplished, a connection is established, and

poetry can act as a catalyst to initiate the imagination. In my first paper this semester I argued that Whitman uses

sexual imagery as a rhetorical tool to arouse the reader. The result of this is congruent emotions within poet and

reader that demonstrate an effective use of tone, through which Whitman can address the reader. "The mystic

deliria, the madness amorous, the utter abandonment,/ (Hark close and still what I now whisper to you" (77).

Whitman is specking directly to the reader, through an all-encompassing god-like persona. In "Song of Myself"

Whitman reinvents himself as all of reality, and through the use of tone and imagery (shot establishes a

relationship) draw...

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... obvious advice that a writer

can offer: "Write what you know." And that is what Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams do, as well as

writing what their audience knows. In other words, both establish a relationship with their readers by appealing

to a sense of the familiar and ordinary, "that life becomes actual only when it is identified with ourselves".

Whitman uses imagery that acts as examples of American culture, a framework in which Americans can identify.

Williams uses simple images of simple things, and a natural rhythm that seem to directly reflect his own thought

processes, that of a modern American. The techniques of both authors create a distinctive poetic persona. The

result is a substantial relationship between author and reader suggesting and providing common experience.

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