William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) is another good example of the native American poets after Whitman. In the American Grain, 1925 is his primary critical achievement. In the preface, Williams shows the two original intentions of writing this book. One is to "reread American history in an attempt to identify what really makes up the American grain", the other is to "re-name the things seen". In fact, this is the exact tenet Williams believes in and sticks to ever since his beginning of writing poetry: singing for America, weeding through the old to bring forth the new, and producing and enriching American poetry with new methods and theories.The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, Williams and his works are briefly introduced. The second part examines his attempt to apply the creative techniques of the arts of French modernist school to his poetry-writing during the initial writing period (i.e. the stage of his quest for "American grain"). Furthermore, through the close association with the well-known Stieglitz Group, Williams further strengthens his determination to write American poems in a way of his own. The third part of the thesis explores, from the two sides of the poetic theme and form, how Williams inherits and develops Whitman, the greatest American poet. By doing so, he also makes the embodiment and enactment of "American Grain " become a reality in his poems.