She takes in the beauty of the surrounding nature. “The plumtree is white today/ with masses of flowers./ Masses of flowers load the cherry branches / and color some bushes/ yellow and some red / but the grief in my heart is stronger than they / for though they were my joy / formerly, today I notice them / and turn away forgetting” (Williams 61). The plumtree and cherry tree are probably beautiful reminders of picnics had on lovely summer eves and painful reminders of what once might’ve been. The “white” flowers shown to us may symbolize the love she had for her husband just as the “yellow” and “red” ones may represent his sickness and his death. The flowers in themselves seem to remind me of an art class I once took. A beautiful painting of a bouquet of flowers is simply a delicate way of depicting death. “Memento mori,” Latin for “reminder of death,” is simply the artist’s way of saying that life is short, so live it well. Just as our artist here, William Carlos Williams, has painted us a masterpiece.
We, as the reader, are then presented with the existence of the speaker’s son. “Today my son told me/ that in the meadows, / at the edge of the heavy woods / in the distance, he saw/ trees of white flowers” (Williams 61-62). Perhaps her son is foreshadowing his own mother’s death, as the “trees of white flowers,” her husband, beckon her from the forest. “ I feel that I would like / to go there / and fall into these flowers / and sink into the marsh near them” (Williams 62). Now we see that she does indeed wish to die amidst the beautiful white flowers.
William Carlos Williams has shown us a true love story. A widow’s eye has glazed over with remorse and no longer is affected by this world and all its gleam. She misses her husband so much that she has lost the will to live. As we see her mind’s desires unfold, we see her husband take the form of white flowers – his memory, his arms, his love. And I suppose we will see death again, as her son lays down her memento mori.
Williams's ability to create something so complex out of very simple constructs is awesome to me. I interpreted the flowers similarly as well; the transition from white to yellow to red almost reminds me of an increasing degree of danger or sadness coming onto the narrator. The trees of white flowers that the son sees almost reminds me of the fact that the son has so much life ahead of him, so his inability to see yellow and red flowers means that he isn't concerned about death like the mother is. It's cool how there can be many different ways of interpreting these poems.
ReplyDeleteI find the use of color and youth to be prominent in this poem. Instead of viewing yellow and red as sickness and death, I gather that they mean happiness and passion; the woman is reflection on her past feelings towards these plants. In her past, she was happy with her husband, and now she is filled with grief. The colors represent her past and how her present grief conflicts those feelings. Williams inclusion of the "new grass" and her son give the reader a sense of youth in the midst of this grief. The son can still see the beauty is nature, but the woman only wants to "sink into the marsh near them." When she sees the beauty, she is reminded of her husband, which brings on inescapable grief; but, like with all Williams poems, everything is open to vast interpretations.
ReplyDeleteInteresting ideas :)
I believe that once you fall in love, you give a piece of yourself to the other person. The widow's love, passion, and happiness all died with her husband. Without him, she is not complete. I completely agree that the death of her husband has taken away her will to live. Her vision of the world is clouded by grief and her only desire is to see her husband again. This is a great analysis.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem. You can almost feel the widow's sorrow with William's words and how she is trying to remember how spring was like before her husband died. It's like she wants to be happy but at the time she truly loves her husband.
ReplyDeleteDeath is always a sad, seemingly hopeless affair. I feel it is more so when a person with whom we are so close, as was this widow was to her husband of thirty-five years, dies. What strikes me about this poem is that the widow is remembering her deceased husband at a time when everything around her is reviving; "the new grass flames," "flowers load the cherry branches," yet she cannot feel this new life around her because all she can do is lament. This poem really makes me feel melancholy, almost to the point of tearing up. However, I appreciate the fact that Williams really made me feel something.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is beautifully written. The use of color as a symbol is so simple, but adds great depth to the meaning of this poem. When her husband died, so did everything good in her life: her pure/carefree life (white), happiness (yellow), love (red). These colors and traits are those that she and her husband shared.
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic how things that once brought of joy turn into items of sadness. Carrie, you said how the flowers must remind her of past happy moments, but now they remind her of her loss. It is so sad that beautiful things that once made us happy now make us sad with longing. I think that it is interesting that you saw the poem as inspiration to live life while the speaker, the wife, feels that she wants to die among the flowers.
ReplyDelete-JHE
From the excerpts in this blog, I really feel like I would enjoy this poem. It is beautifully dark, and I love it. The symbolism of the colors are awesome, and I really enjoy the fact that inside of every happy moment there can be a dark one as well. Every happy moment has to come to an end usually in the form of death, but it is amazing how something so pretty and beautiful can bring about sadness.
ReplyDeletePeople can die of broken hearts, and that's probably how the widow in this poem will die; thirty-five years of marriage is a long time to spend with another person, only to have them ripped from you in such a short time. I like how the poem shifts its focus - like, since the husband's time has come, the widow mourns, but once the widow's time comes, the son will mourn and he is preparing himself for exactly that.
ReplyDeleteHannah Aycock
This work provides a different viewpoint of something that we sometimes take all to lightly. Obviously no one can live forever, as the poem points that out. We need to prepare ourselves for our final moments, because, who knows when our last breath could be. We have many "Memento mori's" in our world today such as Shiloh Military Park, the World Trade Center attacks, and others. Definitely going to read this after finals. Great Analysis!
ReplyDeleteI would like to read this poem because you make it sound so powerful and meaningful. I am glad that you translated the Latin, which I appreciate the author using to name this poem because Latin is such a demanding language for Western culture anyway; it adds a sense of finality and irrepressible finality along with a sort of reverence. You have done a substantial amount of analysis, but I would avoid analyzing to the point of speculation rather than inferred commentary. I love you close attention to the color, which I have found to be a powerful symbol in different works of art.
ReplyDeleteI think the son and the flowers could also be a representation of life's continuation despite an individual's personal tragedy. People experience personal tragedies everyday but the people around them continue to live life. Possibly the widow sees this through her son and nature and feels isolated because there is no one who shares her grief. I really enjoyed reading this poem and seeing all the possible interpretations of the flowers color symbolism and the sons purpose in the story. -Hollie Roberts
ReplyDeleteI like how everyone's reading into the color in this poem. Honestly, this poem would have been one that I skipped over (I dunno, I just can't get into poems about flowers trees and and nature and whatnot), but I'll think differently about compartmentalizing visual art and poetry separately from now on. I almost feel like, from reading the comments, that everyone is getting the same image in their minds. Now that's a talented writer.
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job summarizing the poem. Although, yes, death is the most prominent theme in this work, the author does his best to provide a positive spin on the subject (i.e. "where the new grass"). Death is something that is inevitable, but with every death that occurs, there is birth to new life. By just reading the excerpts from this poem, I was able to catch that comparitive approach.
ReplyDelete- Emily Alves