Between Walls Essay Questions

What is the function of the word "shine" in the poem?

Williams uses the word "shine" in the poem to highlight the momentary beauty of the green shards of glass. The word immediately brings color into a setting that has been, up to this point, characterized as lifeless and dull. It also catches the reader's attention by evoking the attention that this light would bring to a passerby. He chooses this word because it encapsulates both the striking quality and the fleetingness of this moment.

Why does Williams set the poem in the grim back area of a hospital?

Williams chooses a fairly depressing, desolate setting to drive home the poem's central theme. The poem is about finding unusual beauty in unlikely places. Had Williams chosen a more conventionally "poetic" setting (a forest, the shoreline, a wheat field) the meaning of whatever moment of grace he found would be routine. In choosing to place the poem in a decidedly unappealing spot, the significance he finds in the broken bottle is rendered that much more meaningful. He has shown the potential for this kind of aesthetic realization in even the dullest, most industrialized circumstances.