Summary
The poem begins with the speaker stating that he has eaten the plums in the icebox. He goes on to say that he knows "you," the poem's addressee, were likely saving them for breakfast. Finally, he apologizes for eating them but notes that they tasted delicious.
Analysis
Like much of Williams' work, "This Is Just To Say" sticks closely to a minimalist style without sacrificing emotional complexity. On its face, the poem is about someone eating the plums someone else was saving for the following day's breakfast. He admits his wrongdoing, apologizes, and tries to describe what made the plums so tempting in the first place. It is a simple poem rich with undercurrents—poetry dressed down in terse, everyday vernacular.
In the opening, the speaker admits what he has done: "I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox." The meaning of these lines is literal and flat. The speaker has eaten the plums in the icebox (refrigerator). These lines effectively frame the rest of the poem, giving a clear visual sense of what has occurred. While the emotional tenor of the piece has not been established yet, because the speaker does not say he has eaten "his" plums, the reader can intuit that some wrongdoing has occurred. The directness of these lines also suggests that this is being written to someone, as is revealed later in the poem. The opening reads like the confession of a crime. The second stanza follows by building out the dilemma further. The speaker continues with a surprising conjunction ("and which") before letting the reader know who the rightful owner of the plums was ("you were probably / saving / for breakfast"). So much is established in this short succession of lines. The reader learns that the speaker has consumed someone else's plums. The poem implies that these plums belonged to the speaker's wife (if they accept that the speaker is likely Williams himself). Finally, most unfortunately, the speaker has eaten plums which his wife was "saving for breakfast." This shows intention and care on the part of the speaker's wife, as she deliberately held onto the plums, in contrast to the speaker's reckless hunger. The speaker has denied her the minor happiness of eating the delicious plums she has been saving. His feelings of guilt over these actions become readily apparent here, even before he has apologized.
The third, and final, stanza is the climax of the poem. The speaker asks to be forgiven ("Forgive me") and then lingers on the memory of the plums' taste ("they were delicious / so sweet / and so cold"). What is most striking about this section, is Williams's juxtaposition of apology and memory. His plea for forgiveness is immediately followed by a detailing of the plums' rich flavor. The combination of these two elements suggests that part of the speaker's guilt stems from his enjoyment of the plums. He feels bad not only for eating them, but for enjoying them quite as much as he did. The description of their "delicious" taste also seems to serve as a partial explanation of why he ate them. He is asking to be forgiven but also acknowledging what drew him to them. These final lines also capture something about the powerful staying power of sense memory. The careful repetition of "so" in the "so sweet / and so cold" lines demonstrates the way in which the speaker cannot let go of the feeling he experienced. Their delicious taste has left an unforgettable trace in his mind. This final stanza functions as the climax in that he is both apologizing and remembering the actual moment he consumed the plums. The poem seeks to capture the speaker's momentary pleasure and lingering regret. Within these lines, the two qualities are pushed together.
Williams sought to emulate the style of a note his wife left him on the kitchen counter. As such, the formal qualities of the poem are unvarnished and clear. The lines are clipped and contain no punctuation. Throughout the poem, Williams utilizes enjambment to engage the reader and isolate his imagery. His use of enjambment requires the reader to read each thought in small fragments as they play out over the stanza ("and which / you were probably / saving / for breakfast"). This allows him to simultaneously give these lines momentum while also drawing the reader's attention to specific details and images. This is perhaps most readily apparent in the final stanza when he describes the plums: "they were delicious / so sweet / and so cold." The separation of these lines separates each of these details into individual sensations. The plums are "delicious," then "sweet," then finally "cold." The reader experiences each of these impressions slowly, in the same manner that the speaker is recalling them. Williams's formal innovations may appear to be simple, but they are in the service of effectively conveying his images. The methodical division of these words across lines effectively highlights them individually.
The poem, on the whole, tries to describe an everyday pleasure that comes with the price tag of guilt. In plain language, Williams manages to capture the spectrum of emotions and leave the reader with a final, enduring image of the plum's overwhelming flavor.
