Visual Forms in “The Red Wheelbarrow” Alexander Potako College

The period of modernism in the literature has brought the new forms and the new ways of expressing the ideas. With the development of the imagist movement in the poetry, the free verse and the clarity of expression as well as clear language came to the foreground. The poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams is one of the best examples of true imagist poem since it places value on the simplicity of the created image and on the imagery in general, instead of prioritizing some abstract ideas and sophisticated words. The most important point in the poem is the picture of the farm that arises in front of the reader and is created by only 14 words. This simple and still engaging scene on the farm is, however, more than just a description of the rainy day, considering the sense that the author has placed in his visual images and the form of the poem.

First of all, the situation that the reader can imagine after reading the poem is rather vivid and bright. This is one of the peculiarities of the imagist poetry when the most important task is to create a picture. Nevertheless, the beginning of the poem does not allow to perceive this poem as descriptive only. Conforming to the idea that a poem can be transformed into a...