William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just To Say"

Today, in class, we discussed the formal aspects that make a poem be a poem. We used several texts that helped us reach some conclusions. Of those texts I'd like to highlight William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just To Say", because I think my students really enjoyed it.

We read the same words written as prose and then in lines, the way Williams actually wrote them. And the transformation was amazing! What looked first, when written in prose, like a mere apology note became an unapologetic defense of transgression once it was in verse. Controlling oneself, saving, brings no satisfaction, the poem suggests. On the contrary, going beyond the limits, eating the forbidden fruit, is rewarded with pleasure and sensuousness. Yeah... let us not forget the sensuousness of those plums... Sooo sweet... Sooo cold... Nor the alliteration that stresses that sensuousness!

I wonder how many of my students noticed the intertextuality with the Garden of Eden, the story of Adam and Eve, which we've already mentioned several times...

I also wonder how many noticed that here, again, we have a few rounded objects and a persona who feels irresistibly attracted to them. 

#WeLoveOverreachers
#WeLoveSpheres