Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems Paperback – January 17, 1967

Unfortunately WCW is remembered in anthologies for his short examples of imagism and much of his strongest work is forgotten. This should be required reading for any discussion on Modernism and on Ekphrasis.

In spite of winning the Pulitzer Prize, this is an underappreciated volume by one of the most alluded to poets of the 20th Century. He is in theory well regarded and included in survey courses and not infrequently "The Red Wheelbarrow" appears on tee shirts and essay questions. "Pictures from Brueghel ands Other Poems" reveals his intelligent ekphrastic tones, the lyrical "Desert Music" is a lovely lyric of appreciation of partial alienation. They do what so many poems currently struggle to accomplish, but WCW accomplishes it with the appearance of off handed intelligence that has marked his genius.

Very pleased.

great book thanks for sending it to me a long time ago. I still haven't read it but it looks good.

Juat as advertised

The collection was not as comprehensive as I would have liked.

Perhaps of all the books of modern and contemporary poetry Williams's last collection may be the one I would most hate to do without. In it Williams took all his fascination with the rhythms of American speech, the experimentation and Imagism of his youth and middle age and went past them into a classical, almost mysterious mastery of form and emotional equipoise. Affection, dismay, humor--and, in the long poem "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower," Williams's most beautiful verses on marital love as the victim and vanquisher of death--all crystalline, all written as if in a state of grace. A lifetime of doctoring is behind these poems, and very, very few twentieth century poets were granted the time, luck and determination to achieve this late-Shakespearean wisdom--Yeats himself, combative to the end, stopped just short of it, I think. Plain as they are, pawkish and teasing as they can be, these poems are wine, and you neglect them to your loss.

This was the book that won the Pulitzer Prize for William Carlos Williams. It was also his last book of poetry. The book is brilliant like all of his writings, but I feel that the poetry books of his that most certainly deserved to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry were Sour Grapes, Spring and All or even Al Que Quiere!. These three books, and others like The Desert Music and The Clouds, I, personally, find to be superior to Pictures from Brueghel. Maybe he was just too far ahead of his time to be properly appreciated. Maybe since he was old and dying the Pulitzer was decided to be given to him as an honorary nod for his total body of work. A nod and a recognition that he was unique and far ahead of his time. Either way, William Carlos Williams was a genius and every book he wrote was brilliant.

What can I say? This book is self-explanatory and its quality is beyond words. A beacon of true and soul searching poetry. A masterpiece.

A classic of modern poetry. This trilogy of later Williams poems represents a culmination of lifelong experience as an experimental modernist poet and brave innovator.