1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams Quotes
page 2

William Carlos Williams was a Puerto Rican-American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. His work has a great affinity with painting, in which he had a lifelong interest.

In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pediatrics and general medicine. He was affiliated with what was then known as Passaic General Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey, where he served as the hospital's chief of pediatrics from 1924 until his death. The hospital, which is now known as St. Mary's General Hospital, paid tribute to Williams with a memorial plaque that states "we walk the wards that Williams walked".

✵ 17. September 1883 – 4. March 1963  •  Other names ویلیام کارلوس ویلیامز, Ουίλιαμ Κάρλος Ουίλιαμς
William Carlos Williams photo
William Carlos Williams: 83 quotes4 likes

William Carlos Williams Quotes

“The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic.”

William Carlos Williams

From A Note on Poetry (circa 1936) quoted in Modern American Poetry (1950) by Louis Untermeyer
General sources

“Who isn’t frustrated and does not prove it by his actions — if you want to say so? But through art the psychologically maimed may become the most distinguished man of his age. Take Freud for instance.”

William Carlos Williams

Introduction
The Wedge (1944)

“Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind —
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested —
the snow
is covered
with broken
seed husks
and the wind tempered
with a shrill
piping of plenty.”

William Carlos Williams book Sour Grapes

"To Awaken an Old Lady", originally publised in The Dial (August 1920)
Sour Grapes (1921)

“It is difficult
to get the news from poems”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

“To tell the truth, I myself never quite feel that I know what I am talking about — if I did, and when I do, the thing written seems nothing to me. However, what I do write and allow to survive I always feel is worth while and that nobody else has ever come as near as I have to the thing I have intimated if not expressed. To me it's a matter of first understanding that which may not be put to words. I might add more but to no purpose. In a sense, I must express myself, you're right, but always completely incomplete if that means anything.”

William Carlos Williams

To Harriet Monroe (14 October 1913), published in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957) edited by John C. Thirlwall, p. 26
General sources

“These are the desolate, dark weeks
when nature in its barrenness
equals the stupidity of man. The year plunges into night
and the heart plunges
lower than night”

William Carlos Williams

"These"
Complete Collected Poems (1938)

“The pure products of America
go crazy”

William Carlos Williams book Spring and All

"To Elsie"
Spring and All (1923)

“Being an art form, verse cannot be "free" in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principle.”

William Carlos Williams

As quoted in Free Verse. Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics 2nd ed (1975)
General sources

“Poets are being pursued by the philosophers today, out of the poverty of philosophy. God damn it, you might think a man had no business to be writing, to be a poet unless some philosophic stinker gave him permission.”

William Carlos Williams

Letter to James Laughlin (14 January 1944), published in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957) edited by John C. Thirlwall, p. 219
General sources

“Only give me time”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

“The storm bursts”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

“The storm unfolds.”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

“I come, my sweet”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower