William Carlos Williams: Man

William Carlos Williams was American poet. Explore interesting quotes on man.
William Carlos Williams: 166   quotes 3   likes

“A man isn’t a block that remains stationary though the psychologists treat him so — and most take an insane pride in believing it.”

William Carlos Williams

Introduction
The Wedge (1944)
Context: A man isn’t a block that remains stationary though the psychologists treat him so — and most take an insane pride in believing it. Consistency! He varies; Hamlet today, Caesar tomorrow; here, there, somewhere — if he is to retain his sanity, and why not?
The arts have a complex relation to society. The poet isn’t a fixed phenomenon, no more is his work.

“So different, this man
And this woman:
A stream flowing
In a field.”

William Carlos Williams

Poetry Chicago, 1916)
Marriage (1916)

“He's come out of the man
and he's let
the man go —

the liar
Dead

his eyes

rolled up out of
the light — a mockery

which

love cannot touch — just bury it
and hide its face
for shame.”

William Carlos Williams

"Death"
Collected Poems 1921-1931 (1934)

Love , Light , Dead

“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)

Age , Art

“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)

Stupidity , Nature , Heart , Night

“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

God , Business , Thinking