Poems: The Red Wheelbarrow

Description

In just sixteen words, Williams transforms an ordinary farmyard scene into a moment of extraordinary significance. The poem's stark visual imagery—a red wheelbarrow, glazed by rain, accompanied by white chickens—becomes a powerful statement about the essential nature of simple things in human life. Through its precise language and revolutionary line breaks, the poem forces us to pause and consider each element separately: the wheelbarrow's color, its glossy surface in rain, the contrast of white chickens, all building to reveal how much depends upon these everyday objects we typically overlook. Williams' modernist masterpiece demonstrates how careful observation can reveal the profound beauty and significance lurking in the most commonplace scenes of American life.