That's It!? Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow"

[@Antineii]

My discussion group made up of 'people of a certain age' discussed The Red Wheelbarrow yesterday. Our contingent of grumpy retired computer engineers were especially outraged to even be asked to discuss such a poem. Still thinking about them afterwards, I went to KZbin, which did its magic and guided me to your video. It is perfect for grumpy poetry readers of any age. You sir are brilliant, kind, funny and the type of teacher any English nerd prays for. Thank you for the Oxford Comma channel. I am about to work my way through all of your videos.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

Christine, thank you so much for taking the to time to write out one of the nicest and most encouraging comments I've ever received! Side note: grumpy retired computer engineers outraged by poetry sounds like the plot of a fantastic short story. Thank you again for all the support!

[@herrsteppenwolf]

Is it because it is so simple that no one has commented on the fact that the poem on the page looks like a wheelbarrow with 'upon, 'barrow 'water and 'chichens' being the wheel?

[@Arian-Mondal.1988]

I just love simple things being complex! Read it in 27th Oct 2023, and it is just amazing!😊

[@sayedesmailhasanyar2756]

I think it is the best interpretation. This poem was written when Williams who was a doctor, goes to cure a young girl who was about to die. Upon her bed Williams looks out the window and sees that red wheel barrow which has been her toy.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

Thanks for the biographical context!

[@gul2661]

he wrote this poem in 10 grade so it will be a wrong interpretation

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

@@gul2661 Super late to this conversation, but original poster is sharing a widely excepted - though sometimes disputed - anecdote. He wrote the poem in his late 30s.

[@sharpskinhead6977]

Later Williams told said that it was about some fisherman he knew and lived near him.

[@mixtecjaguar9824]

Great! Great! Great! You, Sir, did an excellent job.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

Many thanks!

[@nikcole1140]

I'm stomped by the word "depends"... It makes me think that the wheelbarrow is still being used.

[@rgj9524]

The only thing you said that makes sense is that the object is important to the person who uses the object. The poem doesn't have to have a convoluted meaning. Think of a farmer. What does this object mean to him? How much of the work around his farm depend on this wheelbarrow? I mean you can make up things like its about death. Or like the other guy on a different channel said it was symbolic of a tongue and the teeth are the white chickens. But, it definitely is a wheelbarrow that on a farm, much depends upon. This poem is a photograph.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

There is a school of scholarship that attributes this piece to his association with painters and photographers, but the majority of authors who reference it, as well as critics who write about it, offer a much deeper interpretation. I like this assessment from Craig Teicher: “The Red Wheelbarrow,” like so many Williams poems, is experimental. It lacks punctuation, relies on erratic or unusual lineation, and generally dissolves the traditional boundaries between one thing, or idea, and another. He had a famous maxim, “No ideas but in things,” which I take to mean that to speak about ideas, emotions, and abstractions, we must ground them firmly in the things of the world."

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

Sorry, ran out of room up there. Of course, you're open to your own interpretation, but so am I and the guy who thinks it's about a mouth (an idea he probably lifted from a comment on this video lol...unless he made both the comment and the video)... That's the beauty of poetry! Thank you for your comment. After I read it, I was worried my past self had uploaded a stinker. So I re-watched it, turns out the video's pretty darn good. Proud of this one!

[@ibnrushd1141]

Shortly after my wife went through 3 craniotomies, 2 rounds of chemo, and radiation treatment that left her partially paralyzed, I came across this poem, and all the ink spilled over it, and I wrote this: PRECISELY for my wife so much depends upon the gray steel blade in accurate fingers scraping her brain tumor.

[@hunterstephens4541]

Nicely done. There is assonance: "glazed with rain" / "beside the white." This supports your reading because the assonance creates a kind of dirge-like sound.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

That's a really good observation. I love how much I learn from the comments. Thank you for sharing!

[@elleello6874]

This was so good. Thank you!

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

You're so welcome! Thanks for the comment!

[@Michael-gu1bf]

Thank you, I remember this in year 10 English (Australia).

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

You're very welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@joeysoper6593]

2 years later.. we never will know what the true meaning is.

[@stefanesales6321]

Yeah. I am 2 years later from your comment and you are correct.

[@haxx5034]

Great job thank you

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

You're welcome!

[@WheelBite0_0]

red wheelbarrow: the tongue, rain water: saliva, white chickens: teeth. This poem is about the importance of words, how and when they are said.

[@aaronaragon7838]

Specious explanation...nonsense.

[@lth3may029]

? He wants us to brush our teeth?

[@aaronaragon7838]

Total nonsense, huh?

[@WheelBite0_0]

@@aaronaragon7838 you fail to realize that interpreting poetry is subjective.

[@aaronaragon7838]

Read my reply above. I think I said that.

[@John-fc4th]

I was told that poems aren't riddles. What gives? Sincere question

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

I think you were told right. There is a difference between the two. But, poems use concentrated language, so it's up to the reader to dilute that language through repeated readings, examination of imagery, and other discourse with the poem.

[@shamraizmooj7870]

This poem is about not to showww over behaviour .weeping to much is only show of.

[@Me_ThatsWho]

Five decades in and I'm still undecided if a poem should be able to stand on its own, without reference to the poet who wrote it. I do not think this poem could stand alone; it seems to presume some knowledge of Williams, the man. I wonder if death as a theme would come into your mind if you knew nothing about Williams' life. I like your video, but I'm not sure your interpretation holds (rain) water. I was so hoping to unlock this poem today.

[@birky0191]

shotout to all the students coming here from school

[@Nohame44pl]

❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@aaronaragon7838]

Your explication is dubious. Williams was a product of agrarian America. A red wheel barrow is essential to the farm. The image is juxtaposed with chickens. He saw the utility of these things disappearing with industrialization. Of course, a good poem is open to many interpretations.

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

I'd have to disagree with the purely agrarian approach- though I can't disprove it. Craig Teicher actually talks about his high school English class coming to the same conclusion, but he adds "nothing about the poem seemed to hint at that kind of reflexive hostility." But he also goes on to admit, "nowhere does Williams tell us why “so much depends / upon” his little scene; he leaves us to ask, and answer, that question." So you're totally right, great poems are open to many interpretations - especially when they are as stripped down as the ones Williams wrote. Thank you for bringing in another viewpoint!

[@bouchaibnatek6654]

why we care so much about meaning? Even the meaning has no meaning.

[@jaimejohnson2521]

Boring is what im thinking

[@OxfordCommaEducation]

Haha, well at least it's short, right? But seriously. Fantastic poem.

[@shamraizmooj7870]

This poem is about not to showww over behaviour .weeping to much is only show of.