The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams: A Personal Response

The Red Wheelbarrow is an interesting poem. William's intended to write poetry that was essentially American rather than a poetry heavily influenced by European and Classical references. He despised Eliot and Pound. Perhaps there are two ways he makes this poem distinctly American. Firstly the reference to the 'white chickens' - probably an American breed, and the colour references red, white and the blue 'rain water', reflects the colours of the American flag.

He also wanted a simple poetry. In this poem he has created a photographic portrait of a common wheelbarrow probably found in hundreds if not thousands of farms and small holdings all over the rural United States. He wanted to elevate the ordinary, the common and appreciate it for itself. He raises the wheelbarrow up by making it the subject of the poem and reinforces its status by using the adjective 'glazed'. This word makes the wheelbarrow radiant, makes it shine and this makes it stand out.

Another way in which the poem can be seen as American is the way it fuses both eastern - European and Western - Japanese and Chinese poetic features. The language obviously is English but except for the final full stop, the syntax is non European. Instead William's draws on the Japanese Tanka and Haiku simple and minimalist poetic forms, used extensively in Imagist poetry in Europe.

However despite William's intentions I love this poem because it also gives us the opportunity to do the opposite to what he intended.

Firstly there is the question, so what depends upon a 'red wheelbarrow'? There are two answers to this question. Firstly its the farmer who depends upon the wheelbarrow. It enables him to do his work - to produce food - and thereby make a living. And we all depend upon the wheelbarrow as consumers of the food the farmer produces. But the farmer may have a wife and children to support and so the family also depends on the wheelbarrow. The money he earns supports a local economy and the taxes he pays supports both State and National services, which in turn helps a global economy.

A second answer builds on the same idea. What depends upon a red wheelbarrow? The whole of western civilisation depends upon a red wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow is made up of two simple machines - wheel and axel and inclining plain. The idea of a "simple machine" originated with the Greek philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd century BC. However there is archaeological evidence for wheelbarrows in use, that go back to Suma - Mesopotamia over 3000 years BC. Suma is thought to be where writing was first invented. It is thought to be the cradle of civilisation. The wheelbarrow then quite literally is a fundamental building block of society.