I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

I remember this as the first Imagist poem - indeed, the first ‘modern’ poem of any sort - that I ever read. Having been schooled on Wordsworth, de la Mare and Rossetti¹, it came as a bit of a shock to me when I stumbled upon Williams’ laconic beauty in an anthology discovered at a relative’s house, one summer vacation many years ago. This, poetry? Where were the rhymes? Where were the sunsets and flowers and cute furry animals? Where was the Good Advice for the Younger Generation²? And what was the poem about, anyway?

As faithful readers of my posts have no doubt realized by now, it was the beginning of a lifelong affair. Recent excursions into the Romantics, the Beats, the Movement and the Elizabethans notwithstanding, Eliot, Pound, Williams and their ilk remain among my favourite poets…

— Thomas

PS. Oh, you wanted commentary on the poem? I’m sorry, why didn’t you say so?

Minstrels Links

A Williams biography can be found at poem #83 along with the first poem of his to be run on the Minstrels, ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’.

Another typical Williams slice-of-life is ‘The Artist’, which you can read at poem #213

More on Imagism can be found in the essay accompanying Amy Lowell’s ‘Generations’, Minstrels poem #102, at poem #102

One of my favourite poems by an Imagist poet is Ezra Pound’s ‘The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’, which you can read at poem #70

And of course, you can read all our other poems at
The Wondering Minstrels