September 17, 2010: Happy Birthday to William Carlos Williams, America’s Poet-Physician

William Carlos Williams was born on this day in 1883. Both a pediatrician and a poet, Williams drew from his medical experiences and his observations of daily life in northern New Jersey to write in a distinctly American style. He published his first collection of poems in 1909 and, less than a year later, opened his private practice as a general physician in Rutherford, New Jersey. Fusing the seemingly contradictory identities of poet and scientist, Williams remained dedicated to fiction as well as medicine throughout his life and achieved success in both fields.

As one of America’s greatest poets, Williams strived to capture the American voice in his work, writing about everyday life in the country with colloquial language and a focus on American attitudes. The writer found great inspiration in his fellow New Jerseyans. For decades on end, he listened carefully to his neighbors’ conversations and used their mannerisms to develop the diction and meter that define his work.

Linda Wagner-Martin writes, “By concentrating on the dailiness of the poet's experience, using idiomatic language and the rhythms of speech in his poetry, Williams forced readers to see that their lives were poetic.” Many of these characteristics are evident in his poem “Spring and All,” published in 1923 and available at:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15536

Williams was one of the Imagist poets, who wrote from about 1909 to 1917. A circle that also included Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and Hilda Doolittle, the Imagists avoided the romanticism of nineteenth-century poetry. They aimed for precision in their work, writing poems that feature clear and concrete images. Williams’s writing greatly influenced the Beat Generation poets, particularly Allen Ginsberg.

--Nadia Mahmassani, Intern, Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery

Works Cited

“Imagism,” Answers Corporation, 2010, accessed September 10, 2010, http://www.answers.com/topic/imagism.

NPG curatorial files, William Carlos Williams.

Linda Wagner-Martin, “Modern American Poetry: Williams’ Life and Career,” Department of English, University of Illinois, February 2000, accessed September 10, 2010, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15536.

William Carlos Williams, “Spring and All.” The Academy of American Poets, 1997–2010, accessed September 10, 2010, http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/bio.htm.