Three Possible Outlines for a Paper Based on
"The Red Wheelbarrow"

 

Set-Up/Reject

On first reading William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow," it is tempting to dismiss it as a nice description, nothing more. Initially at least, it appears to be merely the brief, pleasurable "word painting" of a certain corner of a farm. The details that take up most of its lines are merely descriptive: white chickens (presumably, milling about together) and a simple, colorful piece of farm equipment, shiny wet from rain.

 

It must also be granted that many readers would feel amply rewarded by a poem that presents them such a vivid scene; they would seek nothing more from its author.

 

To read the Williams poem only as description, however, is to ignore the three important, non-descriptive words which open the poem: "So much depends."

 

(ELABORATION)

 

List

 

William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" can be read at least three different ways, and I, for one, would be hard put–on the basis of the few words in the poem itself–to say which best reflects the author's intent.

 
[INTERPRETATION 1]

[INTERPRETATION 2]

[INTERPRETATION 3–
a combination of Interpretations 1 and 2]

All that I can say with confidence so far is that the poem does mean something; it's not just a pretty picture.

[ELABORATION
re. the non-descriptive nature of "So much depends"]

Perhaps there is something I am missing. At the moment, I feel frustrated by a poet whose words can be taken to mean more than just the one thing he intended.

Narrative (An Explication)

The words "So much depends"–which open William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow"–are, in fact, the only non-descriptive words to appear in the poem. That is, they are, strictly speaking, the only words in the poem calling for interpretation.

 
[ELABORATION]
In Line 2, Williams...
In Line 3, Williams...
In the end, the most plausible way to understand Williams' poem is as a...

 

 

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