WC Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow”

The whole poem is just one sentence about a wheelbarrow. It relies on the reader’s interpretation and openness to imagery in order to be effective. The form the poem is in is interesting too, because if you look closely enough at the stanzas, they start to resemble wheelbarrows themselves. The wording and lack of punctuation reminds me a lot of Cummings and the way he breaks up sentences and words to convey emotion.

Since this poem seems so obscure and simple, I am going to attempt to explain my interpretation stanza by stanza through the poem. The opening line is the most important of the four, setting the tone for the rest of the short poem. Williams’ decides to set the word “upon” on the bottom line, resting the first line on top of it. The word “upon” is left to bear the burden of the weight of words above it.
The poet then introduces the wheelbarrow, breaking the word up. “A red wheel” rests on top of the “barrow.” The color choice is interesting, leaving my mind with a bright image. By breaking down the word, it makes the reader slow down and consider every syllable of the lines.

In the fifth and sixth lines, the poet introduces the rain in order to freshen the scene and clean up the reader’s image of the wheelbarrow. This water washes away the dirt that we associate with the title object, leaving us to consider only the wheelbarrow itself.

In the last lines, the color white is used to draw a distinction from the formerly introduced red. The white chickens are being starkly contrasted with red, newly rain-rinsed wheelbarrow.

Because of its strange subject matter and short form, this poem is different than just about anything we’ve read (except “This is Just to Say”, that is). It includes only one sentence, bizarrely about a wheelbarrow. The poet is really hoping the reader is open-minded about imagery and is willing to scrutinize the short and few lines. Williams is attempting to stretch the concept of what we consider poetry, just as Cummings does with his strange punctuating and spacing.

This poem is similar in succinctness to WC William’s other poem “This is Just to Say”, which contains only three short stanzas. That poem, however, is really just a note left to tell a loved one that he had eaten the plums in the ice-box. It does not contain the same subtle yet striking imagery as “The Red Wheelbarrow.” In eight short lines, Williams really did extend the meaning of poetry.