DOI issue:
Heft 3
DOI article:Two Poems
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62257#0275
TWO POEMS
by
William Carlos Williams
1.
The pure products of America
go crazy ~
mountain folk from Kentucfcy
or tbe ribbed nortb end of
Jersey
witb its isolate lakes and
oalleys, ihr deaf-mutes, tbieoes
old names
and promiscuity between
deoil -may-care men wbo baoe Laken
to railroaduig
out of sbeer Lust of adoenture ~
and young slatlerns, batbed
in filtb
from Afonday to Saturday
to be tricked out tbat nigbt
witb gauds
from imaginations wbicb bare no
peasant traditions to gioe tbem
cbaracter
but ffutter and flaunt
sbeer rags ~ succumbing witbout
emotion
saoe numbed terror
ander some bedge of cboke~cberry
or oiburnum -
wbicb tbey cannot express -
Unless it be tbat marriage
perbaps
witb a dasb of Indian btood
will tbrow up a girl so desolate
so bemmed round
witb disease or marder
tbat sbe'll be rescued by an
agent -
reared by tbe state and
sent out at fijteen to work in
some bard pressed
bouse in tbe suburbs-
so nie doctor'sfaniily, some Elsie -
ooluptnous water
expressing witb broken
brain tbe trutb about us -
her great
ungainly bips and flopping breasts
adressed to cbeap
jewelry
and rieb young men witb fine eyes
as if tbe eartb ander our jeet
were
an exerement of some sky
and we degraded prisoners
destined
to banger until we eat filth
while the imagination strains
after deer
going hy fields of goldenrod in
the stifling heat of September
Somehow
it seems to destroy us
It is only in isolate flecks that
sometbing
is given of
No one
to wilness
and adjust, no one to drioe tbe car
197
by
William Carlos Williams
1.
The pure products of America
go crazy ~
mountain folk from Kentucfcy
or tbe ribbed nortb end of
Jersey
witb its isolate lakes and
oalleys, ihr deaf-mutes, tbieoes
old names
and promiscuity between
deoil -may-care men wbo baoe Laken
to railroaduig
out of sbeer Lust of adoenture ~
and young slatlerns, batbed
in filtb
from Afonday to Saturday
to be tricked out tbat nigbt
witb gauds
from imaginations wbicb bare no
peasant traditions to gioe tbem
cbaracter
but ffutter and flaunt
sbeer rags ~ succumbing witbout
emotion
saoe numbed terror
ander some bedge of cboke~cberry
or oiburnum -
wbicb tbey cannot express -
Unless it be tbat marriage
perbaps
witb a dasb of Indian btood
will tbrow up a girl so desolate
so bemmed round
witb disease or marder
tbat sbe'll be rescued by an
agent -
reared by tbe state and
sent out at fijteen to work in
some bard pressed
bouse in tbe suburbs-
so nie doctor'sfaniily, some Elsie -
ooluptnous water
expressing witb broken
brain tbe trutb about us -
her great
ungainly bips and flopping breasts
adressed to cbeap
jewelry
and rieb young men witb fine eyes
as if tbe eartb ander our jeet
were
an exerement of some sky
and we degraded prisoners
destined
to banger until we eat filth
while the imagination strains
after deer
going hy fields of goldenrod in
the stifling heat of September
Somehow
it seems to destroy us
It is only in isolate flecks that
sometbing
is given of
No one
to wilness
and adjust, no one to drioe tbe car
197