The Red Wheelbarrow (Themes)

Themes

Order and Disorder

The spirit of this poem lies in the concept that even such random objects as those mentioned are not as randomly situated at they might appear to the casual observer. There are three objects here, each highlighted by standing alone on its own line in this poem — (wheel)barrow, water, and chickens. The second two are defined in terms of their relationship to the first, as the water glazes the wheelbarrow and the chickens stand beside it. In life, we know, chickens move about more or less randomly, and rain glazes everything it falls on. It is by leaving out all other things that this poem makes the wheelbarrow the center of this tiny universe. The poet’s task here is to reproduce a human experience, and in real life the biggest, brightest object in the yard would catch the viewer’s attention; he or she would see all other objects as they relate to it. This relationship is even clear in the articles of speech that Williams uses. Early in the poem he describes “a” red wheelbarrow, showing that it is unfamiliar, as if it is just at that moment being noticed; when “the” chickens are mentioned, they already have a context, a background. Once the situation is focused around the wheelbarrow, auxiliary objects such as chickens are minor details, like “the wheels of a car.” With the poem organized around the wheelbarrow, the reader can see how “everything depends” on it.

Art and Experience

In this poem, Williams tried to capture the experience as it struck him when he noticed it in his neighbor’s yard and to convey that experience. To do this, he used simplified, precise language, with just one adjective per noun, basic colors, and no action. All of these techniques are obvious to us only because other poets have used opposite techniques. Some poetry, as a matter of fact, seems to try to be complex, ornate, and active. The more details these poems add, the more they draw attention to their language and away from the experience they are describing. Some poets would say that experience is just one tool in the entire arsenal that a writer has to convey an idea, while others would argue that ideas are not a poet’s business — that a poem that makes its reader feel the essence of nature will capture nature’s idea without the poet imposing his thoughts. “The Red Wheelbarrow” is an almost pure expression of this latter philosophy.

One of the most striking things about this poem is its form, how each stanza has four lines and every fourth word stands as its own line. Although Williams did not want to enslave his experience to a set poetic pattern, he was open to accepting a rhythm if one arose naturally from a situation. In this case, the structure is not strict, as can be seen by the inconsistency of the number of syllables on the odd-numbered lines: four, three, three and four. In notes that he made public, Williams said that he wrote this poem in about two minutes, after the subject had caught his attention for months. What appears to be a poetic structure, then, is just the way the poem presented itself to him. It does have a structure, but that structure was decided by the experience, not the poet.

Nature and Its Meaning

There are three items — wheelbarrow, water, and chickens — mentioned in this poem, but the one that everything depends on is the man-made tool. It is in using this word “depends” that the poem raises its greatest mystery. Usually, objects of nature are mysterious because they have an existence independent of human thought. If, for example, human beings had never walked the earth, there would still be rain and chickens, and so there is part of their existence that will always be independent of humans. In reading “The Red Wheelbarrow,” the reader has to wonder just what is meant by the natural objects “depending” on the wheelbarrow. How far does “so much” extend — just within the yard? Is the poet’s success or failure implied? Maybe the poem is even reaching into the area of physics that states that all things are interrelated, that a hummingbird’s path in Madagascar will affect a flood on the Mississippi River. Williams is purposely unclear about how much “depends” and in what way, but his tone makes it clear that what goes on in this yard is important, even crucial.

Topics for Further Study

• Write a poem describing an object central to a scene or incident. Try to imply the significance of the scene from your description alone.
• Suppose somebody stole the red wheelbarrow from this yard: now what would it all depend on? Why?
• Write about the colors that are mentioned in this poem, and their significance to the poem overall.