"Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck"
This poem is really powerful. Williams is able to get his point across with the fewest words possible. The reader may not know every detail about the event, but poetry is more than just details. This phrasing is very refreshing; often times in this world we over analyze everything. We take every little thing we can out of a situation until there is nothing more to say. To me, this poem shows that life doesn't always have to be certain, every detail is not as important as the big picture. In this excerpt he describes the firetruck so plainly that the reader is enthralled to read each line in order to find out a little bit more about it. This poem reminds me of innocence; like when little children tell stories and they talk about the little things that wouldn't matter to anyone else (like the fact that a firetruck is red) you can't help but to smile. This poem is not about realizing the true meaning of the author, instead it is about sitting back and looking at something for what it truly is.
The technique that I want to apply to my own writing is the simple imagery. Often times when readers think of imagery they think of elaborate sentences and various details, but sometimes the most descriptive scenes have the simplest words. By condensing the details into a couple words you take every word for what it is, as if the moment was frozen in time. This scene has a lot going on in it but only a few words to describe it. It is a raining night and there are lights everywhere and it is hectic and all that can be heard is the sirens, but the only thing Williams lets on to is the firetruck. By isolating the details he takes the chaos out of the story, and this way he can control the focus of the reader.
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