William Carlos Williams& "The Red Wheelbarrow"
Schwartz & Wade
(pub. 9.24.2019)
40 pages
C haracter: William Carlos Williams
O verview:
"A wheelbarrow.
A drizzle of rain.
Chickens scratching in the damp earth.
Open this oh-so-simple picture book and discover how William Carlos Williams turned the everyday things he saw outside a window into his greatest poem."
"Dr. Williams depends on his doctor's bag to carry the tools he needs.
Along with his stethoscope and syringes, he carries a pen. A pen for writing prescriptions. A pen for crafting poems.
Writing poems brings Dr. Williams joy, and he fits in his writing around his doctoring...
He writes about trees, a fire engine, cats, and plums.
He chooses the words for his poetry as carefully as he examines his patients."
And something more: The Author's Note explains that "as a young man, Williams had wanted to be an athlete, but he collapsed after a high school race and was found to have a heart condition. He was despondent. 'Like a bolt out of the blue,' his first poem came to him:
A black, black cloud
flew over the sun
driven by fierce flying
rain.
He felt such happiness that 'from that moment I was a poet.'"
