The Centrality of Seeing in Journey to Love

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article examines scenes of looking and watching that recur throughout Williams's 1955 collection Journey to Love and suggests that acts of seeing provide a poetic paradigm for the book. In some of the best poems in Journey to Love Williams envisions the act of looking in relational terms, which prevents the book as a whole from becoming solipsistic. The article compares this late work to Williams's precise and unallegorical depiction of the world in his earlier poems. Williams ultimately turns from poetic iconoclasm to imaginative synthesis, connecting the parts of the world he singles out for attention through his characteristically keen observations.

Original languageAmerican English
JournalWilliam Carlos Williams Review
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2017

Keywords

  • imagination
  • knowledge
  • personal interaction
  • perspectives
  • seeing

EGS Disciplines

  • English Language and Literature

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