William Carlos Williams was basically a medical practitioner and a pediatrician. He was an American poet who portrayed his poems with modernism and imagism.
Apart from poem, he also wrote short stories, novels, plays and essays. He was a successful Writer and Doctor. He was a good observant and could put down words of nature in simple language. He always preferred to observe the small things and loved to prove that, poems are not from imagination, but could be written about simple things in simple Language.
The poem “This is just to say” is a very short poem that basically holds actually nothing so important at a look. However, if we pause and read the poet is trying to express sorry for the act he has done to someone else. He is showing the courtesy that in spite of doing a wrong deed, he feels sorry for what he has done, but just could not avoid the temptation.
In the poem, This is just to say, the poet describes that when he happened to see some plums in an icebox when he either entered a friend’s room or maybe in a meeting or maybe even at home, he just could not resist the way they appeared and the carve to eat them kept pushing him to have one.
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In this first stanza, he is giving a picture of the temptation that he is facing while seeing something that he likes and which could not be avoided. Something like a testing phase, he is undergoing.
However in the second stanza, he agrees that, by seeing those gorgeous plums which has tempted him, knowing that they might be a saving by the actual owner either for breakfast or for any meal of the day, he takes it and has it. He feels sorry for he has done, but just could not avoid it and hence he happily eats away all the plumps.
In the third stanza, he apologizes for the act he has done. Even though he knew that those plums which were there in the icebox were for somebody else for a meal, he took them and had them and feels ashamed of himself and henceforth he leaves back a sorry note stating his deed and the reason as to why he was fallen for it. They were so sweet and so cold. After all who could stay back from irresistible cold and sweet plumps?
The poet has sweetly yet in a convincing manner depicted in this poem the deed and remedy that he has done. Even though he knew those plums were somebody else’s , he fell for the temptation and once he had it, he showed the basic courtesy to ask for forgiveness for what he has done to the owner of the plumps.
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A simple poem, with lots of thoughts that could be achieved and learned when thought about deeply. Even though Williams was a poet known for his imagination and simplicity, he could put the day to day activities and deed into poetic format for the people to understand the value of morals and lead a good life.
A wonderful poem put in simple language and format is what this poem is all about.