Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROMENADE, by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROMENADE, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, mind, here we have / our little son beside us
Last Line: And have breakfast!
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Nature


I

Well, mind, here we have
our little son beside us:
a little diversion before breakfast!
Come, we'll walk down the road
till the bacon will be frying.
We might better be idle?
A poem might come of it?
Oh, be useful. Save annoyance
to Flossie and besides -- the wind!
It's cold. It blows our
old pants out! It makes us shiver!
See the heavy trees
shifting their weight before it.
Let us be trees, an old house,
a hill with grass on it!
The baby's arms are blue.
Come, move! Be quieted!

II

So. We'll sit here now
and throw pebbles into
this water-trickle.

Splash the water up!
(Splash it up, Sonny!) Laugh!
Hit it there deep under the grass.
See it splash! Ah, mind,
see it splash! It is alive!
Throw pieces of broken leaves
into it. They'll pass through.
No! Yes -- Just!

Away now for the cows! But --
It's cold!
It's getting dark.
It's going to rain.
No further!

III

Oh then, a wreath! Let's
refresh something they
used to write well of.
Two fern plumes. Strip them
to the mid-rib along one side.
Bind the tips with a grass stem.
Bend and intertwist the stalks
at the back. So!
Ah! now we are crowned!
Now we are a poet!
Quickly!
A bunch of little flowers
for Flossie -- the little ones
only:
a red clover, one
blue heal-all, a sprig of
bone-set, one primrose,
a head of Indian tobacco, this
magenta speck and this
little lavender!
Home now, my mind! --
Sonny's arms are icy, I tell you --
and have breakfast!





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