William Carlos Williams and T.S. Eliot

WCW was very critical of his former classmate, T.S. Eliot's work in the Waste Land. WCW wanted to However, WCW imitates the Waste Land in very real ways. In "Spring and All" WCW alludes to the Waste Land and the desolate post-WWI landscape. WCW embraces the images of dead land and winter decay that Eliot writes as "the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring /Dull roots," and "feeding/A little life with dried tubers." WCW references these lines with, "Beyond, the/
waste of broad, muddy fields/ brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen," and again in the second stanza with "small trees/ with dead, brown leaves under them/ leafless vines."

Williams critiques Eliot for his classical references, use of other languages and the depth of the barrier that Eliot creates between his work and his readers. WCW embraces the modernist and imagist idea of Ezra Pound's of using only the essential language to capture a moment in time, an impression, an image. However, especially between the two works compared above, WCW cannot help but needed to capture the same image that Eliot sought to convey.

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land.

Williams, William Carlos. "Spring and All".