The Red Wheelbarrow

Can a 16-word poem evoke emotion and feel complete? What’s so special about the red wheelbarrow next to the white chickens? Read on, and you will discover how William Carlos Williams’s short poem 'The Red Wheelbarrow' has become a fixture of 20th-century poetic history.

'The Red Wheelbarrow' poem

'The Red Wheelbarrow' (1923) is a poem by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). It originally appeared in the poetry collection Spring and All (1923). Initially, it was entitled 'XXII' as it was the 22nd poem in the collection. Composed of just 16 words in four separated stanzas, 'The Red Wheelbarrow' is sparsely written but stylistically rich.

William Carlos Williams: life and career

William Carlos Williams was born and raised in Rutherford, New Jersey. Upon graduation from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, Williams returned to Rutherford and began his own medical practice. It was unusual among poets of the time to have a full-time job apart from poetry. Williams, however, drew inspiration from his patients and fellow residents of Rutherford for his writing.

Critics consider Williams to be both a modernist and imagist poet. His early works, including 'The Red Wheelbarrow,' are hallmarks of Imagism in the early 20th-century American poetry scene. Williams later broke from Imagism and became known as a Modernist poet. He wanted to move away from the classical traditions and styles of European poets, and American poets that inherited these styles. Williams sought to reflect the cadence and dialect of everyday Americans in his poetry.

'The Red Wheelbarrow' is part of a poetry collection entitled Spring and All. While critics generally refer to Spring and All as a poetry collection, Williams also included prose pieces intermixed with the poems. Many consider Spring and All an important comparison point for another famous 20th-century poem published in the same year, TS Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922). Williams was not fond of 'The Waste Land' for he disliked Eliot’s use of classical imagery, dense metaphors, and the poem's pessimistic outlook. In Spring and All, Williams extolls humanity and resilience, perhaps as a direct response to The Waste Land.

Fig. 1 - A red wheelbarrow atop a green field.

'The Red Wheelbarrow' poem meaning

'The Red Wheelbarrow,' short and sparse as it may be, is ripe for analysis. Of its 16 words and 8 lines, only the first two lines and first of four stanzas don’t directly describe the titular red wheelbarrow. Right off the bat, Williams tells us that this wheelbarrow carries great importance as 'so much depends/upon' (1-2) it. He then goes on to describe the wheelbarrow – it is red, 'glazed with rain/water' (5-6), and sits 'beside the white/chickens' (7-8).

What does that mean? Why does so much depend upon the red wheelbarrow? To understand, it is important to know a little bit about Imagist poetry and William Carlos Williams. As previously mentioned, Imagism was an early 20th-century movement in American poetry. Imagist poetry is characterized by clean, clear diction used to evoke sharp images. Rather than rely on overly poetic, flowery language, Williams diverges from the Romantic and Victorian poetic styles of the past with his brief and to-the-point poem. There is one central image, one that he paints vividly despite the short nature of the poem - the red wheelbarrow, glazed with rainwater, beside the white chickens.

Another facet of Imagism and Modernism, in addition to clear, concise writing, is attention to the small moments in everyday life. Here, rather than write grandly about battlefields or mythical creatures, Williams chooses a familiar, commonplace sight. 'So much depends/upon' (1-2) this red wheelbarrow, implying that so much depends upon these small moments in our everyday lives. Williams captures a moment in time and chooses to draw our attention to one small moment that we may overlook as ordinary and even meaningless. He breaks this moment down into its parts, separating wheel from barrow and rain from water, making sure the reader pays attention to each small detail in the picture he paints.

Broader connections can be made by examining the two colors used in the poem. Between describing the wheelbarrow as red, in reference to life and vitality as it is the color of blood, and the chickens as white, a color symbolizing peace and harmony, you can look at the broader picture of what Williams describes. The wheelbarrow and chickens taken together imply that we are looking at farmland or a household that grows plants and raises farm animals. By emphasizing red and white, Williams shows that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling livelihood.

Fig. 2 - Two white chickens stand on a dirt path.

'The Red Wheelbarrow' literary devices

Williams makes use of various literary devices in 'The Red Wheelbarrow' to fully portray the central image. The most notable literary device Williams used is enjambment. The entire poem could be read as one single sentence. However, by breaking it down and continuing each line into the next without punctuation, Williams builds anticipation in the reader. You know that barrow naturally follows wheel, but Williams makes you wait for the connection to be made by separating it into two lines – just as he does with rain and water.

Williams also uses juxtaposition. We first encounter 'the red wheel/barrow' (3-4) before ending with 'beside the white/chickens.' (7-8) These two images contrast sharply with one another. The use of a red wheelbarrow as the central image juxtaposes with what poetry had historically been about – grand emotions, historical events, twisted tales. Here, Williams uses a simple, everyday image to ground his poem, juxtaposing the medium with its muse.

Williams as a poet sought to represent a truly American voice in poetry, one that mimicked the cadence and intonation of the way Americans speak naturally. 'The Red Wheelbarrow' eschews formalistic, rigid poetic structures such as sonnet or haiku. Though it follows a repetitive structure, it is a free verse style invented by Williams to suit his poetic purposes.