This report will attempt to analyze the poetry “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” by William Carlos Williams with four steps: Linguistic, Phonology, Grammar, Discourse. The poem is attached as the last page of this report. Since there is only one stanza in this poem, I have added line numbers on the left side of the poem so that you can understand which line I am writing about.
Linguistic
Repeated words are “today (l.9, 18, 20)” and “masses of flowers (l.10, 11)”. The repetition of “today” is emphasis of “now”. It shows that in the past the widow and her husband were living together as a couple but now her husband has gone and she has to live alone. The contrast between the past and the present comes from “formerly (l. 18)” and “today”.The second key word “masses of flowers” is about flowers in the widow’s garden. Many beautiful flowers are is full bloom. Each of them has a different appearance and color. Nevertheless the widow is indifferent to her flowers. The flowers are no longer “[her] joy (l. 17)” and they are just “masses of flowers”. She has completely lost interest in her former treasures.
There are three lexical sets in the poem: a plant-related set, a color-related set, and a sadness-related set. Listed below in a table are the three groups.
Analysis of
The Widow's Lament in Springtime
Thurs 6/27
This report will attempt to analyze the poetry "The Widow's Lament in Springtime" by William Carlos Williams with four steps: Linguistic, Phonology, Grammar, Discourse. The poem is attached as the last page of this report. Since there is only one stanza in this poem, I have added line numbers on the left side of the poem so that you can understand which line I am writing about.
Linguistic
Repeated words are "today (l.9, 18, 20)" and "mass...