Essay_on__A_Negro_Woman__by_W.C.Williams

American Literature Commentary on "A Negro Woman" by W. CArlos Williams The word “poetry” comes from the Greek verb “poein” which means “to create, to make”. It is an art of language that is aimed at expressing an idea in melodious words by playing with rhythms and musicality[1]. This text is a poem entitled “A Negro Woman” written by William Carlos Williams in 1955 and published in Pictures from Brueghel and other Poems in 1962. It is anchored in the very beginning of the African-American Civil Rights Movement which occurred between 1955 and 1968 in the United States. In this poem, Williams describes a quite common black woman of the time carrying yellow flowers from one place to another in the “early morning”. “A Negro Woman” is written in free verse as Williams tried to focus more particularly on concrete things, the rhythm and the clarity of the everyday life speech rather than on concepts, feelings and refined words. He summarized his poetic method as “no ideas but in things” and was in favor of the use of a local and plain American language. We can remark that the poem is divided into two distinct parts : one in which the poet describes a common scene of a black woman walking down the street and the other one in which he reveals the whole symbolism of this scene. We will try and explain in what sense Williams conveys the idea of a brand-new day for African-Americans through the simple description of a black woman carrying flowers. In order to do so we will first see how he portrays this woman and what tools he uses to make her a representative for all other black women and then we will see that he actually achieves to make a symbol out of her by using elements from her portrayal and thus revealing things that common men couldn't see without the help of the poet. What strikes us when we read the poem for the first time is the fact that it is a poem written in free verse. There are no rhymes, no standard stanzas, no traditional rhythm pattern. Instead, Williams chose to use what he called “variable foot”, he wanted his poem to reflect the varying tempo that is present in spoken language. The poem only consists in two rather long sentences but by separating them the poet makes them clearer and more rhythmic. The lay-out of the poem is also striking ; he used a particular type of stanza called “triadic stanza” which consists in a group of three lines, except for the first stanza here, moving gradually to the right margin: “A Negro Woman carrying a bunch of marigoldswrapped in an old newspaper:” (l.1-4) And this, despite the difference in the number of syllables in each line[2]. The arrangement of words, and the use of simple words give the impression of an everyday life speech. Furthermore, the numerous enjambments slow the reading and thus the pace of speech and it may reflects the rather leaden and swaying movement of the black woman's walking, due to “the bulk / of her thighs” (l.7-8). The lay-out itself also reflects this idea as the lines moves progressively straight ahead like the trajectory of the woman and the fact that it repeatedly goes from left to right might represent her waddling gait. Williams also uses lots of verbs to describe her actions such as “ A Negro Woman / carrying ; she carries ; causing her to waddle / as she walks / looking into ; she passes ; she announces ; she does ; walk ; holding” (l.2, 5, 6-8, 12, 19, 20, 22, 23 respectively). The numerous present continuous and present simple forms are a way to make her look very active and determinate to do what she is doing. By separating the different sentences into several little lines and setting words apart, the poet puts the emphasis on certain groups of words : those that are shorter than the rest. For instance, when it reads “She carries them upright / bareheaded / the bulk / of her thighs” (l.5-8), Williams brings out the words “bareheaded” and “the bulk” which characterize the woman he talks about. Indeed, throughout the first part of the poem, Williams simply depicts “A Negro Woman” (l.1). The indefinite article “A” shows that she could be any black woman. She is a typical Afro-American woman in the sense that she has the attributes of a black woman as we could imagine them at the time. First off she is described as fat, as we can see from lines 7 to 10 : “the bulk / of her thighs / causing her to waddle / as she walks”. The adjective “bareheaded” (l.6) can be opposed to the upper-class people who wore hats, she does not wear any headgear, she is very simple and we can also say that one possible meaning of “bare” is “poor” and since racial segregation was in practice at the time, poverty was largely widespread among black people. Moreover it is said from lines 3 to 4 that her flowers are “wrapped / in an old newspaper” which shows that she is badly-off as she may not have enough money to have a proper wrapping paper. The fact that the flowers she carries are “marigolds” (l.2 and 17) is not innocent : marigold comes from the association of the “Virgin Mary” and “gold”. It is said that poor people used to offer marigolds, which are generally yellow flowers, to the Virgin because they could not afford to give actual gold. Once again it reinforces the idea that she is quite poor. It also looks like she is doing errands, she is walking in the street with her bouquet of marigolds, and this is what we usually imagine the black nannies of the time doing. She is an undefined passer-by because she is nondescript, she is never named, she is just “A Negro Woman” and the idea of her being a passer-by is all the more conveyed by the passage when “she passes” a store (l.12). As we said, the poem is divided into two parts, and the shift in the discourse of the poet occurs when he transposes his previous description into a reflection on its symbolism, that is to say, when he writes “What is she / but an ambassador / from another world” (l.14-16). Once again the triadic stanza that cuts the sentence, put a stress on the words that are at the end of the lines, and here we have “ambassador” and “another world”. An ambassador is someone who represents their country, or here, their people, she is a representative of all other black women. The indefinite article “an” shows she is just one black woman among all the others. And as “an ambassador” it gives her power. She shows many other qualities, such as honesty with the word “upright” which applies to the state of the flowers that are not hold downwards but also says a lot about the woman who carries them, she is considered as righteous and it gives even more credibility. Care and love because of the way she carries the marigolds and the fact that she wrapped them with attention and strength because of her gait and her imposing appearance, and Williams gives her importance by using capital letters to the first letter of “A Negro Woman” as if it were a title, the title of the ambassador of the African-American people. Furthermore, marigolds are often said to be symbolic of passion[3] which makes the woman even more willing and determinate. At a moment, she is “looking into / the store window which she passes / on her way” (l.11-13) which may echo the segregation and thus meaning she can not go in the store. By passing the store it shows her pride and strength and highlights her powerfulness. And the repetition of the pronoun “she” (l.5, 10, 12, 14, 19, 20) also makes her mighty, she is the one who takes actions. Williams then compares the “bunch of marigolds” (l.2) that she holds “upright” to “a torch” (l.23-24), especially as the marigolds have “two shades” like the flames of fire. It immediately reminds us of the Statue of Liberty, greatest symbol of freedom in the United States. This comparison places her as the one who brings freedom and hope to black people. This idea is reinforced by the last line of the poem : “so early in the morning”, because the noun “morning” is often associated with hope ; it is a new day that rises on the Afro-American population. The fact that he ended the poem with “early morning” gives it even more importance. She is indeed a representative of black women and, to a great extent, of black people. This message of hope is also presented a few lines above, when the poet writes “What is she / but an ambassador / from another world / a world of pretty marigolds / of two shades / which she announces”. We may see the “world of pretty marigolds” as a way of talking about a wonderful world, it even brings a naive dimension with the word “pretty”, and it would be a world where black and white people could cohabit together, as we may understand it when he says “pretty marigolds / of two shades”, like the two different skin colors black and white. But she is not aware of her metamorphosis as an “ambassador from another world” as it is mentioned with “not knowing what she does / other / than walk the streets” (l.20-22). It is the role of the poet to reveal her status as such and thus making the reader aware of it as well. Williams tries to make her transformation clear to everyone. In order to do so, he repeats certain words from the first part in the second one, for instance : “marigolds” (l.2,17), “upright” (l.5,23), “walk” (l.10,22). He certainly repeated these words precisely because they summarize the scene ; there is a woman who is walking carrying marigolds upright, and by repeating them in the second part, he keeps a track enabling the reader to follow his argument. The poet is the spectator of the scene, he is the one who describes and, as we said earlier, Williams uses a simple language in order to remain in a common speech and by extension he uses simple metaphors like the yellow flowers “upright / as a torch” (l.24) so that everyone is able to understand what he is talking about. The poet is the one who can talk about everyday circumstances of life and reveal the true symbolic and hidden meanings of this scene that are not usually noticeable by common people. It is his duty to put his gift to good use for the readers and for Humanity's progress thanks to his ability to express and feel things more accurately. As we said the African-American Civil Rights Movement started to emerge at the time and Williams wanted to be part of the ones who make a difference, who want the progress of humanity and to open the eyes of others. We can note that at the end of the very same year when this poem was written (1955), a black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in a bus and her action sparked several boycotts and gave a boost to the Civil Rights Movement. This poem reflects Williams' idea that the poet did not need to use an elegant vocabulary to express his impressions on the contemporary world but rather a simple language for everyone to understand him with little difficulty. By simply describing a woman walking down the street, he is able to highlight the symbolic meaning behind the scene and thus he shows the way to the world, reveals reality to the readers. He makes a symbol out of this black woman who represents a large part of the American population which are the African-Americans and wants to show that hope is to come, and in 1964, two years after the publication of the poem, the Civil Rights Act is passed. --------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Chambers's Twentieth-Century Dictionary of the English Language, Edited by Thomas Davidson, W. and R. Chambers, 1903 [ 2 ]. The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry, Christopher Beach, Cambridge University Press, 2003 [ 3 ]. The Language of Flowers, Geraldine Adamich Laufer, Workman Publishing, 2000