Spring and All (1923) is a book of poems by William Carlos Williams.
Predominately known as a poet, Williams frequently pushed the limits of
prose style throughout his works, often comprised of a seamless blend of
both forms of writing. In Spring and All, the closest thing to a
manifesto he wrote, Williams addresses the nature of his modern poetics
which not only pursues a particularly American idiom, but attempts to
capture the relationship between language and the world it describes.
Part essay, part poem, Spring and All is a landmark of American
literature from a poet whose daring search for the outer limits of life
both redefined and expanded the meaning of language itself. "There is a
constant barrier between the reader and his consciousness of immediate
contact with the world. If there is an ocean it is here." In Spring and
All, Williams identifies the incomprehensible nature of consciousness
as the single most important subject of poetry. Accused of being
"heartless" and "cruel," of producing "positively repellant" works of
art in order to "make fun of humanity," Williams doesn't so much defend
himself as dig in his heels. His poetry is addressed "[t]o the
imagination" itself; it seeks to break down the "the barrier between
sense and the vaporous fringe which distracts the attention from its
agonized approaches to the moment." When he states that "so much depends
/ upon // a red wheel / barrow," he refers to the need to understand the
nature of language, which keeps us in touch with the world. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of William Carlos Williams' Spring and All is a classic of
American literature reimagined for modern readers.
