PREFACE

The poetry of William Carlos Williams often lives in that imaginative space between visual and verbal art．Some critics have already noted the visual element in his poetry and claimed that Williams’ verse is very similar to painting．They examine the relationship between cubism，dadaism and the poetry of Williams．The critics recognize that there is more than a casual relationship between Williams’ poetry and the visual arts．These critics have laid a solid foundation for later studies．In order to understand the significance of Williams’ poetry，one must consider the visual techniques Williams perfects during his poetic career．Among the major schools of modern painting，impressionism plays a more significant role in the history of the modern arts，greatly owing to its spirit of innovation．As a poet who is enthusiastic about painting from childhood，Williams was unavoidably influenced by the spirit of impressionism in his early time．While，what are its concrete influences on the poetry of Williams？On the basis of the important notions of impressionism the present research intents to explore the similarities between the techniques of impressionism and the early poetry of Williams．

As the fountain of modernist arts，impressionism breaks away from the Academy with a brand new version of the world，focuses on depicting the environment that surrounds them with special attention to light，its transitory and changing qualities on the landscape．As a literary style growing out of impressionism，literary impressionism aims to a depiction in literature of a certain scene，character or emotion．With the style，the author presents the object as it is heard，felt and seen in a single passing moment．Williams’ sharp perception in painting enables him to take inspirations from the ideas of impressionism and his poetry demonstrates the conspicuous techniques and stylistic features of impressionism．In his early works，we can find obvious traces of the techniques of impressionism．

On the basis of the important notions of impressionism，the research analyzes impressionism in Williams’ early poetry from the following seven chapters．Chapter One is an introduction to the book．The second chapter traces back to the influences on Williams in visual arts．With a close study of the culture of Williams’ time，his own experience，and his early poetry，a useful sense of the visual arts background to Williams’ early poetry is gained by starting with his earliest poetry and his important early relationships with his mother，who had great artistic talents and once studied art in Paris，his brother Edgar，Ezra Pound，and some painters of his time．Chapter Three explores an important impressionist characteristic，the interplay between the observer and the observed，in the early writing of Williams．Impressionism suggests impressionistic artwork is the interplay between the observer and the observed．Similar to it，the contact between mind and thing（through the agency of the senses）is justly advocated in Williams’ poetics．The fusion of the individual’s consciousness with the world creates a unity between visual appearance and mental reality．Reality is seen as a harmony of illusion and reality．Williams asserts that readers and the poet should work as co-maker to complete the work；the reader is invited with their imagination to learn complexities underlying the “simplicity”of the materials．Chapter Four works on the characteristics of a most important notion of impressionism，the act of perception，in Williams’ early poetry．Williams has said the poem’s “sensuality”is the poem’s rootedness in the physical world of actuality．The characteristics of impressionist perception，the fresh relationship with the world，the immediacy of impression，the conflict between sensual response and rational response，are so fully responded in Williams’ early poems．Chapter Five，entitled “Spatial Time in Williams’ Poetry”，discusses the impressionistic interpretation of space and time，the harmony of light and color and the philosophy of water in Williams’ early poems．Impressionists often emphasize the atmospheric conditions in a certain place at a specific time．Light and its effect on the objects depicted are so important to the impressionist．In literature，the reader is also intended to seize the impressionist works spatially in a moment of time，rather than a time sequence．All these impressionistic techniques are so vividly applied in the early poetry of Williams．Chapter Six focuses on discussing impressionist narrative in Williams’ early poetry．Different from the traditional omniscient narrative in which the author’s view dominates the way of telling，the impressionist text advocates to render rather than to narrate life．To literary impressionists，limited narrative and fragmental narrative are important new narrative methods to achieve the impressionist effect．The present study intends to articulate how these two impressionist methods are greatly applied in William’s early poetry．Chapter Seven is the conclusion of this book．

The innovative spirit of impressionism provides inspirations to Williams in helping him to see the world with a brand new version，know more about human consciousness including more about himself，find his own ways of poem，and establish his particular poetics．The application of the impressionistic techniques in his early poetry enriches the contents and forms of his poems．From then on，Williams in his later years underwent various experiments to incorporate different schools of visual arts into poetry to fashion the themes，and developed techniques in his poetry．His employment of the various visual elements sets an example for the modern poets，shows his strong sense of social responsibility to search for the outlet for the American modernist poetry．