Williams’ work is often the product of the painters’ eyes and the painters’ methods．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．

2.1 Williams’ Contact with the Visual Arts

The central importance of the visual in Williams’ poetry is strikingly emphasized in a short article he wrote for The Columbia Review in 1937．He wrote，“Think of the poem as an object，an apple that is red and good to eatT‒‒or a plum that is blue and souro‒‒or better yet，a machine for making bolts．” In 1929，to the question“What is your strongest characteristic？”posed by the editors of The Little Review，Williams replied：“My sight．I like most my ability to be drunk with a sudden realization of value in things others never notice．”With Williams’ emphasis on sight came，not surprisingly，an abiding，life-long interest in the visual arts．

On February 17，1913，the Armory Show opened in New York．In this huge exhibition，the revolutionary European movements in the visual arts，such as Impressionism，Fauvism，Cubism，and Futurism，were introduced to the general American public for the first time，side by side with a comprehensive show of progressive American art．The exhibition was an object of derision and amusement to the vast majority of visitors and critics alike，but it deeply impressed a number of artists and critics，who were increasingly dissatisfied with the triteness and utter conventionality of the established artistic forms．Their main reaction was one of fascination and excitement：The revolutionary European art threw the provincial and conventional character of most of their own products into sharp relief and created in turn an intense hope for an American art of equal temerityf‒‒for an art that would neither ignore what had happened outside America nor withdraw from the crass contemporary world of materialism and science into the creation of spurious idylls based on an anemic idealism．Williams’ own comments on the Armory Show reveal his feeling of hope for an imminent fundamental change：

There was at that time a great surge of interest in the arts generally before the First World War．New York was seething with it．Painting took the lead．We were tinder for Cézanne．I had long been deep in love with the painted canvas through Charles Demuth but that was just the beginning…Then the Armory Show burst upon us，the whole Parisian galaxy，Cézanne at the head，and we were exalted by it．（Au 57）

Beside the show，actually in several ways Williams was deeply influenced by visual arts．Introduced into the world of art through his mother’s still lives，he had shown a keen interest in painting from the beginning．His early friendship with Demuth，whom he met in 1905 in Philadelphia，was the first of several intimate relationships with painters．

Williams’ mother painted，and had studied art in Paris．Her interest in art influenced Williams deeply in his early life．Williams later claimed：

I was conscious of my mother’s influence all though this time of writing…I’ve always held her as a mythical figure，remote from me，detached，looking down on an area in which I happened to live，a fantastic world where she was moving as a mere or less pathetic figure．Remote，not only because of her Puerto Rican background，but also because of her bewilderment at life in a small town in New Jersey after her years in Paris where she had been an art student．Her interest in art became my interest in art．I was personifying her，her detachment from the world of Rutherford．She seemed a heroic figure，a poetic ideal．I didn’t especially admire her；I was attached to her…（Heal 16）

And this interest is expressed in his earliest letters．Writing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1904，he told his mother of a visit to a local painter，a Mr．Wilson，who “was painting in his studio so he gave me an easel，some brushes and I painted a still life．”（SL 27）In his autobiography Williams identified this early teacher as：“John Wilson…a man in his early fifties，I imagine…a failure of an artist who used to paint，right out of his head，landscapes and cows，pictures 24×36 inches or so，that sold as ‘art’ for from ten to twenty dollars．（Au 61）”At the time of the publication of his first book of poems in 1909，he would journey “into the fields along the river…to do some painting as Mr．Wilson had taught me．（Au 106）

Little work survives as evidence of this early activity．In the 1950s，when Yale librarian Norman Holmes Pearson questioned Williams on his early painting efforts and suggested including a canvas or two in the Yale collection，Williams depreciated their importance．Although he “painted a little at one time”he told Pearson，“the results are not enlightening，not worth owning．”He offered Pearson the landscape oil The Passaic River（warning that the painting was “no good”）and also what he called “a bold self-portrait”that has some “light in it．”（The landscape c.1912 is now at Yale；the portrait c.1914 is at the University of Pennsylvania．）Apart from these two canvases，there remain a few scattered line drawings among Williams’ papers at Yale and Buffalo，and some drawings in his 1906 medical class yearbook．This yearbook，for which Williams served as “art editor，”contains four line drawings signed “W．C．Williams．”

Mrs．Williams’ interest in art was also transmitted to Williams’ young brother Edgar，who was painting and drawing in college．In early letters to Edgar，Williams often asked for news of his work．In 1904，he wrote，“Tell me what you do in the art line every time you write to me for I am very much interested．”Four years later he was still adding “Tell me about your drawings”（SL 27）．Williams’ son，William Eric，has described many paintings on the walls of the Williamses’ house at 9 Ridge Road，Rutherford，New Jersey，and noted that among the Hartleys，Demuths and Sheelers “the majority…are water colors done by Dad’s brother Edgar．”

Williams and his brother，Edgar had tried their hands at painting in their youtht‒‒although Williams soon gave it up，probably because his work toward a medical degree required most of his attention．In deciding to focus on poetry，Williams by no means chose to abandon practicing a visual art．He believed that poetry pursued the same goals as painting in the world of images．Even after he had begun to write，he toyed with the idea of becoming a painter for several years．By 1908 Williams was working as an intern in New York．He told Edgar of his rigorous scheme of self-education，which included studying the plants and trees in Bronx Park，visiting the Museum of Natural History，and attending a lecture course on great masters of music．He also explored the Metropolitan Museum，reporting that “with a catalogue I’ll soon be able to distinguish a few of the leading characteristics of the principal schools of painting．”This eclectic activity was part of his determination，he told Edgar，to “show the world something more beautiful than it has ever seen before．”It was all carefully copied down：“I am keeping notes on architecture，landscape and decoration as well as mechanical features which I like in connection with my idea．”

Williams quoted Milton to Edgar approvingly：“to feel is living and all poetry must be sensuous．”Through its affective powere‒‒powers shared by architecture and the other artsp‒‒poetry achieves its moral ends：“This is the province of art，to influence the best and as we learn the better and better to influence each other with beauty so shall we perhaps grow to help others and perhaps who can tell in the end we may help many．”

Early in 1909 Williams published his first volume of poetry，Poems．That summer he journeyed to Leipzig to pursue his medical studies．Viewing “the German art”in terms of his apotheosis of feeling，he found it to be “quite ponderous，”for all its foundation in “German thought and independence．”This “thought”he criticized as lacking any “spontaneity or something akin to innocence and joyousness．”（SL 18）

“Innocence”is an important value for Williams in his Poems．He conceives of it as having an immutable，transcendent existence．In another poem from the volume，“The Uses of Poetry”（1909），he views verse as the vehicle to reach a world where such immutability is possible．It is merely the limitations of “sense”which produce the essentially transient feelings of discord and pain．

Just like an impressionist painting which sometimes can be seen as an impression which records the transient effects of light and atmosphere．Similarly，an impressionist poetry can also be regarded as the presentation of a transient feeling of our pleasure or pain．From these aesthetics ideas of Williams’ early time，we can find the young man’s obvious echo to the ideas of impressionism．

Let’s see a 1909 letter to Edgar，the weather in the English Channel on the voyage to Europe，Williams told his brother，exhibited the “most wonderful J．M．W．Turner skiesm‒‒you know the kind with little frost-like fingers pointing at all angles for a background．”There is no torrent of detail to cause the spectator “bewilderment，”for the central object is isolated by a surrounding mist：“around the horizon was a transparent sunny-like mist through which the shore shone almost fairy-like，it was so silent，so dim and yet so green and white and beautiful．”（SL 15） Impressionism，as a 19^th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artist，is the fountain of modern art．It plays a key role in the development of modern art，and it also brings fresh air to Williams’ poetry and gives important inspiration to his poetics as well．

For Williams，the last one hundred years of French painting were an enduring inspiration，and he time and again referred to it as one of the standards of excellence in artistic expression．He believed it to have been one of the cleanest，most alert and fecund avenues of human endeavor，a positive point of intelligent insistence from which work may depart from any direction．Cézanne and Picasso（French，for Williams，because he painted in Paris）are the artists he most frequently mentioned as exemplary workers in the realm of the imagination．Demuth，Braque Duchamp and Juan Gris a number of others follow close behind．

For Williams，the poet’s job was to express “the meaning of an apple，”and that meaning was “not something for a child to eat or for a pie but something more closely related to Cézanne who painted them．”（Au 31）Indeed，there are so many close connections between Williams’ poetry and the visual arts．Early in 1921 he had wanted to call a collection of his poetry Picture Poems，changing his mind only at the last moment to have it published under the title Sour Grapes，a title should perhaps be seen as literally intended，and to some extend as self-deprecating（these poems are “unripe”）．

Almost thirty years later，during a reading at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York，he still saw his poems primarily as pictures：

In the course of seeking technical improvements in the use of his medium，something he must do if he is to remain alive and effectivee‒‒the artist inadvertently，perhaps，records a few pieces；portraits，landscapes or what not to please his public or patron．

That’s the way it has gone for the last few hundred years．

Let me take advantage of this drift and present some figures of men and women to you，mostly anonymous．

As T．S．Eliot said to me the only time I saw him，Williams，you’ve given us some good characters in your work，let’s have more of thems‒‒That’s what I shall follow tonights‒‒at least at the start．You may，looking at the pictures，gather whatever there is else to find in the text as we go along．

That Williams was not merely lured into comparisons and figures of speech by his surroundings at the time of his reading，but was moved instead by a genuine sense of solidarity with the painters whose work hung on the walls around him，can be seen from what he said to Walter Sutton in an interview which took place not long before he died．When Sutton asked him whether he and the painters spoke the same language，Williams replied：“Yes，very closes‒‒And as I’ve grown older，I’ve attempted to fuse the poetry and painting to make it the same thingv‒．” Emphasizing that design，structure，was the key to the fusion of the two media，he made it clear that for him “the meaning of the poem can be grasped by attention to the design．”For Williams the identification of a poem as a composition of sharply，visually，delineated objects and events was a sufficient justification of its existence，as it is commonly accepted to be in a painting．Again it is Cézanne，an important impressionistic painter，who proves to have been the catalyst for the poet’s conception of poetic structure：“I was tremendously involved in an appreciation of Cézanne．He was a designer．He put it down on the canvas so that there would be a meaning without saying anything at all．Just the relation of the parts to themselves．In considering a poem，I don’t care whether it is finished or not；if it is put down with a good relation to the parts，it becomes a poem．And the meaning of the poem can be grasped by attention to the design．”

Williams encountered both Demuth and Pound as a student at the University of Pennsylvania，and thus began two life-long friendships．The meeting with Demuth occurred over a dish of prunes at Mrs．Chain’s boarding house on Locust Streets‒‒an incident Williams was fond of recalling．At the time Demuth was enrolled at the city’s Drexel Institute，transferring in 1905 to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts．Williams and Demuth were both interested in painting and literature；if Williams had repeatedly toyed with the idea of becoming a painter，Demuth could not quite make up his mind whether to become a painter or a poet until as late as 1914．Personal bonds and artistic interests in mutual interaction were to a large extent responsible for the two friends developing a very similar view of the goal of Modernism and the American scene，and for their both becoming associated with other modernist painters of their time．

In their manifesto in the first number of Contact，Williams and Robert McAlmon wrote：“We will be American，because we are of America… Particularly we will adopt no aggressive or inferior attitude toward ‘imported thought’ or art．”And in a “Comment”for the second number，Williams asserted that the Americans had to become aware of their own culture，lest they “stupidly fail to learn from foreign work or stupidly swallow it without knowing how to judge its essential values．” This was also precisely Demuth’s position．He was keenly interested in all aspects of contemporary American civilization，including those that were anathema to the defenders of a traditional “high culture”．Their revolt to tradition and authorities obviously endorsed to those revolutionary ideas of the impressionist artists．

Demuth obviously shared with Williams that sharp sense of being surrounded by a larger public that was either distinctly hostile to them or not interested at all in what they were doing．But while for Williams this feeling had on the whole the effect of an additional incentive，it made Demuth often doubt whether the effort was really worthwhile．Nevertheless，in 1921 the decision was final ‒‒he would stay in America and devote himself to an art that was to be the result of the joint effort of the avant-garde to respond to，and cope with，the contemporary civilization to which they belonged．The result of Demuth’s decision was，among other things，a number of important paintings in oil and tempera on the landscape of the machine，and a series of “poster portraits，”as he called them，done as homages to his artist friends．Almost all of these works were completed between 1920 and 1930；after that time his bad health ‒‒he suffered from diabetesh‒‒prevented him from working for a prolonged time on larger canvases．

Demuth enthusiastically endorsed Williams’ college writing efforts．In a 1907 letter he declared，“I have always felt that it would happen to you some dayI‒‒that you would simply have to write．”（Farnham 48）Williams reciprocated with an interest in his friend’s painting．In a 1956 interview he told Emily Farnham，Demuth’s biographer，“Charlie gave me one of his first paintings．It was mostly yellow and lavender，a picture of a girl，and it wasn’t any good．I gave it later on to Mrs．Demuth．” In addition to this yellow and lavender girl，Williams owned two further examples of his friend’s early work．Demuth presented the watercolor April landscape（1911）as a wedding gift to the Williamses in 1912．Farnham describes this work as “trees treated in Impressionism manner．”

Over the following twenty years Williams would come to own a number of Demuth’s works，and shared ideas and friendships would be important to both of them．In 1923，when Williams published the most successful “arrangement”to come out of his interest in paintings ‒‒the poems and prose of Spring and All>‒‒he dedicated the book to his first artistic confidant，Demuth．

Demuth’s famous homage to Williams，I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold（Figure 13），done in 1928，is a typical painting with some characteristics of impressionism．That Demuth based his “poster portrait”on Williams’ impressionistic poem “The Great Figure”is not surprising when we recall the feeling of the poet was rooted in his common conviction that an indigenous American art had to make “contact”first and foremost with those aspects of their environment that had up to then been largely or even completely ignored．For Williams’ friends，“The Great Figure”（1921），with its sensitivity to things completely outside the confines of Art，Beauty，and Culture，was a paradigmatic achievement．It was this poem in particular that Kenneth Burke singled out for praise in one of the earliest appraisals of Williams’ art in 1922：“What for instance，could be more lost，more uncorrelated，a closer Contact，a great triumph of anti-culture，than this poem．”（Burke 50）

Among the rain

and lights

I saw the figure 5

in gold

on a red

firetruck

moving

tense

unheeded

to gong clangs

siren howls

and wheels rumbling

through the dark city．（CPⅠ 174）

In this poem，the image of the firetruck racing through the city in the midst of the frenzy of “going clangs”and “siren howls”evokes the enthusiasm of the impressionist for the dynamic chaos of the modern urban civilization．“The Great Figure”is one of the poems that recall impressionists’ influence，in particular that of the relationship between man and environment．The golden figure 5 is a veritable object discovered by the poet among the innumerable things that belong to the neglected “soulless”present-day technological environment so systematically bypassed by the more traditional artists．The impressionist ideas undoubtedly helped Williams to come to the conviction that a poem，like any other work of art，“can be made of anything” The very title of “The Great Figure”contains this conviction in a nutshell：In 1920，when the poem was published for the first time，a reader probably expected it to be about a figure of public importance rather than about a number，or immediately realized the clash between what one could generally expect to find in poetry and what one found heres‒‒a poem that violated the basic poetic conventions by almost any standard．

Just like an impressionistic picture which records merely the impression of transient feelings of us，when the readers finish reading the poem，the dramatic moment is over，with the firetruck disappearing into the night．Thus the last line of the poem takes us back to the beginning；the poem opens and closes with a wide-angle shot，so to speak，of the dark city with its rain and lights，a background which very effectively frames the sudden appearance of the golden figure in an exciting flash of color，sound，and movement．

If “The Great Figure”is one of Williams’ most memorable and delightful early poems，the painting by Demuth which it inspired is undoubtedly one of the artist’s masterpieces． I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold is the last and most famous of his “poster portraits．”Demuth obviously tried to render as dramatically as possible the sudden appearance，the dramatic impression of the 5 that looms large before the eye for a moment before the red firetruck vanishes into the night and darkness．This led to the daring and ingenious idea of painting the 5 three times．The largest figure，filling the whole canvas，seems to float in the air right before our eyes；the second and third recede into the background，drawing the eye to the center and creating a sense of rapid motion and the depth of space into which the firetruck and the 5 disappear．

The basic aims of Demuth’s picture were the same as those of Williams’ poem ‒‒they were meant to be a reflection of the contemporary American scene，an expression，ideally，of an essential aspect of the world in which the artists lived and with which they had to cope．Both Williams and Demuth were convinced that this was a world that would not and should not，emulate the more refined and/or more decadent culture of Europe，a world，however，that had a vitality all its own，and offered many new，unexpected beauties．

In Williams’ Spring and All，dedicated to Demuth，we find not only the same basic device of juxtaposition but even the same clashes between the natural and the industrial，the organic and the mechanistic，the sublime and the banal，the religious and the secular，the idealistic and the vitalistic．And in Williams’ poems，too，the relation between the juxtaposed realms and their respective values is highly complex；the reader approaching them with too simplistic a scheme of values will be unable to term with them．The mind has to abandon the traditional categories，so as to prevent to slip into the old mode．

The fact that Williams’ urban landscape poems and Demuth’s paintings are in many ways related to impressionism．They are obvious，when we compare Demuth’s landscapes to the impressionistic poems．Both the poet and the painter create a field of action，as we have seen，by a series interacting elementsf‒‒elements that create tension or conflict by clashing with one another，or fuse with others to create harmony．

2.2 Pound’s Influence on Williams in Visual Arts

William Carlos Williams knew Ezra Pound，a vivid mentor of him，from the time they were both undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania in the early years of the 20th century．Pound soon went abroad for an almost permanent residence in England and then on the Continent；Williams（partly educated in Europe as a child）was content to revisit Europe，but for the most part stayed at home after taking his medical degree at Pennsylvania in 1906．Williams’ early verse was somewhat derivative，although he was almost at once quite modern，with his friends，the imagists．In 1917，with the rather experimental Al Que Quiere！，Williams shows that he was finding his own way．From that time forth，in both poetry and prose，he spoke with his own distinctive voice．And it was a distinctive American voice．Ezra Pound，in a 1928 essay，suggested that Williams was discovering his native country virtually with the eyes of an outsider．

When Pound wrote to Williams in 1908 defending his A Lume Spento from his friend’s charge of “poetic anarchy，”he called Williams attention to “what the poets and musicians and painters are doing with a good deal of convention that has masqueraded as law”（Witemeyer 8）．Pound’s letter give evidence of what he was gaining from an interest in the painters：he scoffs at the demands of “the public，”dismisses the traditional subject matter of verse，and declares “sometimes I use rules of Spanish，Anglo-Saxon and Greek metric that are not common in the English of Milton’s or Miss Austin’s day”（Witemeyer 29）．The modernist painters had already，by this date，developed similar strategies for painting．In fact，the “law”that painters such as Cézanne，Whistler and Kandinsky had challenged covered almost every aspect of their art．The modernist poets were also drawn to the strategies of the painters by the nature of the modernist poetic．This part deals largely with Williams’ response to Pounds’ work and to the magazines associated with Pound．

Before his first trip to Europe in 1908，Pound had encountered a number of minor American painters．Among these were William Brooke Smith，to whom A Lume Spento is dedicated，Fred Reed Whiteside in Philadelphia，and Fred Nelson Vance in Crawfordsville，Indiana．When he returned to the United States for seven months in June 1910，his painter associates in New York were Carlton Gliddens，Warren Dahler，and Yeats’s father Jack B．Yeats．

Writing from New York in 1911，he told his parents to “read ‘The New Art in Paris’ in the February Forum．There is an answer to a number of things．That ought to prove my instinct for where I can breathe．It’s mostly news to me，but of the right sort．” The article was written by Stieglitz’s associate Marius De Zayas．De Zayas praises the receptivity of the Parisian audience to art which it does not initially understand ‒‒an atmosphere Pound would certainly appreciate．

When Pound was in Paris，he told his mother that he had visited the studio of a “brand new painter，”and that he had “seen a number of Cézanne pictures in a private gallery．”He visited the Salon Des Independents，declaring “Matisse’s one canvas is well painted，”although “freaks there are in abundance．” The note of skepticism is sounded again in his late 1911 essay series “I Gather the Limbs of Osiris，”There he found the contemporary arts “damned and clogged by the mimetic，”noting that many of “the painters of the moment escape through eccentricity．”

In his famous 1913 essay “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”Pound defined an “Image”as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time．” Whistler’s pictures invited apprehension in a single instant in terms of the artist’s imposition of form，and the imagist poem offered the poet one way to write such a “complex．”Through control of form，painting or poetry could manifest a way of seeing ‒‒ recording the conscious purpose of the artist，and not his enslavement to traditional modes of expression．

Reviewing Williams’s second published volume，The Tempers，in the London Journal The New Freewoman in December 1913，Pound read his friend as engaged in a similar strategy．Williams “makes a bold attempt to express himself directly and convinces one that the emotions he feels are veritably his own．”He noted “the effect of color…the particularly vivid and rich range of colour in which his emotions seem to present themselves，‘gold against blue，’ to his vision．” For Pound，the impulse behind Williams’s work is an emotion apprehended visually．

In this same year Pound discussed the germination of his “In a Station of the Metro”（the concluding poem of the “Contemporania”series）．

The apparition of these faces in the crowd：

Petals on a wet，black bough．

For this account，in T．P．’s Weekly，the poem is related to Japanese tradition，”where a work of art is not estimated by its acreage．” But a year later his description of translating a pattern of color into a verbal image is retold around a critical apparatus a good deal more painterly．Although the emotion originally appeared to him in terms of a pattern of color，being a poet，not a painter，he sought an “image”to express that emotion where a painter would have recorded the colors．“The image is the poet’s pigment：with that in mind you can go head and apply Kandinsky，you can transpose his chapter on the language of form and colour and apply it to the writing of verse．”

Many new art ideas were introduced to Pound，and to England，by T．E．Hulme．Pound wrote to his mother on 20 January 1914，“Hulme lectured at the QUEST last night on futurism and post-impressionism，followed by fervent harangues from Wyndham Lewis and myself．” What Hulme actually lectured on was Worringer’s aesthetics．His talk survives as “Modern Art and its Philosophy”collected in Speculations，much of the argument，as he confesses，“practically an abstract of Worringer’s views．”

Pound reported on the Quest meeting for Egoist readers on 16 February 1914，and summarized a number of Hulme’s points．He describes Hulme’s lecture as “almost wholly unintelligible，”but this is sarcasm directed at the audience，not Hulme．Pound clearly found it intelligible，and concludes “Mr．Hulme was quite right in saying that the difference between the new art and the old was not a difference in degree but a difference in kind：a difference in intention．”He echoes Hulme’s choice of artists，“Epstein is the only sculptor in England”（although he finds Gaudier- Brzeska also worthy of note）．

Pound’s own talks‒‒described in his report as given by “a third speaker””‒ discusses the “two totally opposed theories of aesthetic”that come from either regarding art as passive acceptance of sensations，or “as an instrument for carrying out the decrees of the will（or the soul）””‒‒Kandinsky’s words‒‒“or whatever you wish to term it．”This art of the “will”is essentially undemocratic，the artist taking no more heed of “general franchise”than he does of conventional form．

For Pound，the modern poet was in a disharmony with his immediate surroundings that made him kin to those artists of past and present whose similar disjunction produced their abstract art．This hostile environment often appears in Pound’s poems of these years as the philistine literary establishment of editors，academics，and febrile writers who threaten the livelihood and work of the genuine artist．In poems such as “Et Faim Sallir les Loups des Boys”the isolation is presented dramatically．

I cling to the spar，

Washed with the cold salt ice

I cling to the spart‒‒

Insidious modern waves，civilization，

Civilized hidden snares．

Williams followed the ferment of ideas in London as he moved towards his poetic independence with the New York / New Jersey “Others”group．In 1912 Pound sent him the new Chicago Poetry， advising him to subscribe，and in the same year dedicated the volume Ripostes to him．In 1913 he arranged for the publication of Williams’s The Tempers with Elkin Matthews in London．Writing to Williams at the end of this year，he told him to subscribe to The Egoist and to watch out for “the coming sculptor，Gaudier-Brzeska．” He included Williams in the imagist anthologies Des Imagistes（1914）and Catholic Anthology（1915）．

In Poetry and The Egoist Williams followed the outpourings of imagist verse and critiques，telling his friend Viola Jordan in June 1914 that he was himself an imagist，and that she was underestimating the worth of The Egoist．In telling her to read that month’s poetry for Ford Maddox Ford’s “On Heaven”he implied his agreement with the view of Pound and Richard Aldington that the work was the finest yet to emerge from the new movement．

When Pound moved from imagism to vorticism，making imagism，according to F．S．Flint，“to mean pictures as Wyndham Lewis understands them，” Williams responded with similar experiments．His poems in The Tempers follow Pound in evincing a nostalgia for past eras when the importance of poetry was clearly manifest，but as Pound developed a strategy for bringing the “energized past”to bear upon the concerns of the modern poet，so the note of nostalgia disappears in Williams’ work．A number of his poems from these years demonstrate this interest in the cycles of art as they are discussed in the work of Pound，Hulme，and Gaudier-Brzeska．Past models of geometrical art are brought into poems that map out a strategy for the contemporary expression of the poet’s America．

In Williams’ 1916 “Metric Figure”describes the new movements in art as revelatory of form．

Veils of clarity

have succeeded

veils of color（CPⅠ 51）

Color，as Kandinsky argued in his analysis of its effects，should be a directed，knowledgeable application of the primary elements of painterly self-expression．Through the sensitive appreciation of its intrinsic qualities，color is to be utilized as carefully as any other formal element in art．Color is revelatory of form，not bound to conventional representations of nature．In “La Flor”（1914）it is Williams’ praise of Pound over “versifiers”that “his verse is crimson when they speak of the rose，”and he contrasts Pound with “Those who bring their ingenious tapestries to such soft perfection / Borrowing majesty from a true likeness to natural splendour，” In Williams’ “Metric Figure”（1916），

Veils of clarity

have succeeded

veils of color

that wove

as the sea

sliding above

submerged whiteness．

Veils of clarity

reveal sand

glisteningg‒‒

falling away

to an edget‒‒

sliding

beneath the advancing ripples．（CPⅠ 51-52）

On one level the poem presents sunrise，but on another it describes the shift from impressionism to the hard edged geometrics of modernist art．Changes in poetryp‒‒from atmospheric verse to the “clarity”of imagism ‒‒ have accompanied the developments in the visual arts．The “veils of color”that informed impressionist work have given way to the controlling clarity of an art that reveals “an edge．”The light and sea are now “advancing”instead of “sliding，”while the revealed matter of art falls away toward its expressive angularity ‒ its edge．

In his essays，Williams’ definition of a work of art could apply to the strategy behind his early poems．

Life that is here and now is timeless．That is the universal I am seeking：to embody that in a work of art，a new world that is always “real．”

All things otherwise grow old and rot．By long experience the only thing that remains unchanged and unchangeable is the work of art．It is because of the element of timelessness in it，its sensuality．The only world that exists is the world of senses．The world of the artist．（SE 196）

In his whole lifetime，Williams continued to experiment with strategies of modern art．Pound had directed Williams to the ideas coming out of that contemporary European consciousness，but now Williams had to place an American stamp upon those ideas．In meeting the “Others”group，and Marsden Hartley，in the years after 1914，he joined other American artists similarly groping both for an individual and a national voice within the international upheaval in the arts．

1. “Poetry．”The Columbia Review，ⅩⅨ，Ⅰ（November 1937），3．
2. The Little Review（May 1929），87．
3. Williams，unpublished letter to Norman Holmes Pearson.20 Sept.1957，Yale Za 221．
4. Williams，William Eric．“The House．”WCWN 5，No．Ⅰ（Spring 1979）：3．
5. Williams，unpublished letters to Edgar Williams，21 Aug.1908，Yale Za 221．It would be five years before the museum purchased its first Cézanne，from the Armory Show．
6. Williams，unpublished letters to Edgar Williams，6 April 1909，Yale Za 221．
7. Geoffrey H．Movius notes with reference to the description：“Williams had probably seen Turner’s ‘The Whale Ship’ at the Metropolitan Museum in New York many times；and it is likely that he also knew ‘The Slave Ship，’ purchased by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1899．”“Caviar and Bread：Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams，1902-1914，”JML，5（1976）：392．
8. Museum Reading，3 / 28 / 50．”unpublished ms．，Yale（Za Williams 174）．
9. Walter Sutton，“A Visit with William Carlos Williams．”The Minnesota Review，Ⅰ，3（April 1961），109-324．Reprinted in Interviews with William Carlos Williams：Speaking Straight Ahead，ed．Linda Welshimer Wagner（New York Directions，1976）．
10. Contact，1（Dec.1920）：Contact，2（Jan.1921）：11-12
11. Emily Farnham，“Charles Demuth，His Life，Psychology，and Works．”Diss．Ohio State1959.989．
12. Imaginations，ed．Webster Schott（New York，1970），70．
13. Vance and Whiteside appear in Pound’s “Redondillas，or Something of That Sort”（1911）．I praise God for a few royal fellows Iike Piarr and Fred Vance and Whiteside Pound，Collected Early Poems，216．Vance also appears in the first version of Canto Ⅱ，Poetry.10（1917）：187-188．
14. Pound，Ezra．unpublished letters to Isabel Pound，1911．Paige Carbons，Yale．
15. Pound，Ezra．unpublished letters to Isabel Pound，26 March 1911：16 May 1911：to Homer Pound，May 1911，Paige Carbons，Yale．
16. Pound，Ezra．“I Gather the Limbs of Ostris，”The New Age.22 Feb，1912，393；Selected Prose.42．
17. Pound，Ezra．“A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste．”Poetry，1（1913）：200； Literary Essays of Ezra Pound．ed．T．S．Eliot（London：Faber，1954），4．
18. Pound，Ezra．“The Tempers，”The New Freewoman.1（1913）：227．
19. Pound，Ezra．“How I Began．”T．P．’s Weekly，6 June 1913：143．
20. Pound，Ezra．“Vorticism．”Fortnightly Review，1 Sept.1914，461-471；reprinted in Gaudier-Brzeska（1916：New York：New Directions，1970），81-94．
21. Pound，Ezra．unpublished letter to Isabel Pound，20 Jan 1914，Paige Carbons，Yale．
22. T．E．Hulme，“Modern Art and Its Phylisophy，”Speculations，ed．Herbert Read（New York：Harcourt，Brace，1924）.82．
23. Pound，Ezra．“The New Sculpture．”The Egoist，1（1914）：67-68．
24. Pound，Ezra．unpublished letter to William Carlos Williams，26 Oct.1912，Poetry Collection of the Lockwood Memorial Library，SUNY buffalo，F501：Pound，Letters，27．
25. Williams，unpublished letters to Viola Jordan，7 June 1914，11 June 1914，Viola Baxter Jordan Papers，Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library，Yale．
26. F．S．Flint．“The History of Imagism．”The Egoist，2（1915）：70．
27. The Egoist，1（1914）：308；New Directions 16，（New York：New Directions，1957），10-11．