The Red Wheelbarrow-William Carlos Williams

 The fact that this poem is so short makes me feel like I need to try writing a blog post about it. The poem is a single sentence, split into four tiny stanzas. It looks like this: 


so much depends

upon


a red wheel

barrow


glazed with rain

water


beside the white

chickens


It depicts a scene that I imagine to be peaceful: a wheelbarrow next to a couple of chickens, caught up in a gentle rainfall. Maybe the only intention behind the poem is to create this soft image, but it’s poetry, so of course I’m going to pick and pick until I can assign some sort of meaning to it. When I imagine this scene, I can’t help but think that the wheelbarrow has survived something, not personally (obviously; it’s a wheelbarrow), but in a nostalgic way. The only experience I can think to relate this to is owning the same pair of shoes for years on end; they go everywhere with you, and for whatever reason, you feel weirdly attached and sad when they wear out. It’s kind of a reach, but in a way, in a way, you do depend on them. I feel like the wheelbarrow was in the garden of someone’s childhood home, and after a long, difficult absence, they return home, only to see that everything has changed. The house is abandoned and falling apart, none of the streets look the same, everything is in ruins--except for the wheelbarrow in the (now overgrown) garden. I could make up a whole backstory for this wheelbarrow, now that I’m thinking about it, and nobody can tell me I’m wrong (rest in peace William Carlos Williams). I like this poem a lot. 

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