19 pages • 38 minutes read
The Young Housewife
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Lament” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)
A feminist poet whose work and literary contributions overlapped with those of William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay frequently incorporated feminist themes into her poetry. In “Lament,” Millay highlights the plight of a suddenly widowed woman who must not only find time to grieve for her deceased husband but also find a way to care for her two children in a society that limits female independence. Unlike “The Young Housewife,” which is conveyed from an outside speaker, “Lament” is a monologue given by a widow delivering the news of her husband’s death to her young children.
“A Blockhead” by Amy Lowell (1913)
An American poet of the Imagist school, Amy Lowell argued against feminism even though posthumously her work became associated with it and was rejuvenated during the 1970s feminist movement. Like “The Young Housewife,” “A Blockhead” experiments with enjambment and Imagism. Unlike “The Young Housewife,” which Williams composed in free verse, “A Blockhead” incorporates rhyming structures. In 1918, Williams wrote a note of praise to Lowell about her poem “Appuldurcombe Park,” and he considered her a fellow Imagist poet.
“The Study in Aesthetics” by Ezra Pound (1914)
William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound maintained a strange, often contentious friendship. Their friendship spanned 60 years and ended with Williams’s death. The friendship experienced many volatile periods, and it crumbled once Pound published T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland. Pound, also an Imagist poet, greatly helped shape the movement’s aesthetics. Pound also convinced New Directions to begin publishing Williams’s work, an influence that vastly changed the course of Williams’s publishing career. “The Study in Aesthetics” is only a single, brief contribution of Pound’s to the Imagist movement. Like “The Young Housewife,” “The Study in Aesthetics” embraces a brief form, enjambment, and clarity of expression.
Further Literary Resources
“Herbert Leibowitz on William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound: Episodes from a sixty-year friendship” by Herbert Leibowitz
In this Library of America article, guest blogger Herbert Leibowitz carefully examines the often contentious friendship between Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. Their friendship spanned 60 years: it began when the young, quiet Williams was entering medical school at University of Pennsylvania and met Pound, two years his junior. Leibowitz also examines each poet’s contributions to the literary canon. The article includes excerpts from letters and academic works. It also highlights the poets’ relationship after Pound’s arrest and hospitalization. The article dissects the rift in the relationship that occurred because of Pound’s association with and advocacy of Fascism.
“Cubism in Words: Broken Pieces in the Poetry of William Carlos Williams” by Jason Menzin
Throughout his life, William Carlos Williams expressed a deep interest in painting. In this article, Menzin examines Williams’s Kora in Hell in correlation to the Cubist arts movement. Menzin argues that Williams’s work embraces the fragmented, fractured nature of the everyday world. Through this fracturing and fragmenting, Williams expressed the loss and chaos of the 20th century. The article also examines the parallels between Williams’s Imagist and Modernist aesthetics and those of the Cubist movement and how Williams’s poetry embraced the obscure in order to create the extreme.
“William Carlos Williams and the Singular Woman” by Joan Nay
In this article, Joan Nay examines the importance of women in William Carlos Williams’s poetry. Throughout his lifetime and literary career, Williams often expressed the importance of women in his work. Nay highlights poignant moments from past interviews with Williams in which he highlights how and why women became central images in his poetry. Nay also examines how Williams’s poetry celebrates women’s “individuality and strength.” Nay’s article discusses the sexual overtones of Williams’s poetry, and Nay discusses how this approach to Williams’s work cannot be simplified. Nay focuses on “The Young Housewife” and the discomfort within the poem, a discomfort created by the silent enjoyment the speaker takes from seeing the young housewife in a rather vulnerable state.
Listen to Poem
In this recording, William Carlos Williams reads “The Young Housewife” as part of the 1949 Pleasure Dome: An Audible Anthology of Modern Poetry Read by Its Creators.
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By William Carlos Williams
