The Mind Hesitant
William Carlos Williams
Thesis
William Carlos Williams expresses the
structure of imagery techniques to
enhance the metaphor of comparing the
waters of a river to the heady
complications of the mind to show how
we as humans, never stop thinking and
our thoughts are continuous.
Overall Interpretation
The poem, “The Mind Hesitant”, is an
explanation of what our minds are made up of
and how they purposely function in the eyes of
Williams. In reality though Williams himself is
hesitant to how the mind really works and
processes, hence the first stanza. Though the
poem does go on in explaining the metaphor of
the mind like a river, connecting them both
together.
Sense: Meaning and Language
 Point of View: First Person
 Mood: hesitancy
 “a river in the mind or of the mind or in and of the mind” (Lines 24)
 Tone: Neutral
 Theme: Mind Process
 Speaker: William Carlos Williams
 Allusion: The mind as the flow of water
 “Sometimes the river becomes a river in the mind” (line 1-2)
Senses: Imagery and Symbols
 Visual Imagery
 “Its banks snow”
 “the tide falling a dark rim”
 “something of white brows bound by a ribbon”
 “sooty thought”
 “swiftly flowing waters”
 Symbols
 River/ Stream
 The mind processes we go through
 Tide
 The constant changes of the mind
 Snow
 Thoughts get piled up like banks of snow
 Ribbon
 Sooty thoughts
Style: Poetry Techniques
 Juxtaposition:
 “ribbon of sooty thought”, “swiftly flowing waters”
 “water”, “shore”
 Metaphor:
 River and mind
“the river becomes a river in the mind or of the mind”
 Stream of Consciousness:
 our thoughts are continuous and always keep going just
like a stream of water
 Irony:
 Structure of the poem
Structure: Form, Organization, and
Pattern
 Enjambment:
 The first three stanzas
 Incremental Repetition:
 Strong rhythm (1st stanza)
 Repetition:
 river 2x
 mind 4x
 Isolated Words:
 Senses
 Mind senses different things like emotions
and behavior
 Change
 How our thoughts constantly changed
 Last three Stanzas:
 tide 2x
 No period-mind is a never ending
process
 water 2x
 Hyphen
 Stanza:
 6 stanzas
 4 lines in each stanza
 Colon
 Commas x3
 Capital and Lower Case
 First three stanzas more important than
last three stanzas
Sound: Musicality and Auditory
Techniques
 Consonance
 First three stanzas
 Sometimes
 Fluent rhythm
 Snow
 Without any breaks
 Hesitant
 Last three stanzas
 Stream
 Has breaks
 Senses
 Makes the reader hesitate when
reading (- , : )
 Something
 Sooty
 Swiftly
Activity
 Describe each picture as if it were a processing mind.
Which one is most like you on how your mind works?
Share amongst your group. 5 minutes.
Connection to Other Poems
 “The Bitter World of Spring”
 Uses water to symbolize something
 “Seafarer”
 Uses the movement of the water as a symbol
Conclusion
William Carlos Williams is a very honest and
image driven poet. He uses the waves of the
water to emphasize on our thought progressions.
The structure and sound of the poem helped
enrich the meaning of the mind by including
hesitation; the reader themselves begin to
waver while reading.