Wen Guang Li
ENG 102.0845
Dr. Daniel Lynch
November 7, 2009
Explication the Poem, “The Act”
William Carlos Williams is an outstanding imagist poet. His poems have rich
images. For Williams, the local is the universal (Conarroe.146). He advocated going
back to real lives and using simple images to express minds. Meanwhile, he opposed
general statements and abstract ideas to create poems. Even though some of William’s
poems are pretty simple, for example, they may just provide simple and short scenes,
they usually can easily influence and evoke readers’ emotions, and each reader can
produce different ideas from their different backgrounds. Generally, this is William’s
poetic style. The poem, “The Act” by William Carlos Williams also is a typification of
the style of his poems. In short, “The Act” expresses the idea that there are no
permanent beauties, and the nature of life is a paradox. It also suggests that life is
short, and we need to treasure our young lives.
The poem, “The Act” mainly describes a scene that even though the speaker
pleads with a woman not to cut the beautiful roses in the rain, finally, the woman still
cuts them and gives them to the speaker’s hand. It directly shows a conflictive scene.
When we read this poem for the first time, we may easily laugh at the conflict with a
little humor. However, when we reread it a couple of times, we easily figure out this
poem has a strong and deep philosophical meaning.
The first line, “there were the roses, in the rain,” provides us two images: “the
roses” and “the rain”. Especially for “the roses”, the conflict of this poem is all around
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them. From the first line, we also can feel that the tone of the poem is a little
sentimental. “The roses” and “the rain” seem to make us see that the roses are crying
in the rain. If a young person sees this scene, he/she will easily be compassionate
towards those roses and want to protect them. Therefore, the second line, “Don’t cut
them, I pleaded,” directly expresses the instinctive emotion of the speaker when the
speaker finds a woman who tries to cut them. From the second line, we can figure out
that the speaker can be the poet. The speaker also can be another person including us.
“They won’t last, she said.” The woman gives this reason. It is a fact and cannot be
changed. From the third line, we easily figure out “the roses” also is a symbol, and it
can symbolize the short young life. After all, the roses will become old and will die.
We also will become old and will die. However, the speaker doesn’t give up trying to
stop the woman. “But they’re so beautiful/where they are.” In these two lines, it
indicates that the speaker pleads with the woman not to cut the roses because they are
beautiful. The beautiful things always can cause us to pay attention to them, and if
they fall in trouble, we always want to give them a favor. If our young lives are
distrubed, we also will directly try to stop this situation. Naturally, the speaker will try
to prevent the woman from cutting the beautiful roses.
Then, from the lines, “Agh, we were all beautiful once, she/said,” we can figure
out the main theme of the poem. First of all, it uses the sound, “Agh,” which directly
expresses the strong emotion of the woman. She may already be sad and helpless in
her life. She may be old and not beautiful now, even though she was very beautiful
once. In addition, she may be hurt by her lover when she becomes old now. Therefore,
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when she says, “we were all beautiful once,” she already learns the essence of real life
deeply. “We were all beautiful once, she/said” makes a connetion between “the roses”
and us. It directly expresses and presents the theme of the poem. Our young lives are
like the roses. Even though we are all young and beautiful now, it cannot be eternal.
The end lines, “and cut them and gave them to me/in my hand,” presents the result
that the speaker still doesn’t prevent the woman from cutting the roses heartlessly. For
young people, this result may be hard to accept. However, it is a fact and cannot be
changed. Meanwhile, it also brings us some suggestions. Our young lives are
beautiful but short. We need to treasure our yourng lives and not waste them.
A poem can just have a simple scene or provide a stage. It also may just happen
in a moment or just during a short conversation. However, eveybody can get a
personal answer and feeling from the poem. It is the poetic style of William Carlos
Williams. Therefore, “The Act” is a typification of his poetic style. All in all, “The
Act” uses “the roses” as a symbol which makes us learn beauty cannot be permanent,
and this contradiction raises the theme of the poem to the level of philosophy. It
expresses the idea that contradiction cannot disappear, and we can’t change it.
However, it also can evoke something in us. The beautiful young lives are short as the
roses are beautiful but short. We need to treasure them. We need to create more values
during our young lives. If we waste our young lives, when we become old, we will
also use the sound, “agh” in our young lives once.
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