Widows lament in springtime
In William Carlos Williams poem entitled “The Widow’s Lament in springtime”, the persona is of a woman that is overwhelmed with grief because of the death of her husband. ... After that point in the poem, the imagery is generalized and flat (in imitation of the widows lack of responsiveness to what had formerly given her excitement through its visual impressions): the abstractly named colors (white," "yellow," "red"), even the flatly anonymous "some bushes" have little image-making vividness or specificity. ... With his descriptions of the colors of flowers, cherry trees, and bushes he is able to paint us a picture of its splendor: Masses of flowers Load the cherry branches And color some bushes Yellow and some red (11-14) By setting the poem in the springtime, the author is able to enhance the poem’s effect. ... The woman associates springtime with sorrow, but at one time it also brought out delight in her: But the grief in my heart Stronger than they For though they were my joy Formerly, today I notice them And turned away forgetting (15-19) In the last part of the poem, the widow’s son tells her of the flowering trees "…in the distance" (23).