"Spring and All"

Another pertinent poem for our times.

"By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast - a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines -

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches -

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind -

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wild carrot leaf

One by one objects are defined -
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of
entrance - Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted they
grip down and begin to awaken"

"Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams

Important to understanding the poem is the historical context in which it was published, namely in 1923 after the end of World War I and after the Spanish Flu pandemic. This meant that the world was still emerging from 4 years of fighting followed by 2 years of illness and mortality with a promise of a new, more peaceful future around the corner.

The poem evokes the fragile signs of spring emerging from a blighted landscape and awakening life.

William Carlos Williams wasn't just a writer. He was also a physician and he treated patients with Spanish Flu in "the contagious hospital". In his autobiography, he wrote .... "They would be sick one day and gone the next. Just like that, fill up and die". 

Passaic General Hospital in New Jersey in the USA, which is now known as St. Mary's General Hospital, is where William Carlos Williams worked. In the hospital is a memorial plaque that states "We walk the wards that Williams walked".

Our country still has "the contagious hospital" but spring is emerging literally in nature and also metaphorically from the human tragedy that is Covid-19.

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature