The Dance
"Every artwork exists to evoke pleasures that are easier to feel than to describe." (Vendler, 73). William Carlos Williams defies the nature of this statement in his poem, "The Dance", which is a description of Brueghel's artwork "The Kermess". To analyze the poem as pleasure, one must analyze the poem's rhythm, rhyme, structure, images, argument, poignancy, wisdom, and the development of new style or language in the poetry; just as to analyze artwork, one must analyze lines, curves, use of space, structure, the image itself, and the development of new art style. Through his poem one can actually visualize, and feel, the pleasurable effects of the painting without having to actually view the painting. William Carlos Williams' "The Dance" is a free verse poem. Vendler notes that "[e]ven in free verse. . . we often hear the same rhythms recurring" (Vendler, 74). Although Williams does not use conventional rhythms we see some aspects of rhythm evident in "The Dance", where the emphasis is placed on similar words throughout the poem, namely action words and festive, almost musical, terms. This emphasis on happy, joyous terms provides the basic underlying theme to the poem. Williams
This is the poet's method of presenting his argument and wisdom of how a simple life can be joyous and lively. Images, Argument, Wisdom & Poignancy According to Vendler "[w]ords refer; images represent" (Vendler, 88). In venturing away from the standard uses of rhythm and rhyme he has developed his own style. Their playing is basic and simplistic. In dance there is a feeling of going around in circles, and Williams repetitious use of the word "round" also gives the feeling of dancing in circles. This is a poignant depiction of the dancers. Williams describes the music with terms such as "squeal", "blare", and "tweedle". In addition, Williams repeats the first line at the end of the poem, creating a circuit from beginning to end. In reading the poem one gets the idea the dancers want to dance, prance, rollick, and frollick right off the page. The fluidity from one line to the next and from beginning to end, back to the beginning, provides a linguistic version of dance for the reader. "[T]he dancers go round, they go round and / around.
Common topics in this essay:
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/ sided glasses,
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Acceptance Essays
