Love in William Carlos Williams' Asphodel: That Greeny Flower
             As an artist William Carlos Williams was a famous poet, regarded highly among the artistic world, but as a husband Williams was not quite as successful. Towards the end of his career, in hopes to regain better standing with his wife, Williams wrote a sort of love poem, or at least a poem of love, for her, entitled Asphodel, That Greeny Flower. Throughout the poem, Williams uses love as his main point in asking his wife to forgive him for his mistakes and love him into old age.
             Williams begins the poem writing about flowers, specifically the Asphodel. Flowers represent a few different things throughout the poem that all eventually tie into one, but the first he talks about is the Asphodel which symbolizes the love he and his wife share. During their marriage Williams became distracted by his love of other women, not the same love he felt for his wife, but what he describes as "the lily's throat/ to the hummingbird! (4)", more sounding like lust. As Williams recalls he writes: I'm filled with the fading memory of those flowers
             even to this poor colorless thing- (2)
             The poor colorless thing Williams speaks of is the asphodel, a plain sort of greeny flower. Williams recalls when they were young and shared this love, but it is now just a fading memory. Williams continues in the poem to discuss the love:
             Williams caught a glimpse of love but now realizes that it takes death for a person to understand how powerful love is. Unfortunately now he only has a few memories of love which has "too week a wash of crimson/ colors it/ to make it wholly credible. (2)"
             Williams sets the stage for the rest of the poem in the first two pages and begins to plea his case in the following twenty-six. He discusses their love again on the third page comparing it to the flowers which he pressed as a child:
             just as their relationship was full of ...