Light On Dark Water

52 Poems, Week 4: This Is Just to Say (Williams)

This has got to be one of my favorites:

This Is Just To Say 

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

(1934, William Carlos Williams, 1883 – 1963)

Those last three lines are exhilarating, with the “-cious,” “sw-“ and “so cold.” He didn’t even have to say “juicy.”

Each stanza has four beats by my count, making it more formal than free verse (which I don’t usually care for). The first two stanzas have twelve syllables; the third has thirteen—giving it the emphasis.

I also like how the title is part of the poem.

Was he really sorry?

Week 4-plums-1574651_1280

—Robert Gotcher is a theologian from Milwaukee, where he and his wife have been raising their seven children, five of whom are out of the house, more or less. He is a recovering Beatlemaniac.

Maclin Horton

15 responses to “52 Poems, Week 4: This Is Just to Say (Williams)”

  1. Mac

    No, he wasn’t sorry.

    Reply
  2. Robert Gotcher

    It was a rhetorical question.

    Reply
  3. Mac

    I know, but I thought it merited an answer anyway.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    For emphasis. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Stu

    Poems like this are so impressive in their simplicity.

    Reply
  6. Janet

    I have of late been on the other side of this poem–but it was pears.
    AMDG

    Reply
  7. Mac

    Oh good, now you can write one of those “herstory” versions of a famous work, like the novels about Captain Ahab’s wife and St. Augustine’s girlfriend.

    Reply
  8. Janet

    I can’t believe that you actually think I’m capable of writing anything anymore. 😉
    AMDG

    Reply
  9. grumpy

    Such a fine poem

    Reply
  10. Mac

    Yes. It’s a gimmick, but it works. I was wondering whether the editors of my old Selected Poems of Williams considered it worthy of inclusion, and they do.
    Janet, I’m sure you are, but now that you mention it you may not be the right person. It needs an angry feminist to fully draw out all the oppression implicit in the poem.

    Reply
  11. Janet

    If anything can raise me to that level of anger, it would be going to the fridge for some tasty morsel that I had been anticipating all day and finding that someone had been there before me. That would not be specifically feminine, though, more in line with that of the Hulk.
    AMDG

    Reply
  12. Mac

    The feminist angle would consist not so much in the anger about the loss of the morsel but in placing the incident within a grand historical narrative of men’s mistreatment of women, and being angry about that. That might be less spectacular than the Hulk-like rage, but it would keep indefinitely.:-)

    Reply
  13. Janet

    I have actually started a poem post, but my progeny interrupted. I should have some time to finish it soon.
    AMDG

    Reply
  14. Robert Gotcher

    I have actually
    –by Janet Cupo
    started a poem post,
    but my progeny
    interrupted.
    I should have some time
    to finish it
    soon.

    Reply
  15. Janet

    Would you like to collaborate, Robert?
    AMDG

    Reply

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