This Is Just To Say Analyze

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

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

The rhyme scheme is vague in this poem. However, there are lots of aspirates in the poem. There are some engagements, too. Thus the whole poem sounds fluent. The aspirates and the short lines create enrich, fluid, and juicy sounds, which relates to the fruit plums. It almost helps the readers to taste the plums and feeling the deliciousness of the fruit. However, the last word "cold" is end at a mute "d." The mute creates an abrupt ending of the poem. It is so different from the previous ending in each line. It no doubt creates a variation that attracts readers' attention.

One effective choice the poet made here is the alternation of vowels and consonants. Oftenly, vowels are pronounced by an open mouth, forming a cavity inside the mouth. For example, the “o” sound in the word “Forgive.” On the other hand, some consonants are pronounced by a closing mouth. Because consonants are usually pronounced by vibration between the lips or the tongue and the lip, the cavity for the formation of the sound is negligible compared with those in vowels. Thus the alternation of the vowels and consonants create changes of the space inside the mouth.

This technique is very exciting, it not only creates an excitement reading the poem, but also creates a physical sensation of eating the “plums.” The vowel followed by an immediate consonant reserved some air inside the mouth, which like eating plums: one bite and fruit is reserved inside the mouth before further chewing. The words “plums,” “icebox,” “probably,” and “breakfast” are the perfect examples of the technique of alternating the vowels and consonants.

Also, the “s” sounds in the poem create another excitement of reading the poem. It elevates the reality of the “plums eating” experience while the readers speak the poem. The words “icebox”, “saving,” “delicious,” and many other words in the poem establish an experience of the juice splashing in the mouth. Along with the technique of cavity alternation, especially the word “icebox,” the readers can experience the deliciousness of the plums. Moreover, the high frequency of the appearance of those words and the alterations reinforce the feeling and the experience throughout the whole reading experience.

In term of the meaning of the poem, there are some of our classmates prefer to understand a poem by each stanza. Once all the stanzas are analyzed, they try to build connections and thus able to approach the meaning of the poem. However, I prefer looking at the poem as a whole first. The changes between each stanza are no doubt crucial, but I tend to focus on the overall emotion that is stimulated. Because the poet wrote the poem as a poem, not collections of stanzas.

The whole poem is a confession of the speaker eating the plums someone saved for breakfast. Consider the length of the poem; it could be a short note. However, I think there is no need for a person to confess to eating plums. If it is a trick, the whole poem should be sound uplifting for the whole time. However, at the end of the poem, the word “cold” ends at a mute, which is an abrupt end. Also, the prolonged “ow” sound is only used in this ending line. The temperature is dropped tremendously by this word. The feeling of the poem is thus not uplifting anymore. For me, the poem feels like a disappointment, which is similar to the low after the broken, perfect fantasy.

The poem sounds like one of the unmarried couple confessing. It was innocent in the first stanza, and then the loneliness of the second stanza struck me. It sounds like the other person is not around that the speaker has to write down to tell him. Also the preposition “and which” creates an “I miss you” kind of feeling. The proposition here is a supplement for the last sentence; we usually use it when we think of something new. In the second stanza, it indicates that the speaker thought of the other person. It was the loneliness that drives her to write something addresses to him. In the end, she says the plums are delicious but cold. It shows her dissatisfaction, which I assume comes from the loneliness. For me, the poem shows a picture of an innocent and supportive girl feeling lonely because her fiance is busy at the point. She hopes for accompanying but she knows he cannot respond. Thus she wrote a note so that when he comes back home, he would know that she misses him and feels lonely when he is not around.