Red Wheelbarrow Summary

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As I read through Williams’ poem “Red Wheelbarrow” several times, I am amazed by the amount of imagery used in this poem (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). Even though this poem is very short, it actually tells a very long story about the importance of life. In the first stanza, Williams begins the poem with the phrase “so much depends” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). This particular phrase explains the entire responsibly absorbed with the red wheelbarrow and puts the whole poem into a new perspective. In general, the red wheelbarrow is a very important tool that is critical for carrying large and heavy items to the proper destination. It is the workhorse that has to be physically loaded by a person and then pushed and unloaded at its destination by a person. The red wheelbarrow completely depends on a person to keep it actively engaged. Without the involvement of a human being, the red wheelbarrow would remain unused and become a worthless piece of equipment with absolutely no purpose or value. …show more content…

There are several meanings to the meaning of red, but I believe that the color red in this poem is focusing on interpersonal hostility (Fetterman, Tianwei, & Robinson, 2015). I do not believe that his poem is aiming towards the direction of anger, but using the hostility towards a struggle from within oneself. A person needs the desire and willpower to physically use the red wheelbarrow, whether it was from their decision or someone else’s decision. The last two stanzas let me know that the wheelbarrow is wet and near the white chickens. This could mean that the person quit using the wheelbarrow when it began to rain, or it rained while the person was using the wheelbarrow. This goes back to the beginning of the poem with “so much depends” (Kirszner & Mandell,

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