William Carlos Williams

Books by William Carlos Williams

Poems
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Paterson
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The United States in Literature [with three long stories] -- Seventh Edition
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Quotes by William Carlos Williams

To imitate nature involves the verb to do. To copy is merely to reflect something already there, inertly: Shakespeare's mirror is all that is needed for it. But by imitation we enlarge nature itself, we become nature or we discover in ourselves nature's active part.
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The beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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All women are not Helen, I know that, but have Helen in their hearts.
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Time is a storm in which we are all lost.
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I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.
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The business of love is cruelty which,by our wills, we transform to live together.
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For the beginning is assuredlythe end- since we know nothing, pureand simple, beyondour own complexities.
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Danse Russe If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,-- if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so! If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks against the yellow drawn shades,-- Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?
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beauty' is related not to —loveliness' but to a state in which reality plays a part.
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so much dependsupona red wheelbarrowglazed with rainwaterbeside the whitechickens.
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If it ain't a pleasure, it ain't a poem.
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We sit and talk,quietly, with long lapses of silenceand I am aware of the streamthat has no language, coursingbeneath the quiet heaven ofyour eyeswhich has no speech
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You lethargic, waiting upon me,waiting for the fire and Iattendant upon you, shaken by your beautyShaken by your beauty Shaken.
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Your thighs are appletrees. Your knees are a southern breeze.
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It is at the edge of the petal that love waits
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I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.
Read quote
To imitate nature involves the verb to do. To copy is merely to reflect something already there, inertly: Shakespeare's mirror is all that is needed for it. But by imitation we enlarge nature itself, we become nature or we discover in ourselves nature's active part.
Read quote
beauty' is related not to —loveliness' but to a state in which reality plays a part.
Read quote
Danse Russe If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,-- if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so! If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks against the yellow drawn shades,-- Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?
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It is at the edge of the petal that love waits
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