Keith's Reviews > Paterson

Paterson is an unusual poem, though not a successful one. The theme is the search for beauty from which humans are separated (divorced) because of knowledge (book learning – the desire to classify and dissect), industrialism, materialism, capitalism, hubris, money, etc. Beauty, as Williams seems to define it, is an imaginative interaction with the world that is energetic, spontaneous, and local. Much is made about language’s (and people’s) inability to convey or understand beauty.

The poem starts with a complicated spelling out of symbols – the river, the mountains, the city – and reoccurring images – dogs, giants, flowers, etc. The whole idea of man as a city (or a city as a man). Some of these symbols/images continue throughout the five books, others briefly show up and disappear never to be seen again.

I like the juxtaposition of prose and poetry (reminiscent of Williams’ earlier Spring and All), with historical nuggets showing up in the midst of the poetry. However, I find the many of these nuggets completely unrelated to anything around it, and the use of excerpted letters seem rather random. He touches on some economic theory (poets should avoid economics – that should be the Pound Rule), nuclear fission, a lesbian living in NYC, etc. The poem seems to go on and on, rambling in search of a center.

At the time Williams was writing Paterson, he was also writing Desert Music and Journey to Love. I would highly recommend those two books over Paterson. Paterson should be left for the Williams completists.