The True Side of William Carlos Williams
The True Side of William Carlos Williams
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
William Carlos Williams’ poem, This is Just to Say, is a cleverly written poem apologizing for eating someone’s plums. Because of the way the note is written, it seems as if the recipient of this note is possibly a girlfriend. He tries to tell her that he is very sorry for eating her plums but he then continues to tell her that her plums were so delicious and sweet. If he was really sorry, he probably shouldn’t have informed her how good the plums were. It makes you wonder if he really is sorry for eating them or if he wants her to think that he is sorry just so she doesn’t get mad and make him sleep on the couch. This note is more of a good humored way for him to avoid being in trouble. Maybe he tactfully planned it out so she would laugh at the note instead of missing the plums she had been hoping to enjoy at breakfast. He seems kind of smug in a way. Smug enough to write a note admitting to the crime and not seeming to care that he is rubbing in her face that he enjoyed her very delicious, sweet, cold plums that were probably the one thing she was looking forward to that day. Maybe that is why Laura Jayne Martin wrote her piece, This is Just to Say That I’m Tired of Sharing an Apartment with William Carlos Williams. After reading Laura Jayne Martin’s piece it was very clear that her “complaint letter” to William Carlos Williams was a faux letter based off of the poem he had written (as we all understand). But the interesting thing about her letter is she gives William Carlos Williams the same sort of tone that he used in his poem. She was very consistent and did not once break character, so to speak, for William Carlos Williams. Every time she brought up finding one of the other notes she found in the apartment it stayed
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
William Carlos Williams’ poem, This is Just to Say, is a cleverly written poem apologizing for eating someone’s plums. Because of the way the note is written, it seems as if the recipient of this note is possibly a girlfriend. He tries to tell her that he is very sorry for eating her plums but he then continues to tell her that her plums were so delicious and sweet. If he was really sorry, he probably shouldn’t have informed her how good the plums were. It makes you wonder if he really is sorry for eating them or if he wants her to think that he is sorry just so she doesn’t get mad and make him sleep on the couch. This note is more of a good humored way for him to avoid being in trouble. Maybe he tactfully planned it out so she would laugh at the note instead of missing the plums she had been hoping to enjoy at breakfast. He seems kind of smug in a way. Smug enough to write a note admitting to the crime and not seeming to care that he is rubbing in her face that he enjoyed her very delicious, sweet, cold plums that were probably the one thing she was looking forward to that day. Maybe that is why Laura Jayne Martin wrote her piece, This is Just to Say That I’m Tired of Sharing an Apartment with William Carlos Williams. After reading Laura Jayne Martin’s piece it was very clear that her “complaint letter” to William Carlos Williams was a faux letter based off of the poem he had written (as we all understand). But the interesting thing about her letter is she gives William Carlos Williams the same sort of tone that he used in his poem. She was very consistent and did not once break character, so to speak, for William Carlos Williams. Every time she brought up finding one of the other notes she found in the apartment it stayed