Alright. Who Ate the Plums?

 

 

 

 

For last week's group quiz, which I'm sure we will be discussing in class this week, my group was assigned to analyze William Carlos Williams' poem, "This is Just to Say." When I first gave this poem my usual quick, first-time skim, I was perplexed. However, I found that the speaker is quite the complex character once I started to truly analyze the poem:

 

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

 

I have eaten

the plums   The speaker gives an honest confession regarding his eating of the plums.                   

that were in

the icebox

 

and which

 you were probably    He recognizes that they were not intended for him...

saving

for breakfast

 

 Forgive me

they were delicious  ...but he doesn't care. He had eaten them anyway. True apology? No....

so sweet

and so cold

 

SO, the underlying message/meaning that I received from the poem is this: The speaker feels that plums should be savored in their simplest form, that they should be eaten as they were meant to be eaten (an example of poetics, or in this case, "plum-etics"). He doesn't want the rightful owner of the plums to violate these simple plums by making them into, say, plum pudding. They are meant to always be "so sweet/and so cold".

 

The painting featured above, Rene Magritte's "Son of Man," reminds me of this poem. The piece of fruit (obviously not a plum, but similar) in the middle of the man's face, to me, makes reference to the speaker's vain apology. He straightforwardly admits his action. This painting demonstrates the speaker literally wearing his confession and being very open and calm about it.

 

Of course, it's hard knowing what Williams' REAL intention was for writing this poem. This is just one possible interpretation, and one that makes logical sense to me. What do YOU think?

 

Cheers and happy reading!