The Red Wheelbarrow

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Structure

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Literary Devices Structure

“The Red Wheelbarrow” is a meticulously structured poem consisting of a single sentence that’s distributed across four two-line stanzas. Whereas the main clause of this sentence is contained in the first two stanzas, each of the last two stanzas function as a subordinate, qualifying clause. That said, the structure of the poem’s sentence could also be read from a non-grammatical perspective. Whereas the first stanza announces the speaker’s sense of meaningfulness, the last three stanzas work together to form a concrete image of what it is the speaker finds so meaningful: namely, a rain-drenched red wheelbarrow situated next to some white chickens. But regardless of how we distribute them into different units of meaning, Williams has ensured that all the stanzas are identical in terms of the number of words per line. That is, every stanza features a first line consisting of three words and a second line consisting of two words. This structuring device gives the poem a formal precision that stands in contrast to the apparent simplicity of its language. The repeating stanza structure also has a significant visual effect: the longer first line and shorter second line form an abstracted image of a wheelbarrow.

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