William Carlos Williams The Dance

A poem exhibits the poet’s art of words. The unique integration of words make us feel and see things from a peculiar perspective. Similarly, dancers communicate different emotions of human life such as love and anger to the audience through dance performances. Interestingly, different forms of art such as poetry, dance and music all have a way of creating a connection between the audience and the presenters. Poet William Carlos Williams creates this sense of unification with the readers through his poem, “The Dance”. He creates a vivid picture of everyday human life by describing a dance performance and thereby communicates to the readers that though we are all different, we can also be alike. He depicts the alikeness of all human beings by …show more content…
The poet proves this through rhythm and repetition. Williams does not have a systematic rhythm within his poem, “The Dance”. Instead, he portrays a sense of rhythm by focusing on words that represent actions, festivity, and sound musical. For instance Williams says, “the squeal and the blare and the/ tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles/ tipping their bellies” (3-5). The rhythm mentioned creates a joyous environment. The rhythm of the poem itself is fast and the readers are expected to read it without breaks, as the celebration and the dance need to keep going hence, the poem does not have any punctuation. As the dance continues the fast pace leads to an adrenaline rush which arouses the sense of pleasure. Similarly, the poet uses repetition and creates a circular imagery and motion to portray pleasure. Williams often mentions the word round and says “The dancers go round, they go round and / around [. . .] (round as the thick- / sided glasses whose wash they impound)” (2-3, 5-6). The repetition of the word round creates the feeling of dancing and moving in circles in a carefree manner, contributing to the feeling of pleasure. The poem also starts and ends with the same sentence, “In Breughel’s great picture, the Kermess” (1, 11). The …show more content…
He uses onomatopoeia to demonstrate common behaviour and shows how the peasants are rowdy and loud while dancing. Williams describes them as, “Kicking and rolling about/ the Fair Grounds […] under such/ rollicking measures” (8-11). Onomatopoeia is again used to depict the similarities by emphasizing on certain words. When we pronounce words like “round” we tend to open our mouths wider, this symbolizes the exaggerated and festive behaviour being displayed while the dancers dance. Often people tend to get loud and rowdy when enjoying themselves at a festival. This type of similar behaviour allows the reader to understand the joy being exhibited within the poem and to associate with and understand the peasants who are very different from them. Such similarities show how all humans celebrate life and enjoy despite all their