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Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, near the city of Paterson,
William Carlos Williams studied medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania. There he became friends with Ezra Pound and
Hilda Doolittle (later known as H. D.) and started to think
of his medical career as a means of supporting himself while
he composed poetry, even as he interned in New York City and
pursued postgraduate studies in Germany. Williams made Rutherford
his lifelong home and practiced medicine until he retired,
writing at night and spending weekends in New York City with
other writers and artists. Williams consciously wrote poetry
that provided a counterpoint to that of Frost, Pound, and
Eliot. In his work, he wished to speak like an American within
an American context of small cities, immigrants, and workers.
He wanted his poetic line to reflect the rhythm of everyday
speech and drew his subject matter from ordinary surroundings
-- a painting, a red wheelbarrow, a dish of plums. Williams's
collections include Spring and All (both poetry and
prose; 1923); Paterson, which was published in five
books (1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958); and Pictures from
Brueghel (1962). Williams also wrote essays, some of
which are collected in In the American Grain (1925).
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