"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams lived in the years 1883 to 1963. He is said to have been one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement.

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

"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams is a poem with no true meaning. Williams warns us of this in the title; he is writing it just because. The speaker in this poem is most likely talking to his roommate, telling him about the unforeseen tragedy that he ate his plums. Throughout the entire poem there is a lot of sarcasm. From the beginning, when he starts out dramatically by saying he "eaten the plums" to the last stanza with his immensely sincere apology, the audience is able to detect his sarcasm.

There is no strict form or meter in "This Is Just to Say. There is no punctuation either. Each line is very short, made up of three words at most. Even with all that, we automatically pause at the end of some lines which give the poem a "dramatic" effect. The setting of this poem is most likely in a kitchen. The poem could almost be a letter put on the refrigerator to let the other person know the speaker had eaten the plums.

Even though there is no rhyme or rhythm in this poem, there is still a reason Williams wrote it and why it is considered poetry. It gives an example of a everyday experience that anyone could say. It reminds the audience that a mundane experience can be seen in another way, and it can be worthy of poetry.

Two unique aspects of poetry in "This Is Just to Say" are enjambment and sibilance. Enjambment is when the lines of poetry run together, which is clearly seen in all of the lines of this poem. Sibilance is the use of words with a hissing sound or the use of the letter "s". There is a great deal of sibilance in the title alone, not to mention the poem as a whole. It gives the poem a unique and subtle effect while also slowing it down.