Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, Williams graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (M.D., 1906), interned at hospitals in New York City for two years, studied pediatrics in Leipzig, then returned to practice medicine in his hometown. As a general practitioner, Williams found ample poetic inspiration in his patients, and scribbled down lines between appointments and on the way to house calls.

His early collections include The Tempers (1913), Kora in Hell: Improvisations (1920), and Sour Grapes (1921). A stroke in the mid-1950s forced him to retire from his medical practice, but gave him more time to write. His many honors include the National Book Award (1950) and the Pulitzer Prize (1963). The Williams Reader was published in 1966.

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William Carlos Williams
(1883-1963)

This is just to say 

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 

1934 

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water   

beside the white
chickens.

To Waken an Old Lady

Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind --
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested,
the snow
is covered with broken
seedhusks
and the wind tempered
by a shrill
piping of plenty.