The Parable Of The Blind

William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)



This horrible but superb painting
the parable of the blind
without a red

in the composition shows a group
of beggars leading
each other diagonally downward

across the canvas
from one side
to stumble finally into a bog

where the picture
and the composition ends back
of which no seeing man

is represented the unshaven
features of the des-
titute with their few

pitiful possessions a basin
to wash in a peasant
cottage is seen and a church spire

the faces are raised
as toward the light
there is no detail extraneous

to the composition one
follows the others stick in
hand triumphant to disaster

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 23, 2023

32 sec read
117

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXX XAX BXX CXX DXX DXX XXB DXC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 578
Words 107
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was a Latino-American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. more…

All William Carlos Williams poems | William Carlos Williams Books

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