Skip to content

Being an art form, verse cannot be "free" in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principle.

— William Carlos Williams

Another quote →

More quotes by William Carlos Williams

There’s nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made of words.

The Wedge (1944)

Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken.

Spring and All (1923)

Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.

The Wedge (1944)

It's a strange courage
you give me ancient star: Shine alone in the sunrise
toward which you lend no part!

Al Que Quiere! (1917)

Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matters like a ship. But poetry is the machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.

The Wedge (1944)

All William Carlos Williams quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Carlos Williams (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.