plums anyone??

An interesting poem I would say this poem by William Carlos Williams “This is Just to Say”. In Now Read On, the poem was written in a paragraph and Dr Edwin had us reorganizing it according to our liking and we need to justify why we chose to have it that way. I think this is an interesting way in teaching poem and I will definitely use it in my future teaching. It lets the students be creative and not just wait for answers.

As for the poem itself, it can be literally and metaphorically connotated. I did get the other meaning behind this poem since the first time I read it. However, when Dr Edwin reveals the ‘other’ meaning, there were many ohhs and ahhs which signals the shock many of my classmates had as most were still stuck at the literal meaning of the poem- a plum thief…plum as a plum…not more not less. Maybe because the poem was put into a paragraph thus we didn’t thought of interpreting it as we automatically do when we see a poem. As a paragraph, the lines were just merely words probably found on the fridge door.

I like the way Williams describe virginity as plums. Why plums? Is it because of the squishy texture or the ripeness of the fruit that made him create such comparison? Hehe…the issue of taking away one’s possession as written in this poem is so witty… It’s like a petty crime if you want to compare it with the real issue of running away with one’s boyfriend or even daughter without permission.

It seems by using different kind of imagery, it will create different kind of mood and interpretation of the poem. If we replace the word plum or refrigerator with something else, it might have a different impact all together. In this case, even a serious issue of eloping or even rape (if you want to assume it’s written from a rapist point of view) can look so plain and funny with the image of stealing plums.