"Pop! So, You're Not Dead!": Reimagining Loss in William Carlos Williams's "Burning the Christmas Greens" and "The Sparrow"

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article examines William Carlos Williams's depiction of his father's death on Christmas day 1918. Williams's narrative account of this event in the Autobiography reveals his complex response as son, doctor, and poet. Along with describing the helplessness he felt witnessing his father's physical deterioration, he also expresses a profound sense of guilt for his actions on that day. Williams's correspondence from this period also reveals a desire to understand this death's larger implications for his life and work. These personal accounts serve as a foundation for a subsequent interpretation of two elegiac poems rooted in this experience: "Burning the Christmas Greens" and "The Sparrow."