Al Que Quiere! (To Him Who Wants It)

About

Williams's 1917 collection marks the emergence of his mature voice: American vernacular, free verse, precise attention to local detail, 'no ideas but in things.' The collection includes early masterworks of Imagism and demonstrates Williams's determination to find a poetry rooted in American speech rather than English literary tradition. 'The Young Housewife,' 'El Hombre,' and other poems are landmarks of American modernism. As reading material the short poems reward close attention to their rhythmic and syntactic precision.