Books and Arts; Book Review;William Carlos Williams, American poet;On the outside looking in;“Something Urgent I Have to Say to You”: The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams. By Herbert Leibowitz.To his patients in Rutherford, New Jersey, William Carlos Williams was just the local boy who had become their local doctor.And yet, as he made house calls, administered vaccinations or listened to their complaints,he heard not just what they said, but how they said it.A doctor but also a poet, Williams spent his life trying to capture the “infinite variety” of American speech,and to use it to create a uniquely American form of poetic verse.It was not an easy task. As Herbert Leibowitz's new biography shows,Williams remained on the periphery of 20th-century literature as he spent a lifetime in the “grey-brown landscapes” of suburbia.He was disgruntled, with a severe dislike of many of his fellow poets, especially T.S. Eliot(Williams was both admiring and disdainful of “The Waste Land”),but his poems are now held up as some of the most daring examples of modern American poetry,and he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer prize in 1963.During his lifetime, however, Williams was “lil Bill” to his bigger,more successful friend Ezra Pound, who laughed at his insistence on staying in Rutherford.The son of immigrants who never naturalised, Williams's dedication to America did not flag,
文艺；书评；威廉・卡洛斯・威廉姆斯，美国诗人；局外旁观；《我有要事相告》：威廉・卡洛斯・威廉姆斯生平及作品集。作者：赫伯特・莱博维茨。对于他的病人来说，威廉・卡洛斯・威廉姆斯只是新泽西州卢瑟福镇一位成长为本地医生的本地男孩。可是，当他出诊、注射疫苗或者倾听病人抱怨的时候，他所听到的不只是病人说话的内容，而是他们说话的方式。身为医生却更是位诗人，威廉姆斯花费一生时间尝试捕捉美国大众语言中的“无限可能”，并以此创作一种美国独有的诗歌体裁。此非易事。根据赫伯特・莱博维茨新的传记作品所述，威廉徘徊于20世纪的文学边缘地带，因为他在郊区“灰褐色的风景”中度过了一生。他心怀不满，对同时期的许多诗人报以一种强烈的厌恶之情，尤其是T.S.艾略特（威廉姆斯对《荒原》既钦佩不已又嗤之以鼻），但如今他的诗歌被奉为现代美国诗歌中最大胆的典范，并且在死后他被授予1963年的普利策奖。然而究其一生，在比威廉姆斯年长、事业更成功的朋友艾泽拉・庞德看来，威廉姆斯永远都只是“小比尔”。庞德嘲笑他留在卢瑟福镇的执着。作为从未加入美国国籍的移民者之子，威廉姆斯对美国的衷心从未减退，
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