William Carlos Williams: Poems Lesson Plan

Explain the meaning of the analogy WCW, as the presumed speaker of “The Yellow Flower,” makes between himself and Michelangelo.

Strong responses will note that WCW is comparing the yellow flower to the slaves in Michelangelo’s sculpture. WCW sees himself as the suffering, deformed yellow flower, and he’s saying that Michelangelo must also see himself in the slaves. The artist conveys himself in his art. The analogy goes even further, however. WCW says at the beginning of the poem:

I have found no cure
for the sick
but this crooked flower

which only to look upon
all men
are cured.

The yellow flower is also the cure, as the act of making art and portraying that...