To Elsie

“To Elsie” was written when William Carlos Williams was 40 years old, although it was still one of his earlier works; unlike many other poets, Williams lived out the majority of his poetry career later in life. The title refers to a real person, Elsie Borden, who was a nursemaid with a mental disability sent by an orphanage to work for Williams and his family. The poem then takes on an autobiographical quality as the speaker refers to “some hard-pressed / house in the suburbs— / some doctor's family” (Lines 38-40). The first-person pronouns as the speaker considers their place in the world reflect Williams’s own new understanding.

Williams was raised in a comfortable, middle-class environment and was given opportunities that many of those alluded to in “To Elsie” never would. However, his role as a community doctor allowed him insight into a wide range of lives. He saw births, deaths, arguments, reconciliations, and tensions of all kinds that would go on to inspire his poetry. This gave him perhaps a more comprehensive and compassionate view into other social classes than he would have had otherwise. This poem explores the “depraved” and the “degenerate” from the perspective of one outside their periphery, though one who finds themselves ultimately constrained by the same social fractures. The poet was socially conscious and deeply aware of his environment, which he sought to capture in the distinctive language of his work.