To Waken An Old Lady

William Carlos Williams published “To Waken an Old Lady” in one of his early poetry collections, Sour Grapes (1921). Although an example of his early work, the poem was written after Williams’s dedication to the Imagist movement and, as such, is exemplary of the minimalist, image-driven, free-verse which defined it. William Carlos Williams is considered one of the primary poetic figures of American Modernism, and is famous for his use of vivid imagery, short lines, and everyday diction. “To Waken an Old Lady” is an optimistic reflection on aging and mortality written by a young poet, and its dedication to a singular image told in bare-bones simple speech demonstrates the poetic strategies to which Williams remained committed throughout his literary career.

Poet Biography

William Carlos Williams was born in New Jersey in 1883. Williams’s mother was Puerto Rican and his father, though English, had been raised in the Dominican Republic. Because of his parents’ heritage, Williams grew up in a household in which both English and Spanish were commonly spoken. As a child, Williams was a devoted student and child, and this dedication to hard work led to his early acceptance to medical school when he was only 19 years old.