Make It New:William Carlos Williams's Experiment On The Function Of Language In His Ekphrastic Poems

William Carlos Williams,a revolutionary giant in modern American poetry,is full of experimental and innovative spirit.While studies on his poetry are numerous,researches on his ekphrastic poems are inadequate.The present paper,however,finds the unique charm and academic value in Williams' s ekphrastic poems inspired by painting,where he continuously reflects on the function of language.Working on Williams' s early ekphrastic poem “Portrait of a Lady” and his later collection of ekphrastic poems,Pictures from Brueghel,the present paper intends to study the ways in which he explores the function of language in transforming painting into poetry.The study is developed in three parts: an introduction to Williams' s personal preference to ekphrastic poems,followed by an analysis of the dialogue in “Portrait of a Lady” and an examination of the sequence and the gallery guide style language in Pictures from Brueghel.The paper argues that Williams has kept a life-long experiment in his ekphrastic poems,that by applying different language styles,he successfully turns Jean-Honoré Fragonard's painting of “The Swing” into a drama full of tension,and Pieter Brueghel's sequence of paintings into an imagined guided-tour of an art gallery.Through such experiments Williams keeps exploring the function of language and its unique aesthetic experience as different from visual arts.