Travis VandeNoord English 3072O 708176 Assignment 7 January 2, 2014Explanation of "The Dead Baby" by William Carlos WilliamThe themes of the modernist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were often based on a sense of realism. this was missing in earlier fiction and poetry. William Carlos Williams focused his poetry on subjects that revolved around the lives of typical Americans and the events and circumstances of everyday life. Like other modernist poets, Williams wanted the poetry to represent what it described without veiled references or complicated images. Modernist poetry was meant to be direct, precise, and vividly described, while the people and events depicted were often drawn from the author's life experiences in order to give an added sense of realism. “The Dead Baby” follows these characteristics of modern poetry as it depicts great loss and the aftermath of grief that accompanies the loss of a child. The tragedy of everyday life is often more powerful than that of dramatic fiction. The first line of the poem immediately describes the dominant action in the poem of sweeping, which is both the actual action of cleaning and metaphorical throughout. The second line reveals that the sweepers are not alone in cleaning “under the feet of curious vacationers.” This line also begins to reveal the stoic setting as the visitors seem to seek a spiritual understanding of the event that brought them to this house. The use of the word "holiday" seems to recognize the idea that "seekers" are taking a day off from their typical lives, but it also comes close to its basic meaning as a holy day as they seek to give spiritual account of their grief. In line four, we ...... middle of paper ...... deepen this interpretation as even healthy babies arrive from the hospital. The idea of ​​celebrating this child's life seems to be central to this stanza. This is a “white model” of the parents’ lives, a representation of the two of them that they look forward to getting to know better in the midst of their grief. The baby is “surrounded by fresh flowers” ​​which are often present during major celebrations of life and death. It is reasonable to assume that in this case it might indeed be a celebration and a mourning of both. “The Dead Baby” sets a perfect example of modern poetry, as it is direct and vivid in its portrayal of an average family's journey through grief. . The details of the child's death and the parents' situation beyond that point are undefined, but no matter how heroic or tragic the story might be, the reality and honesty of the poem is strong and beautiful..