William Carlos Williams

The Disputants

The Disputants - meaning Summary

Stillness Amid Domestic Noise

The poem presents a domestic scene: a bowl of flowers scattered among forks, crumbs and plates, visually disordered yet emotionally composed. The flowers seem to converse calmly above a table of coffee and noisy human talk, which the speaker finds diminished and almost theatrical. The image contrasts the persistent, quiet presence of nature with the brittle, performative quality of human argument in a small, everyday setting.

Read Complete Analyses

Upon the table in their bowl in violent disarray of yellow sprays, green spikes of leaves, red pointed petals and curled heads of blue and white among the litter of the forks and crumbs and plates the flowers remain composed. Coolly their colloquy continues above the coffee and loud talk grown frail as vaudeville.

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