William Carlos Williams

Sonnet in Search of an Author

Sonnet in Search of an Author - meaning Summary

Senses as Poetic Material

The poem scans a sensory scene — nude bodies, pine needles, and trailing woodbine — to suggest that a sonnet could be composed out of smell and physical presence. It treats odor as a material for poetry, alternating between abundance and restraint, and repeatedly returns to the possibility that scent itself might constitute poetic language. The tone is observational and exploratory rather than declarative.

Read Complete Analyses

Nude bodies like peeled logs sometimes give off a sweetest odor, man and woman under the trees in full excess matching the cushion of aromatic pine-drift fallen threaded with trailing woodbine a sonnet might be made of it Might be made of it! odor of excess odor of pine needles, odor of peeled logs, odor of no odor other than trailing woodbine that has no odor, odor of a nude woman sometimes, odor of a man.

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