William Carlos Williams

The Spouts

The Spouts - meaning Summary

Transience and Vivid Perception

The poem presents a brief, sensual observation tying a woman’s breasts to the fountain in Madison Square. The speaker watches the water’s rise and fall as a "white tree" that "dies and lives," using the fountain’s rhythmic motion to suggest renewal, reflection, and the transient interplay between animate and inanimate beauty. The image compresses erotic perception and urban spectacle into a single, contemplative moment.

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In this world of as fine a pair of breasts as ever I saw the fountain in Madison Square spouts up of water a white tree that dies and lives as the rocking water in the basin turns from the stonerim back upon the jet and rising there reflectively drops down again.

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