A Sort of A Song
William Carlos Williams * Track #64 On Emily Dickinson
Download "A Sort of A Song"
Album Emily Dickinson
- #1Anne Bradstreet’s “The Prologue” (2)
M. Alexander
- #2
The Author to her BookAnne Bradstreet &
- #3A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment
Anne Bradstreet
- #4To my Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet
- #5Prologue to Preparatory Meditations
Edward Taylor
- #6Upon Wedlock, and the Death of Children
Edward Taylor
- #7Huswifery
Edward Taylor
- #8Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 1)
Mary Rowlandson
- #9Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 3)
Mary Rowlandson
- #10Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 2)
Mary Rowlandson
- #11Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage
Christopher Columbus
- #12Columbus’ Letter to the King and Queen of Spain
Christopher Columbus
- #13
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry GodJonathan Edwards (Theologian)
- #14The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 1)
Olaudah Equiano
- #15The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 2)
Olaudah Equiano
- #16On Being Brought from Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley
- #17To the Right Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth
Phillis Wheatley
- #18To the University of Cambridge, in New England
Phillis Wheatley
- #19On The Death Of The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770
Phillis Wheatley
- #20To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works
Phillis Wheatley
- #21
Young Goodman BrownNathaniel Hawthorne
- #22
Twice Told Tales (The Minister’s Black Veil)Nathaniel Hawthorne
- #23
NatureRalph Waldo Emerson
- #24
EconomyHenry David Thoreau
- #25Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Henry David Thoreau
- #26Conclusion
Henry David Thoreau
- #27
A Psalm of LifeHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
- #28
Song of MyselfWalt Whitman
- #29When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
Walt Whitman
- #30Success is counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
- #31
I taste a liquor never brewedEmily Dickinson
- #32
Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (249)Emily Dickinson
- #33I like a look of Agony
Emily Dickinson
- #34
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)Emily Dickinson
- #35I’m ceded—I’ve stopped being Theirs (508)
Emily Dickinson
- #36A Bird came down the Walk (328)
Emily Dickinson
- #37
This World is not ConclusionEmily Dickinson
- #38The Soul selects her own Society (303)
Emily Dickinson
- #39Mine—by the Right of the White Election! (528)
Emily Dickinson
- #40This was a Poet—It is That
Emily Dickinson
- #41I died for Beauty — but was scarce
Emily Dickinson
- #42
Because I Could Not Stop for DeathEmily Dickinson
- #43This is My Letter to the World
Emily Dickinson
- #44I heard a Fly buzz (465)
Emily Dickinson
- #45The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
Emily Dickinson
- #46Much Madness is divinest Sense
Emily Dickinson
- #47I Started Early - Took my Dog
Emily Dickinson
- #48I cannot live with You (640)
Emily Dickinson
- #49Pain has an element of Blank (650)
Emily Dickinson
- #50My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun
Emily Dickinson
- #51Publication—is the Auction
Emily Dickinson
- #52A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
Emily Dickinson
- #53Bustle in a house
Emily Dickinson
- #54Apparently with no Surprise
Emily Dickinson
- #55
The PastureRobert Frost
- #56
MowingRobert Frost
- #57Mending Wall
Robert Frost
- #58
Nothing Gold Can StayRobert Frost
- #59
DesignRobert Frost
- #60The Widow’s Lament in Springtime
William Carlos Williams
- #61Spring and All [By the road to the contagious hospital]
William Carlos Williams
- #62The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams
- #63This Is Just To Say
William Carlos Williams
- #64A Sort of A Song
William Carlos Williams
- #65Landscape With the Fall of Icarus
William Carlos Williams
- #66Danse Russe
William Carlos Williams
- #67
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a BlackbirdWallace Stevens
- #68A Pact
Ezra Pound
- #69In A Station of the Metro
Ezra Pound
- #70The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
Ezra Pound & Li Po
- #71Oread
H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)
- #72In Just-
e. e. cummings
- #73I sing of Olaf glad and big
e. e. cummings
- #74Anyone lived in a pretty how town
e. e. cummings
- #75The Harlem Dancer
Claude McKay
- #76Harlem Shadows
Claude McKay
- #77The Lynching
Claude McKay
- #78If We Must Die
Claude McKay
- #79Africa
Claude McKay
- #80America
Claude McKay
- #81The White City
Claude McKay
- #82How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Zora Neale Hurston
- #83
The Negro Speaks of RiversLangston Hughes
- #84
Mother to SonLangston Hughes
- #85I, Too, sing America
Langston Hughes
- #86The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
- #87Mulatto
Langston Hughes
- #88Song for a Dark Girl
Langston Hughes
- #89Visitors to the Black Belt
Langston Hughes
- #90Democracy
Langston Hughes
- #91Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
- #92
Yet Do I MarvelCountee Cullen
- #93Incident
Countee Cullen
- #94
Woman Warrior (No Name Woman)Maxine Hong Kingston
- #95Everyday Use
Alice Walker
- #96
HowlAllen Ginsberg
- #97A Supermarket in California
Allen Ginsberg
A Sort of A Song by William Carlos Williams
Performed by
William Carlos WilliamsAbout
“A Sort of Song” is the first poem in Williams' collection The Wedge, published in 1944. It features one of the earliest appearances of his famous mantra “no ideas but in things”–a call to dispense with abstraction in poetry and instead convey ideas through concrete imagery.
A Sort of A Song Annotated
Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.
-- through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.