A New Mimesis: Unbinding Textual Possibilities in William Carlos Williams’s “Composition”

Abstract

COMPOSITION, lyric XII from Spring and All (1 923), is one of the more aggressively fragmentary of William Carlos Williams's improvisational lyrics: red box with cloth is lined and with leather It is the sun the table with dinner on for these the same Its twoinch have that convey glue airplanes or for ladies that darn socks clips and red - is the end insects that suck gummed for this is eternity through its discover transparent tissue on a spool But the cardboard with a tin and a ring fasten a trunk for the vacation- (CP1 210-11) best readers of Composition, Peter Schmidt and Marjorie Perloff, argue that the poem is thoroughly antimimetic. red box for has no definable referent in the outside world; the box exists only within the boundaries of the poem. For Schmidt, Composition is antimimetic because is so self-contradictory. [!Infinitely expandable, the box constantly takes on shapes, undercutting and transforming itself (Schmidt 164). These contradictions and transformations destroy the poem's referential power. Perloff's reading is similar, but she grounds her reading in a larger literary-historical argument than does Schmidt. She identifies a countertradition of indeterminacy in modern poetry that begins with Rimbaud and includes the Will iams of the improvisations. of this countertradition are composed of particulars that cannot be specified, of images that refuse cohere in a consistent referential scheme. Indeed, external reference seems peculiarly irrelevant in the case of these poems (Perloff 45). Perloff places Composition squarely within this antimimetic tradition; is the lynchpin of her reading of Williams. poem for her is entirely nonrepresentational: The 'box' is purely the poet's construction. We cannot visualize (128). Her insistence on non representational ity and discursive incoherence leads her pose this analysis of Composition, framed as a series of questions: poem's particulars [ . . . ] refuse cohere. red box turns be hinged with cloth. If is lined inside and out (an odd description for lining usually refers what is inside) not outside, with imitation / leather, how can be made of paper? If its two-inch trays have engineers / that convey glue / airplanes, may have large hinges; if, on the other hand, holds paper clips / and red elastics for old ladies / that darn socks, must be one of those delicate little boxes with tiny compartments and drawers. What is the end, the poet asks, to insects / that suck gummed labels? But how do insects get at these drawers? And what is the dial by means of which we discover/ transparent tissue / on a spool? Perhaps the combination lock of a jewelry box. But then, would a box that contains airplane glue have a lock? Finally, and most confusing, the stars made of round / cardboard / with a tin edge the box or do they decorate its surface? How and why would one fasten them as opposed it (the box) to a trunk / for the vacation? (128) While Schmidt and Perloff place Composition in different literary avant-gardes - Schmidt sees as Dadaist, Perloff as Cubist - both believe that the box has no referent outside the poem. Perloff takes her analysis a step further. Not only does Williams shatter mimesis in Composition, but he replaces with a new verbal construct (Perloff 129). Indeed, Perloff shatters mimesis in order create a verbal construct. abolition of the one enables the creation or revelation of the other. …