How to Deconstruct a Text : Deconstructive Reading of Three Poems by Shakespeare, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams

 How to Deconstruct a Text : Deconstructive Reading of Three Poems by Shakespeare, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams

This blog is the part of the task of How to Deconstruct a Text in which three poems by Shakespeare, Ezra Pound, William Carols Williams will be deconstructed. Deconstruction, as developed by Jacques Derrida, provides a framework for analysing texts by focusing on the instability of meaning and the relationship between text and interpretation.

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare 

Sonnet 18 at first talks about the eternal beauty of beloved while comparing it with nature. In poem there is deliberate use of words like "temperate", "rough wind", "decline", "nature's changing course", "fade" and so on and so forth to make nature immortal and fragile/fleeting. Ultimately by this beloved also fall under the category of changing nature and fading beauty.The poem starts by comparing the beloved to a summer day, but the beloved is better. Summer has problems: strong winds damage flowers, it gets too hot or too cold, and beauty fades with time. But the beloved's beauty lasts forever, because the poem will praise them forever!

However with the use of word "when" apperantly there is condition that one possibility of being boloved's immortal is preservation the beauty through the poem. Moreover, it leads to another meaning that it is only possible when poet or lover write down it in the poem. This poem is what makes the beloved immortal, not some magical quality they possess. As long as people can read, the poem lives on, and the poem keeps the beloved alive in words.

At first, it seemed the poem completely opposed the beloved to summer. Now, they're both temporary compared to the poem. Everything that's alive dies, even the beloved. Only the poem and its love message are eternal. If summer and love are similar (both temporary compared to the poem), what about the not-so-perfect parts of summer? Maybe the poem hints that love isn't always perfect either. The strong winds that mess with flowers? Maybe they're like the passionate, messy moments in love?

Additionally, here undoubtedly poet is at the centre and in hegemonic position. Another binary could be possible while poem highlighted the inevitability of keeping beloved eternal beautiful. If beloved is beautiful then there is possibility of writing a poem. In addition, beauty measured through certain standard and while praising just a body.

 Deconstructing Ezra Pound’s "In a Station of the Metro" : 

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough."

This short poem at first not able to make any sense in the mind because of the complete absence of the imagery. Formally parole of the imagery doesn't make sense however it's existence in langue. As Indian reader especially not belonging  to metro city the absence of metro station imagery needs to solve. In the poem the words arranged in such manner at first the "crowd" and then "patals". The comparison between "faces in the crowd" with "patals on a wet black bough" is modernist visulization just as T.S. Eliot used it in The Waste Land and W.H.Auden in the poem September 1, 1939. 

Additionly, the poem has binary opposition of the urban vs rural life. As Fardinand de saussure talks about the metaphysical of presence it's hard to read the absence. In the poem there is absence of the "Noice". The isolation of the lines is compared to the black bough's patals. Apparation at first creates the ghostly atmosphere and modern life. 

Moreover the comparison between faces and patals drift away from the traditional metaphors. As the crowd is fleeting at the station similarly patls and flowers are having a small living. This altogether highlights the fragile and fragmented modernised world. 

Deconstructing William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow":

"so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens."

This poem evokes the real image without any disrruption. The poem talks about  materiality of objects. The wheel barrow and the chickens is the often seen objects. The colours red and white create different atmosphere. If interpret the red colour could represent something strong, useful, and eye-catching that stands out in the scene. Whereas The white chickens could represent a sense of calmness or simplicity next to the bold red wheelbarrow, making both elements more noticeable.

However, the shiny and clean srrounding may come from the imagination of poet which one has seen somewhere in the book. The absense here is that of mud, dust and dung which isolated image from the reality and makes it idealize. While main interpretation could be the celebration of the everyday life and the appreciate the srroundings.

In conclusion, readings of the poems highlight the complexicity of the meanings, role of binanry opposition, freeplay of meaning and so on and so forth. Whenever one meaning is at the centre other all interpretation put on the periferry. This provides the new ways of reading the poem. 

Thank You. 

References : 

Barad, Dilip. “Deconstructive Analysis of Ezra Pound's 'In a Station of the Metro' and William Carlos Williams's 'The Red Wheelbarrow.'” Research Gate, 03 July 2024, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381943844_Deconstructive_Analysis_of_Ezra_Pound's_'In_a_Station_of_the_Metro'_and_William_Carlos_Williams's_'The_Red_Wheelbarrow'. Accessed 03 July 2024.

Barad, D. (2023, July 23). How to Deconstruct a Text. Bhavngar, Gujarat, India: DoEMKBU YouTube Channel. Retrieved 7 3, 2024, from https://youtu.be/JDWDIEpgMGI?si=WnmtixfH9lFYj-bJ

Belsey, C. (2002). Poststructuralism (First Indian Edition 2006 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Pound, E. (1913, April). In a Station of a Metro. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. Retrieved 7 3, 2024, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-astation-of-the-metro

Williams, W. C. (1938). The Red Wheelbarrow. In C. MacGowan (Ed.), The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume I, 1909-1939. New Directions Publishing Corporation. Retrieved 7 3, 2024, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow