"This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was an American poet from Rutherford, New Jersey. He lived from the years of 1883 to 1962. He developed a love for poetry in high school and decided that he would be a doctor and a poet. He gained in popularity because of his easily understood language and his involvement with Imagism. What he sought to accomplish in Imagism was to move away from abstract, muddy language and create a crisp image through his poetry.

      I have eaten
      the plums
      that were in
      the icebox

      and which
      you were probably
      saving
      for breakfast

      Forgive me
      they were delicious
      so sweet
      and so cold

        Williams uses language in this poem on multiple levels. Above all else, the speaker describes the plums which he ate. From his words we know that they were in the icebox, they were “delicious,” “sweet,” and “cold,” and most importantly, that they were not his. Understanding this is the key to understanding the irony that he creates in the last stanza. In the first stanza he simply explains that he ate the plums that were in the icebox, a seemingly harmless act. We understand in the second stanza that the unnamed owner of the plums was saving them for breakfast and therefore would not be very happy with the speaker. So far, this seems like a sincere apology. In the last stanza, however, the language is very cleverly organized so as to contradict the speaker’s apparent feelings of sorrow. If he had ended the poem at “Forgive me,” then the apology would have been legitimate, but he went on to say that the plums were “delicious / so sweet / and so cold,” creating an image of the speaker losing attention for the apology and thinking about how he enjoyed betraying his friend, showing that he is not truly contrite and therefore negating his apology. The irony here is that we really couldn't have known that the narrator wasn't sorry, expect for that his tone showed us that he secretly enjoyed the plums and does not regret the fact that he stole from his friend.