The Young Housewife

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1916

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Sound and Meter

William Carlos Williams established a high standard for experimenting with sounds and structure in his poetry. “The Young Housewife” is an unmetered poem, and it does not rhyme. However, rhythm plays an essential role in the poem, which makes the poem lyrical. The lines primarily rely on single-syllable words, which create internal echoes and internal parallelism within the single lines. For example, in the line “At ten A.M. the young housewife” (Line 1), the phrase “At ten A.M.” (Line 1) echoes and parallels the phrase “the young housewife” (Line 1) with the same number of syllables and rhythm. A similar pattern occurs in the lines “moves about in negligee behind / the wooden walls of her husband’s house” (Lines 2-3). Even though Lines 2 and 3 do not identically match syllabically as the phrases in Line 1 do, each line consists of nine syllables that form a rhythm because of the line’s reliance on one-syllable and two-syllable words. This nine-syllable pattern continues in Line 4: “I pass solitary in my car” (Line 4).

In the second stanza, this rhythm loosens. Line 5 has eight syllables, and Line 6 has nine syllables. Line 7 has eight syllables, as does Line 8. The stanza concludes with the line “to a fallen leaf” (Line 9), which has only five syllables. This shortened line acts as the turn and creates a dramatic shift in the poem. In the third stanza, the syllabic pattern builds up line by line in a 7-8-9 pattern, which echoes the building tension as the speaker leaves the scene in motion with the housewife static on the curb.

Form and Structure

“The Young Housewife” is a three-stanza poem. The first stanza is an unmetered, unrhymed quatrain. The narrative within this quatrain is simple and concise. The speaker uses direct language and does not elaborate the description of the young housewife or the house in which she lives. The first stanza establishes part of the poem’s setting as well as the separation of the speaker from the young housewife. It concludes with the line “I pass solitary in my car” (Line 4), which creates a subtle contextual and structural shift because it establishes the speaker’s place in correlation to the young housewife.

The second stanza consists of five lines. In this stanza, the speaker’s description of the young housewife expands. These five lines as a separate stanza reinforce the idea of isolation and separation as well as tangible and intangible barriers. The physical aspect of the “the curb” (Line 5) establishes the physical nature of public and private property. It also establishes the figurative nature of ethics and taboos the speaker imagines the young housewife crossing. This stanza also acts as an outward turning for the poem and the young housewife. The stanza is another subtle yet dramatic shift in the poem; for the housewife, it is an outward turn toward other men. It can also be interpreted as a societal turn in which the old stereotypes and expectations of women no longer apply, as women in the modern world liberate themselves from historical expectations.

The third stanza consists of three lines that return the reader to the speaker’s experience. In this stanza, the speaker uses the phrase “dried leaves,” which parallels the “fallen leaf” (Line 9) to which the speaker compared the young housewife. This parallel acts as a faint echo, a technique that creates the sense of time moving forward, creating a fleeting, irretrievable moment.

Enjambment

The most evident literary device used in the poem is enjambment. The first example of enjambment occurs in the first two lines: “At ten A.M. the young housewife / moves about in negligee behind” (Lines 1-2). The enjambment of the first line places emphasis on the setting and the young housewife. The enjambment of the second line places the reader’s focus on the young housewife’s action, and it places emphasis on the image of the young housewife wearing the negligee. Line 2 breaks into Line 3 with the word “behind” (Line 2). Line 3, “the wooden walls of her husband’s house,” further establishes the young housewife’s perceived environment. The isolation of the description and the line creates the sense that the young housewife is literally and metaphorically imprisoned. At Line 3, the enjambment in the first stanza ends, and Line 4, “I pass solitary in my car,” is an independent clause punctuated by a period. This independent, uninterrupted clause indicates the speaker's independence and self-sufficiency while the constant interruption of the enjambment illustrates the housewife's dependency.

In the second stanza, the entire stanza relies on enjambment to create fluidity and motion. In Line 5, the enjambment occurs at the phrase “the curb” (Line 5). This enjambment establishes the image of a boundary, a barrier the young housewife cannot cross. In Line 6, the enjambment happens at the word “stands” (Line 6). The enjambment of this line establishes the image of the young housewife’s momentary independence. At Line 7, the speaker utilizes a brief description of the young housewife’s perceived personality traits and actions: “shy, uncorseted, tucking in” (Line 7). The enjambment of this line again forms a sense of isolation, and it forces readers to focus on what the speaker most notices about the young housewife. In Line 8, the speaker states, “stray ends of hair, and I compare her” (Line 8). The enjambment of this line places focus on another of the young housewife’s physical aspects, and the speaker’s utilization of a comma and the coordinating conjunction “and” (Line 8) as well as the enjambment create yet another shift in the poem. The poem at this point begins returning the reader’s attention to the speaker. With the prepositional phrase “to a fallen leaf” (Line 9), the stanza concludes.

Enjambment is a crucial device in the poem’s third stanza. Line 10 ends with the phrase “my car” (Line 10), a phrase that establishes a tone of ownership and dominance. This tone carries into Line 11: “rush with a crackling sound over.” The enjambment in this line places the reader’s focus on words like “rush” (Line 11) and “crackling” (Line 11), words that engage the reader’s auditory sensations. The line ends with the preposition “over” (Line 11), which create the sensation of hanging or dragging, and the experience is not fulfilled until Line 12. In Line 12, the speaker states, “dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling” (Line 12). The poem concludes with the image of the speaker driving over dried leaves, acknowledging the young housewife, and smiling, and the poem ends, punctuated by a period. Thus, the speaker’s experience and the reader’s finishes.