Tract by William Carlos Williams
"Tract" is a poem by William Carlos Williams, featured in his second collection of poetry, *Al Que Quiere!*. At first glance, the poem appears to be a straightforward guide on conducting a funeral, where the speaker offers advice on elements such as the hearse, flowers, the driver, and the mourners. The speaker critiques conventional funeral practices, advocating for a more authentic and raw approach. For example, he suggests replacing the typical polished hearse with a simple, unadorned "rough dray" and recommends using personal mementos instead of conventional floral arrangements.
Additionally, the poem emphasizes the importance of communal engagement in grieving, urging mourners to embrace their emotions openly rather than hiding behind societal conventions. Williams's exploration of funerals serves as a broader commentary on ritual, symbolism, and artistic expression within community life. Ultimately, "Tract" transcends its immediate subject, reflecting Williams's philosophy of form that prioritizes authenticity and functional expressions in art and life. This interconnectedness of ritual and artistic practice invites readers to reconsider how communal experiences shape individual identities and emotional responses.
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Tract by William Carlos Williams
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1917 (collected in Al Que Quiere!, 1917)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Tract,” from Al Que Quiere!, Williams’s second book of poetry, appears at first to be a frankly didactic poem in which the speaker attempts to teach the proper way “to perform a funeral.” The speaker gives advice in four areas: hearse, flowers, driver, and bereaved.
In stanzas 1 through 3, objecting to the usual funeral, with its standardized conventions which insulate mourners from the meaning of death, the speaker would substitute for the polished black hearse a “rough dray” to be dragged over the ground, with no decoration other than perhaps gilt paint applied to the wheels for the occasion. In stanza 4, in place of the usual wreaths or hothouse flowers, the speaker recommends “Some common memento . . . / something he prized and is known by:/ his old clothes—a few books perhaps—/ God knows what!” In stanza 5, he would have the driver pulled down from his seat to “walk at the side/ and inconspicuously too!” His final admonition, in stanza 6, is to the mourners:
Walk behind—as they do in France,
By such simplicity and show of inconvenience, the poem holds, the townspeople “are ready” to conduct a funeral properly.
At first glance, “Tract” seems to be a poem of direct statement: The speaker attempts to reform his neighbors’ ideas about the proper conduct of a familiar ritual by setting forth specific precepts. The speaker’s impulse to reform, however, reveals a preoccupation with the idea of form that goes beyond the subject of funerals. The fact that the funeral is a common ritual is a reminder that any such group activity is inevitably symbolic and, in Williams’s view, a kind of art. From this perspective, the speaker’s injunctions apply not only to one rite but also to a whole range of symbolic activity in which members of a community may be involved.
Metaphorically, the “tract” becomes a statement of an aesthetic as the poet asserts his commitment to certain principles of form which he urges upon his unenlightened townspeople. These are, not surprisingly, the familiar tenets of an organic theory in which rigid, predetermined conventions are rejected in favor of forms that are free and functional and adapted to the circumstances from which they arise. The separate assertions of what had seemed a poetry of statement are revealed to be integral parts of a more comprehensive, dramatically unified symbolic art.
Bibliography
Axelrod, Steven Gould, and Helen Deese, eds. Critical Essays on William Carlos Williams. New York: G. K. Hall, 1995.
Beck, John. Writing the Radical Center: William Carlos Williams, John Dewey, and American Cultural Politics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Bremen, Brian A. William Carlos Williams and the Diagnostics of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Copestake, Ian D., ed. Rigor of Beauty: Essays in Commemoration of William Carlos Williams. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.
Fisher-Wirth, Ann W. William Carlos Williams and Autobiography: The Woods of His Own Nature. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989.
Gish, Robert. William Carlos Williams: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Laughlin, James. Remembering William Carlos Williams. New York: New Directions, 1995.
Lenhart, Gary, ed. The Teachers and Writers Guide to William Carlos Williams. New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1998.
Lowney, John. The American Avant-Garde Tradition: William Carlos Williams, Postmodern Poetry, and the Politics of Cultural Memory. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1997.
Mariani, Paul. William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked. 1981. Reprint. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
Vendler, Helen, ed. Voices and Visions: The Poet in America. New York: Random House, 1987.
Whitaker, Thomas R. William Carlos Williams. Boston: Twayne, 1989.