1. Art and poetry 1930s

THE VENTILATOR, Arthur Osver, American (b. 1912), oil on Masonite

In the 1930s, American art took a unique point of view independent of European themes but rather the social concerns and aspects of traditional American life.



As a poet, William Carlos Williams escaped the disadvantages and hardships many of his peers succumbed to. He was a medical doctor by profession, and also a man with poetry to heal a people of his time and a beacon for those who look to his words still.

A Sort of a Song

Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.
-- through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.

William Carlos Williams