A Hunter in the Snow- William Carlos Williams

          I read over this poem once, and I didn't like it. I tried reading it a second, third, an fourth time, but my opinion did not change. I simply do not like this poem.

          I think that the poet intended for the insight to be in the last stanza, but I don't think it was strong enough. I didn't finish the poem thinking "hmmmm," I merely finished the poem (the fourth time) realizing that it wasn't worth reading again. I think a few lines have some potential, if only they were placed in a more powerful poem. I think that the insight really does scream to be more of a punch than it is.

          The poem doesn't flow very well, but it doesn't seem as if that was intentional. In other words, the "nonflowiness" of the poem comes off as accidental. This made me kind of hobble through the poem in a way. The lack of punctuation in poetry is usually okay, but in this case I think it really worsens the poem. I wouldn't know how to read this out loud if I tried.

The hill is a pattern of skaters

Brueghel the painter

concerned with it all has chosena winter-struck bush for his
foreground to
complete the picture

          This is the best part of the poem, and frankly the only lines I liked. They could almost stand alone as their own poem.