The Use of Form and Rhythm in William Carlos Williamss poem, The Dance

The physical exertion of Form and Rhythm in William Carlos Williamss poem,The Dance In William Carlos Williamss poem, The Dance, Williams uses the inspiration of a painting by Peter Breughel to inning his poem. Peter Breughels painting c completelyed The Kermess depicts a peasant leap of the middle fifteenth century. It shows the form and regular recurrence of the dance. Williams also captures the form and the rhythm of this dance in his poem. In William Carlos Williams poem, The Dance the open form, suggested images, and rhythm embodies the dance represent in the painting The Kermess by Peter Breughel.In Breughels painting, The Kermess, all of the people that are dancing, do so around and around from each one other. The opening of Williamss poem establishes the rhythm of the entire poem. In lines cardinal and three, the dancers go round, they go round and around(Kennedy 234), Williams establishes a bouncing and rotary motion in the poem. This bouncing and circular motion is also stress by the absence of line stops in the entire poem (Diggory 156). Every line continues to the next giving the poem the feeling of a circular motion. The open form of the poem helps to continue the bouncing rhythm throughout Williamss entire work.Williams continues to establish a rhythm by mentioning musical instruments. The peasants dance to the squeal and the blare and the tweedle of bagpipes, a spiel and fiddles(Kennedy 234). This alludes to the bagpipe player keeping the beat of the dance f...