The Locust Tree in Flower

The Locust Tree in Flower - fact Summary

Published in Spring and All

This extremely short, fragmentary poem assembles spare words to evoke a locust tree coming into bloom. Its terse listing of nouns and adjectives creates an impressionistic snapshot rather than a conventional sentence. The poem was first published in William Carlos Williams’ 1923 collection Spring and All, where its pared-down presentation reflects the book’s experimental break with traditional poetic form.