The Red Wheelbarrow: Motifs

Colors

For such a short poem, it’s notable that the speaker emphasizes colors at two distinct points. The first color in the poem is, unsurprisingly, the red of the titular wheelbarrow (lines 3–4):

a red wheel
barrow

The second color comes in the poem’s final stanza (lines 7–8):

beside the white
chickens

On a very basic level, the speaker’s reference to the color of both the wheelbarrow and the chickens indicates something about how they perceive the world. That is, they pay close attention to the surfaces of things, to their colors and textures. This is a pattern that repeats in the poem’s third stanza, where the speaker notes the glaze of rainwater that gleams on the wheelbarrow’s surface. However, the colors may also be read symbolically. For example, both the British and American national flags prominently feature red and white, and these colors have similar meanings in both contexts. Whereas red symbolizes valor, strength, and bravery, white stands for purity, honor, and justice. Alternatively, we could read the red of the wheelbarrow as related to rust and hence to old age and obsolescence. In contrast, the white of the chickens could symbolize youth and renewal.

Fractured Compounds

At two points in the poem, Williams splits a compound noun into two words. Compound nouns are words that feature two or more nouns stuck together. Despite containing distinct nouns, compounds are written as one word. “The Red Wheelbarrow” contains two such compounds, which appear in the middle stanzas (lines 3–6):

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

In the first stanza quoted above, the compound noun “wheelbarrow” is split in two across the enjambed line ending: “wheel / barrow.” Likewise, in the second stanza, the compound “rainwater” is split into “rain / water.” The splitting of these two compounds has a melancholy effect, suggesting as it does the fracturing of wholes into parts. This fracturing may reflect the speaker’s sense that the essential wholeness of the world is coming apart—perhaps due to the encroachment of modernity, or simply due to the passage of time. The melancholy effect of the fractured compounds is especially acute in the example of “wheel / barrow.” Although the speaker is clearly referring to a wheelbarrow, this split form—wheel barrow—also suggests a “barrow” of “wheels,” where barrow refers to a burial mound. This subtle play on words invests the poem with a sense of loss and even death.