Response to The Parable of the Blind by William Carlos Williams

I had to read this poem over a couple of times to understand it. This poem does paint an image and even the painting next to it, is pretty close to what I imagined when reading this. This poem is more of a descriptive poem, in which it is telling everything that is going on, from the blind people to the knowing about the church in the background.

I have to say when reading this poem, I can see that not all poems have to rhyming or short. And that it can simple just talk about the visuals. This poem really made sure that the reader would have an image in their heads. For the first half of this poem I got the image of the group of beggars leading each other, even without the painting. But for some reason I get confused when it goes into this line and continuing to the end. When it goes from 'where the picture and the composition ends back of which no seeing man' to the end, I feel like I lost sight of the group of beggars leading each other. Cause then that is where it goes into the talk about the area around them. Again it might just be me for seeing things visually and if I see the picture first and read the poem, then I think that what ever is in the painting is going to be the main focus. Like when you look at a book and you see a person on the cover, you think that is are main focus and that would lead the story.

I guess for me, if I wanted to change this poem a bit, I would say maybe some more detail on the group of beggars. Because from looking at the image and reading that line that they lead each other downward across the canvas. I would like to know more about them, maybe a few lines about each of them and describe what they look like (like what are they wearing, how are they different from one another). And also from looking at the painting, the man that is leading them has a mean look on his face, like he is going to lead them somewhere until they trip and hurt themselves or just play jokes on them, because they are blind. So maybe more information on him to add on the image in our imagination.