This poem is a mystery. At a first glance, it’s vague and shallow. It paints a singular picture in a singular sentence: a rained-on red wheelbarrow sitting next to some white chickens. But the opening line, “so much depends / upon” is the true brain boggler. What exactly depends upon this image that Williams is illustrating? And what exactly does the red wheelbarrow next to chickens mean? What part do we focus on? The color red? The rain water? Or the whiteness of the chickens? Does the ominous subject of the poem depend upon this image under the condition that each of these factors exists, or would it change if the wheelbarrow was blue or if it was sunny outside or it was beside some cows?
From my interpretation, I can’t decide whether this poem is about the societal dependency of every-day, previously unnoticed objects, or if it’s a broader appreciation of agriculture and its impact on human civilization. The former would mean that the wheelbarrow is merely an example of an object that people take for granted and the key emphasis of the poem is on the simplicity. On the other hand, the latter would indicate that the image itself is the important part because of the references to agriculture and farming as a whole. The poem could be an appreciation of the fact that humanity was and is only able to progress because of the invention and innovation of farming. So, the “so much depends / upon” is really just so much– progress, technology, love, creativity, leisure, safety. All of these things depend on the reliability of the rainy red wheelbarrow sitting by some chickens.
I thought your interpretation of the poem was wheely cool! Even though the red wheelbarrow may look unassuming, your observation on how even everyday objects provide a lot of meaning to our world throughout time. Behind the poem’s lines, it encourages readers to think about what we do with objects and how they have impacted us. The opening lines of “so much depends / upon” shows that without farming innovations like wheelbarrows and shovels, our lives would be so much more complicated.
I also noticed the enjambment that encourages readers to slow down and imagine the same object. Step-by-step, the speaker builds up the imagery. First, a wheelbarrow – then, a red wheelbarrow, then, a red wheelbarrow “glazed with rain / water (3-4)”, and finally, a red wheelbarrow “glazed with rain / water (3-4)” beside chickens. The buildup going through each line allowed me to first imagine what the wheelbarrow was going to look like (I can relate to having a green wheelbarrow that was old, difficult to use, only that there were no chickens nearby it), before the speaker then describes what it was,
one line
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line.