Through his poetry and prose, William Carlos Williams incessantly shows that his life and literature are closely related to Spanish heritage. The names “William” and “Carlos” reflect his mixed bloodline of British and Spanish. They lead Williams toward much more multi-faceted literary writings. In a sense, Williams' Spanish half, signifying his private and covert life, plays an important role in making him a genuine American poet compared with his contemporary Anglophile poets such as Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Above all, his Puerto Rican mother Elena has had much influence on Williams' preoccupation with Spanish language and literature. Williams emphasizes that he has been greatly influenced by Spanish writers such as Luis de Gngora, Don Francisco Quevedo, and Federico Garca Lorca as well as his mother. Therefore, Williams can accept the Spanish lineage as his own literary lineage. Investigating these Spanish writers, Williams wants to find a genuine American cultural and literary identity as opposed to the British literary traditions. Through Spanish language and literature, Williams can develop authentic American poetic forms and measures, so that he points the way toward the new American poetry.
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