Summary Of This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams's short poem, "This Is Just to Say" is a brief confession of guilt and a plea for forgiveness. In the From World, Self, Poem: Essays on Contemporary Poetry from the "Jubilation of Poets, Stephen Matterson argues that “The poem, cast in the form of a note left on the refrigerator.” Matterson’s interpterion is logical and interesting, and I agree with it. In fact, there can be more than one side to the story since we cannot assume that the speaker is Williams himself. Fascinatingly, the speaker’s diction and the visual layout turned the note into a short poem. Although this poem sounds like a casual note left in the kitchen, the diction, line breaks, visual layout, and lack of punctuation are all carefully placed to heighten the effect of the speaker’s apology and make it convincing.
Surprisingly, the poem is exactly twenty-eight words with no punctuation whatsoever. Marjorie Perloff explains that this poem’s “stanzas exhibit no regularity of stress or of
His nice childlike way of asking for forgiveness for such a minor crime that is not even considered a crime is so striking. The tone of voice, lack of punctuation, and choice of words shows readers that the speaker is leaving the note for a loved one. In the same time, it has a tone of a guilty child who ate chocolate after going to a dentist. This part of the poem is pretty ironic because the speaker is very scared but still told the truth. Well, looking at the order of the events in the poem, the speaker told part of the actual truth. Truly, how can someone know how something tastes or feels like before eating it. Thus, it is funny to see that even the excuse he is giving is very childish and shows that the speaker loved the owner of the plums and had complete faith that he will get away with it. “Forgive me” sounds like a phrase coming from an innocent child’s mouth after doing something innocent but feeling guilty for