Chananan Sanamchai (Praew) 1202

On To a Poor Old Woman

In To a Poor Old Woman, Williams uses the repeated phrase, They taste good to her, to

show that enjambment can have effect on the meaning of a sentence. In many of Williamss poem,

enjambment is his great technique and for a free verse poem like this poem, enjambment plays an

important role on a meaning of a sentence. This poem is describing a situation where an old woman

is eating a plum on the street. In the second stanza it says, They taste good to her/ They take good/

to her. They taste/ good to her (4-7). In this quote, Williams repeats the phrase They taste good to

her three times but break it in different ways which affect the meaning of it. The first iteration is

uses to show the actual sentence, as a line without enjambment which indicate that they plum taste

food, rather than bad. The second iteration has an enjambment between They taste good and to

her. This enjambment causes a word stress on to her, suggests that the plum might not taste good

to other people. Lastly, the enjambment of the third iteration is between They taste and good to

her which give a word stress on They taste. This can imply that the plum may taste good but

they look bad or a little bit rotten. By using enjambment, Williams breaks the same line in three

different ways which give a word stress in different part of the sentence and causes a different

meaning.