Compare and contrast William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" and E.E. Cummings' "Buffalo Bill."

While caring for a sick child at the child's home William
Carlos Williams (1883-1963), a paedtrician by profession, looked outside the window
and saw the wet red wheelbarrow. He wrote this poem quickly in less than five
minutes just like an impressionist painter  would paint quickly in order to capture the
precise quality of light of a particular moment: "glazed with rain/water" - if he had
delayed writing the poem the wetness would have dried up and the glaze would have
disappeared.

"The Red Wheelbarrow" (1923) is one of
Willaims' early poems and is influenced
by 'Precisionism' an artistic movement
in America which peaked during the interwar period. 'Precision' artists shunned European
influences, and as the term itself suggests their paintings were very objective and
clearly defined almost like the 'photorealists' of the next generation. Just before
Williams wrote this poem Williams had met Charles Sheeler the photographer journalist
and a self-proclaimed 'precisionist.'

The poem expresses in
the starkest and simplest manner possible the practical usefulness of a wheelbarrow on a
farm. There is a sharp ironic contrast-almost haiku like- between the sick room 'inside'
and the daily routine of the practical affairs of the farmhouse
'outside.'

E.E.Cummings (1894-1962) a contemporary of
William Carlos Williams and like him who was influenced by Ezra Pound and the Imagists
wrote this poem as a tribute to the legend 'Buffalo Bill.' Buffalo Bill is none other
than William Frederick Cody who earned the nickname 'Buffalo Bill' after having killed
4860 bison to  supply meat to the Kansas Pacific Railroad
workers.

Both the poems are short and have been influenced
by avant garde twentieth century poetic techniques. Of the two poets Cummings is more
innovative as can be seen by the
line,

and break onetwothreefourfive
pigeonsjustlikethat

which captures
very vividly the image of Buffalo Bill shooting at the clay pigeons in rapid
succession.

William Carlos Williams poem is about a real
life incident whereas Cummings' poem is about a legendary figure, nevertheless the
subject of both these poem is human mortality.

William
Carlos Williams poem deals with the ironic contrast between the world of the sick room
and the life outside and the apparent indifference to the death of the small child by
the outside world. Cummings' poem treats the passing away of the legend and he questions
death as to its reason for taking away Buffalo Bill from this world and whether it is
pleased to do so.