In the poem “The Wedding Dance in the Open Air”, the poet William Carlos Williams suggests that the poor are usually the ones who are being looked down. By depicting and understanding the meaning of Bruegel’s painting “The Wedding Dance in the Open Air”, Williams is able to advocate Bruegal”s unique painting style, which is based on his own beliefs.
At first, the speaker uses the peasants’ and women’s dancing movement to symbolize the routine of daily life. They are “to go round/ & round” (2-3); peasants and women are dancing with repeated movements. Similar to the dancing movement, the routine of daily life that we work, eat, and rest is a repeating process. And the poor can only rely on this routine, because poor people usually do not have the time to find their interests besides working. Even if they have interests, they do not have the expenses for them. Since the poor people’s lives are based on this routine, they are looked down by others.
Continuing with the poem, the speaker addresses the dancing crowd directly as “a riotously gay rabble” (5); he is looking down on the crowd himself. With the use of the words “riotously gay”, the speaker points out that the crowd is uncontrollable and loud. Because the word “riotously” gives a feeling of unsettledness and rebellion, and “gay” means fairy excited, just as the emotions the crowd has on their faces in the painting. Also, using the word “rabble”, the speaker believes the crowd is a group of disordered peasants and women, because “rabble” literally means a mob. The speaker then turns to describing the women more attentively. Not being able to deny his contempt for the women, the speaker looks down on the women more than he does on the men. Since women are usually in the lowest class in the society, they are frequently and offended by others. The speaker addresses the women as “doxies” (7); he rudely offends them because “doxies” has a meaning of mistresses. The speaker views the women as dirt on the ground. He accuses them to be “doxies” of the men, to have immoral relationships with the men only because they are dancing with the men in the painting.
Also, the speaker depicts the women’s apparels. He notices their “starched/white headgear” (11-12). Describing the headgear to be “starched”, the speaker reveals his contempt on the women because “starched” means outdated and un-fashion. Here, the women are looked down because they wear “starched” headgears. Without elegant clothes, the women dress plainly. Even though it’s not the women’s fault that they have to dress plainly, they are looked down anyways.
Moving along with the poem, the speaker describes the movements of some peasants and women from the crowd, those who are hidden under the trees. In the poem, “they prance or go openly/toward the wood’s/edges” (13-15). The speaker focuses on their movements make to the tree-“prance”, it means to leap lively. He tells that the dancers are happy to rest after the dance. Even though it is only the “wood’s/edges” the dancers “prance for”, the dancers feels relieved and satisfied. This is similar to the living situations for the poor, because the poor are satisfied easily. They are happy with trivia such as a good night sleep, a good day or even just a good meal. The poor don’t have tremendous ambitions, they don’t work for innovations, and thus they don’t hope for huge life changes. The poor only repeat their daily routines: work, eat, and get rest, therefore, they are looked down by others. Just as those peasants and women resting under the tree in the painting, who are small and far away from the foreground, the poor are usually unnoticed.
At the end of the poem, the speaker describes the movements of the dancing crowd again: “round and around” (16). The speaker does not only notice the crowd’s movements this time, but also their apparels. The peasants are wearing “rough shoes” (17) and “farm breeches” (18), which are so cheap that catches speaker’s sight and motives speaker’s contempt on the peasants. In fact, “rough” symbolizes the lives of the poor, and “farm” symbolizes their occupations. Like the peasants in the paintings, they have rough lives that are due to vulgar occupations as farmers. As a result, they are naturally looked down by others.
At last, the poem ends with the dancers “kicking up their heels” (21), and making the sound of “Oya!” (20) with “agape” (19) mouths. The speaker still looks down at the dancer crowd, because “mouths agape” is usually used to describe the exaggerated and astonished faces of the poor when they overreact to news that others considered to be normal. And “Oya!” is considered to be an unacceptable sound to make in decent parties. The dancers look exactly like animals while they make the sound “Oya!” and “kick their heels”. Without doubts, these animals-look-alikes are inevitably looked down by others.
William Carlos Williams successfully expresses his thoughts over the painting “The Wedding Dance in the Open Air”. He suggests Bruegel’s view toward the society. Both Bruegel and Williams believes that the poor are usually the ones who are being looked down. Throughout William’s nine poems, William suggests that there is a differentiation between classes.
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