This blog is written as a task assigned by the head of the Department of English (MKBU), Prof. and Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 appears to praise the beloved’s beauty by comparing it to a summer’s day, but a deconstructive reading shows that this praise is built on unstable foundations. While the poem claims the beloved is “more lovely and more temperate,” it depends entirely on nature’s flaws—rough winds, fading summer, and dimmed sunlight—to make this point. This creates a contradiction: the beloved’s eternal beauty is described using temporary and decaying images. The poem also promises immortality through verse, yet this immortality relies on uncertain conditions—“so long as men can breathe or eyes can see.” In this way, the poem’s promise is not eternal, but conditional and fragile.
Furthermore, the beloved in the poem is never described directly—there’s no name, no physical features, only the idea of “thee.” This makes the beloved less of a real person and more of a poetic idea or symbol, constructed by the poet's language. But language, as deconstruction argues, is always shifting in meaning. Words like “fair,” “eternal,” and “temperate” are vague and open to different interpretations. Even the poem’s power to preserve beauty is unstable—if the poem is forgotten, the beloved fades too. So, while the sonnet aims to defeat time and death through poetry, it ends up showing how dependent it is on both. In this way, Sonnet 18 both claims stability and reveals instability—a perfect example of how meaning can be both made and undone through language.
Poem: 2. "In a Station of the Metro"
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Ezra Pound’s "In a Station of the Metro" may appear to be a simple comparison between faces in a subway station and petals on a tree branch, but a deconstructive reading shows that the poem’s meaning is far from stable. The metaphor itself — comparing human faces to flower petals — creates a tension. Faces in a metro suggest the modern, mechanical, and crowded world, while petals on a wet, black bough evoke nature, softness, and fragility. Instead of blending these ideas smoothly, the poem creates a strange contrast. The two images don’t truly match, and this mismatch reveals the instability of the metaphor and the limits of language to capture a single, unified meaning.
Moreover, the word “apparition” suggests something ghostly or fleeting, making the people in the crowd seem more like shadows than real beings. Even though they are physically present, they are described as if they are barely there — like illusions. This plays with the idea of presence and absence, a key concern in deconstruction. The lack of a verb or traditional sentence structure in the poem also leaves the meaning hanging, unfinished. Rather than delivering a clear message, the poem invites us to feel an impression — one that is open, ambiguous, and unstable. Through this, the poem reflects the modern experience: fragmented, fleeting, and full of contradictions.
Poem: 3. The Red Wheelbarrow
At first glance, The Red Wheelbarrow appears to be a straightforward poem describing a rural scene—a red wheelbarrow, rainwater, and white chickens. However, a deconstructive reading reveals that the poem actually destabilizes meaning rather than clarifying it. The opening line, “so much depends upon,” sets up a sense of importance, yet the poem never explains what depends on the wheelbarrow or why. This missing explanation creates a gap that resists closure, encouraging readers to search for a meaning that may not exist. The poem invites interpretation but refuses to satisfy it, illustrating Derrida’s idea that meaning is always deferred.
Furthermore, the poem’s structure contributes to its instability. Words are broken across lines—like “wheel / barrow” and “rain / water”—forcing the reader to slow down and reconsider even the most familiar objects. By disrupting normal syntax and visual flow, Williams draws attention not to what the words mean, but to how they function as signifiers. From a deconstructive perspective, the poem does not reflect a stable external reality; instead, it constructs one through language that is inherently ambiguous. Thus, what looks like a simple image becomes a site of uncertainty, where the ordinary becomes strange and meaning slips away.
Poem: 4.
In “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London,” Dylan Thomas says he will not mourn the child in the usual way, but the poem is filled with powerful and emotional language. This creates a contradiction — even though the poet refuses to mourn, he is still deeply affected, and the poem itself becomes a kind of mourning. Deconstruction helps us notice this conflict between what the poem says and what it actually does. The very act of writing a poetic tribute shows that complete refusal is impossible.
The poem also compares the child’s death to natural elements like water, stone, and grain. This seems to give her death a larger meaning, as if she has returned to nature. But at the same time, it takes away her identity as a unique person. Deconstruction shows that while the poem honors her symbolically, it also risks making her death feel distant or abstract. Is she remembered, or is she absorbed into something bigger and less personal?
Finally, the poem uses spiritual and mythic language but avoids clear answers about life, death, or religion. This makes the meaning unclear and open to different interpretations. Deconstruction reveals that the poem is full of ambiguities — it both resists and performs mourning, it both celebrates and erases, and it both questions and suggests deeper meaning. Instead of offering one truth, the poem lets us feel the uncertainty and complexity of death and how we respond to it.
Reference:
“A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London by Dylan Thomas.” Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry, allpoetry.com/A-Refusal-To-Mourn-The-Death,-By-Fire,-Of-A-Child-In-London.
Barad, Dilip. “Deconstructive Analysis of Ezra Pound's 'In a Station of the Metro' and William Carlos Williams's 'The Red Wheelbarrow.'” Research Gate, 03 July 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381943844_Deconstructive_Analysis_of_Ezra_Pound's_'In_a_Station_of_the_Metro'_and_William_Carlos_Williams's_'The_Red_Wheelbarrow'. Accessed 03 July 2025.
Belsey, C. (2002). Poststructuralism (First Indian Edition 2006 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
“In a Station of the Metro.” The Poetry Foundation, 29 Oct. 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro.
“The Red Wheelbarrow.” The Poetry Foundation, 22 June 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow.
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