e(lectricity)scape

The first time I heard the poem read out loud, I was completely confused. I was waiting for more, until it was re-read and I realized that the one, tiny sentence was the poem. I automatically thought that there had to be a deeper, more intellectual meaning, and I immediately began trying to analyze it. After about five minutes of trying to dissect the poem, I began questioning whether there was a meaning at all. The poem left me extremely confused, and almost uneasy and stressed out. I’m pretty sure I’m going to feel this way until I decipher some sort of magical, philosophical, higher purpose to the poem!

With this simple, brief poem, the analysis requires so much thought and creativity, one could find millions of different meanings to the poem. 

1. We could look at this poem quite logically and deduce that the red wheelbarrow is essentially a useful tool in farms, which causes for a lot to depend on it. 
2.  So much could depend, not on the red wheelbarrow, but what the wheelbarrow symbolizes, which could be a whole number of things.
3. The entire poem could be some ridiculous, yet profound metaphor for the world and society in that day. The poem could have been written controversially, with W.C Williams knowing how much criticism he would receive for the poem, when really it was almost mocking that society all along.  

2 - Throughout the one sentence poem, it is not the wheelbarrow beside the chickens that so much depends on, but their representation that does. Red, which represents guilt and sin, is contrasted with “the white chickens”, which symbolizes purity and innocence. These contrasts, which are emphasized by the “glazing rain water” are meant to illustrate how “so much depends” on sinning, and guilt, such as the hope and the desire to be pure and innocent. The red wheelbarrow is placed “beside the white chickens” to depict the comfort of having purity and innocence right next to evil and bad. Overall, the idea of this poem is that it is actually light and goodness that depends on evil. In attempts of being as clear as possible, without sinning and evil, there would be nothing to contrast with goodness and hope, which consequently, would cause for no innocence or light in the world. If everyone was equally as light and pure, goodness would cease to exist.