William Carlos Williams’ almost obvious response to T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” often called “By The Road,” and then finally titled “Spring And All,” can be seen as both a response to Eliot, and an adage to the prologues of the past (Frye). One can almost see the idea for “Spring And All” leaping out of Williams’ head and onto paper immediately after reading Eliot’s “The Waste Land” in The Dial. A …showed first 75 words of 1454 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1454 total…poetic ring, the world had their voice. Eliot was doing the questioning, and Williams was doing the answering. The fact that the two poems are so strongly linked, even today, pays homage to the severity of the situation that they were discussing. In giving their poetry back to the scholastic arena, Williams and Eliot made people search for the truth in their poetry, just as they were seeking for the same truth by writing it.