William Carlos Williams’s “Paterson” 217adjacent house tops to witness the spectacle” (P,p. 203). What gives this passage
authority is its position within five short lines of the conclusion of Book IV (and
one time the end of the poem). It is, indeed, the final image of the book, and is
almost like a slap in the face for readers who have smiled affirmatively as they
have just witnessed Paterson wade out of the “sea of blood” and strike inland for
what seems to be a new beginning. The closing lines: “This is the blast / the
eternal close / the spiral / the final somersault / the end.” Thus readers are not
permitted a sentimental conclusion; they are reminded of the reality of violence
as it exists not only in Johnson but also in the crowds come to witness, among
whom the reader might even, if he looks hard enough, discover himself.
In Book V of Paterson,the images of chaos decrease considerably, and
they are integrated almost inseparably with images of renewal—the unicorn
suffers death, but transcends death. In Part Two, Paterson exclaims:
I saw love
mounted naked on a horse
on a swan
the tail of a fish
the bloodthirsty conger eel
and laughed
recalling the Jew
in the pit
among his fellows
when the indifferent chap
with the machine gun
was spraying the heap
he had not yet been hit
but smiled
comforting his companions
comforting
his companions.
(P,p. 223)Paterson does not evade evil and horror, but seems now to see it in a totality
that balances: there is the man who shoots, but there is also the man who
comforts—a Whitmanian figure bringing succor to the suffering (as in “Song
of Myself”). The serpent with its tail in its mouth; evil begetting good, good
begetting evil, evil begetting good: “the river has returned to its beginnings”
(P,p. 233). Paterson goes on—