Paterson (poem) caught Williams' attention for its use, with a technical skill that seemed to rival Pound's in "The Cantos", of such diverse and seemingly prosaic materials as notes from a congressional investigation, an X-ray report and a physician's testimony on cross-examination. He wrote to fellow poet Louis Zukofsky, "I've begun to think about poetic form again. So much has to be thought out and written out there before we can have any solid criticism and consequently well-grounded work here." In 1944, Williams read a poem by Byron Vazakas in "Partisan Review" that would help lead him to solutions in form and
The Sleeping Children 1817 and remains there to this day. Above the statue is a black marble plaque dedicated to William Robinson (the father of the two children). In 1826 the poet, William Lisle Bowles wrote a poem about the sculpture: Look at those sleeping children; softly tread, Lest thou do mar their dream, and come not nigh Till their fond mother, with a kiss, shall cry, 'Tis morn, awake! awake! Ah! they are dead! Yet folded in each other's arms they lie, So still—oh, look! so still and smilingly, So breathing and so beautiful, they seem, As if to die in youth