Apology

. William Carlos Williams stated that his aspirations with poetry came “from the mouths of Polish mothers,” implying that he was influenced by struggling immigrants and the working class (Axelrod 216). Williams's "Apology" represents a predicament of modernism, as working class immigrants struggle between the nostalgia for their homelands and the desire to advance themselves in a new country despite the unfavorable social conditions of America. He recognizes the art that exists in this setting where a semblance of beauty lends itself to significant interpretation. Williams wrote this poem in reference to the struggling immigrants citizens of america. "Apology" was in honor of "the beauty" in the faces of "our nonenties" (Axelrod 216), meaning that the "terrible" faces of America strikes him as beautiful. Williams sees more beauty in "nonentities" than the leading citizens of American society. The photograph of the “Migrant Mother” embodies the lines “terrible faces, / of our nonentities.” One can easily see her sadness and misery, and the lines on her face indicate her weariness. She grew tired and hopeless. The workers in Williams’s “Apology” share the same grief as the migrant mother, and Williams wanted to capture this moment where he despite the tragedy, he also sees beauty.