Sour Grapes: a book of poems is an early work by William Carlos Williams. Published in 1921, it includes some of his best early poems: "A Widow's Lament in Springtime," "The Great Figure," "Complaint," and "Queen-Ann's-Lace."
Williams was still struggling to find his audience at the time of Sour Grapes' publication and was forced to pay for some, if not all, of the publishing expenses himself. As a book, it is highly indicative of Williams' early writing. It is filled out with improvisational pieces that Williams seems to have thrown together in the spare moments that he stole from his medical practice. However, this poetic improvisation produced stunningly beautiful language, which is evident in "A Widow's Lament in Springtime," and "Complaint."
Like most of Williams' early works, Sour Grapes was ignored by most critics at the time, but it was well received by Kenneth Burke in The Dial in February 1922.
Famous quotes containing the words sour and/or grapes:
“Nothing goes sour more easily than the life of pleasure.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“A real fox calls sour not only those grapes that he cannot reach but also those that he has reached and taken away from others.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)