{"id":79050,"date":"2014-11-04T14:55:13","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T19:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=79050"},"modified":"2014-11-04T14:55:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T19:55:13","slug":"william-carlos-williamss-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/04\/william-carlos-williamss-election-day\/","title":{"rendered":"William Carlos Williams\u2019s \u201cElection Day\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

An abandoned grade school in La Prairie Center, Illinois, used as a polling place in 1973. Photo: National Archive<\/p><\/div>\n

Your typical polling center seldom evokes the poetic. In my neighborhood, we\u2019re assigned a local elementary school. There are student projects lining the walls: family trees, doggerel, pictures. (\u201cChildren only!\u201d a volunteer yelled at me when I tried to use the girls\u2019 room\u2014which, fair enough. But everyone in the place was over eighteen.)<\/p>\n

Enter William Carlos Williams. His \u201cElection Day,\u201d from 1941, is spare and sardonic; vote before reading.<\/p>\n

\n

Warm sun, quiet air
an old man sits<\/p>\n

in the doorway of
a broken house\u2014<\/p>\n

boards for windows
plaster falling<\/p>\n

from between the stones
and strokes the head<\/p>\n

of a spotted dog<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your typical polling center seldom evokes the poetic. In my neighborhood, we\u2019re assigned a local elementary school. There are student projects lining the walls: family trees, doggerel, pictures. (\u201cChildren only!\u201d a volunteer yelled at me when I tried to use the girls\u2019 room\u2014which, fair enough. But everyone in the place was over eighteen.) Enter William […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[9109,7947,7221,165,15922,15923,15924,3915],"class_list":["post-79050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-election-day","tag-houses","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-polling-centers","tag-polling-places","tag-schools","tag-william-carlos-williams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam Carlos Williams\u2019s \u201cElection Day\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"William Carlos Williams\u2019s \u201cElection Day,\u201d from 1941, is spare and sardonic; vote before reading.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/04\/william-carlos-williamss-election-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William Carlos Williams\u2019s \u201cElection Day\u201d by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 4, 2014 \u2013 Your typical polling center seldom evokes the poetic. 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