Essay, Research Paper: Red Wheelbarrow

So much depends upon the red wheelbarrow,
Glazed with rain-water
Beside the white chickens.

Poetry is art. It is written not for enjoyment or entertainment of the author or reader. It is written because the writer thinks it needs to be. Poetry is a written expression of complex human emotion, a way to sort things out and give your feelings physical form.
Poetry is also intended to reach other people. To give them your message. To tell them what you think and feel, your ideology.
You could just tell people your position on "life", or write it down but the problem is how do you get airtime for your message when everyone else in the world has their feelings to express?
You make yours sound better. Rhyme, rhythm, simile, metaphor and symbolism are all ways to make your message "catchy" and interesting without really changing the content.
Instead of moping around saying "I don't think I have a real impact on the world".
You might do what The Belles did and write a song entitled "Fuck It All."

Without further adieu my dissection of the poem "The Red Wheelbarrow".

The poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" is a long intense message, that uses extreme metaphor and symbolism to engage the reader. It is a written manifestation of the hate and contempt the author feels for himself.
I perceive the poem to be a description. A profile of the author and his life.
Every object in this poem is a symbol or metaphor. This is why I chose it to study.

"...a red wheelbarrow"
The author uses the wheelbarrow as a metaphor for himself. An object built for hard work and toil, an object that can only justify its existence by moving forward, always carrying a weight. Just as a wheelbarrows job is to carry a heavy burden so is the authors. Though his burden is not a physical weight it is something just as crushing, expression.
As the writer of poetry it is his obligation to catalogue the life and times of the human race. To be the gateway between the world of average man and women and the world of artistic expression. He is the mouth piece for society, expressing everyone feeling because they cannot do it themselves
"So much depends upon the red wheelbarrow".
The author understands that because he was born with a gift, the ability to write, his destiny will be to carry the dreams, fears, loves, losses, pains and sorrows of society and to give them a presence by writing them down.

A wheelbarrow is a wheelbarrow, it can never be anything else.

" beside the white chickens."
The last line of the poem is again a metaphor, this time for the faceless masses of society.
The writer sees the majority of the world as chickens, white chickens.
Brainless drones. Exact copies of one another, not producing anything. Not thinking, just reacting. They are incapable of independent thought or reasoning and must be led.

As previously mentioned it is his job as a poet to write. To write about the world and the people in it because they can do it or themselves. He feels anger towards the chickens of the world, because they don't have the talent that so he is forced to carry the pain and sorrow of the people around him and commit it to paper. He says " 'beside' the white chickens". He knows he is to different to be apart of their society.

"glazed with rainwater"
He is upset. Frustrated, he can't do anything about his situation. He can't change who he is.
A wheelbarrow is a wheelbarrow, it can never be anything else.

He is glazed with rainwater. He has been crying.

To conclude, I believe this poem to be about the sadness and frustration of a poet that doesn't wish to be a poet but is stuck with his gift for better or worse.