<P> "The Red Wheelbarrow" is a poem by American modernist poet and physician William Carlos Williams (1883--1963). The poem was originally published without a title and was designated as "XXII" as the twenty - second work in Williams' 1923 book Spring and All, a hybrid collection which incorporated alternating selections of free verse poetry and prose . It is one of Williams' most frequently anthologized poems, and is considered a prime example of early twentieth - century Imagism . </P> <P> So much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens . </P> <P> The pictorial style in which the poem is written owes much to the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and the precisionist style of Charles Sheeler, an American photographer - painter whom Williams met shortly before composing the poem . The poem represents an early stage in Williams' development as a poet . It focuses on the objective representation of objects, in line with the Imagist philosophy that was ten years old at the time of the poem's publication . The poem is written in a brief, haiku - like free - verse form . With regard to the inspiration for the poem, Williams wrote: </P> <P> ("The Red Wheelbarrow") sprang from affection for an old Negro named Marshall . He had been a fisherman, caught porgies off Gloucester . He used to tell me how he had to work in the cold in freezing weather, standing ankle deep in cracked ice packing down the fish . He said he didn't feel cold . He never felt cold in his life until just recently . I liked that man, and his son Milton almost as much . In his back yard I saw the red wheelbarrow surrounded by the white chickens . I suppose my affection for the old man somehow got into the writing . </P>

What is the meaning of a red wheelbarrow