It's All Right by William Stafford
"It's All Right" by William Stafford is a poignant poem that addresses the universal struggles of life while simultaneously offering a sense of hope and reassurance. Through simple and accessible language, Stafford engages readers directly, inviting them to reflect on their own experiences of disappointment and frustration. He acknowledges the pain caused by betrayal and unmet expectations, drawing attention to the familiar challenges many face in personal relationships and professional endeavors. The poem captures the cumulative weight of these struggles, only to pivot towards an uplifting conclusion.
Despite the heaviness of life's difficulties, Stafford reminds readers to cherish the small, often overlooked moments of joy, such as a "pretty bubble" in a meal or a bird's friendly call. This contrast emphasizes the balance between social challenges and the solace found in nature and simple pleasures. Ultimately, "It's All Right" serves as a gentle reminder that even amidst adversity, beauty and contentment can be discovered in everyday life. This duality of experience resonates with a wide audience, making the poem relatable and comforting.
On this Page
It's All Right by William Stafford
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1991 (collected in My Name Is William Tell, 1992)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“It’s All Right” is one of Stafford’s most charming poems. It is an example of his characteristic impulse to include the reader in the collaborative process of the poem’s meaning. The poem’s language and tone are simple and reassuring; it is as if the reader is being cheered up by an old friend or given some helpful counsel by a wise grandfather.
The poem speaks to the reader directly, as many Stafford poems do, addressing the reader as “you” throughout. Stafford is concerned not only with the events of his own life but with the events of others’ lives as well. The experiences he describes are ones that anyone can recognize. “Someone you trusted has treated you bad./ Someone has used you to vent their ill temper.” Surely, all readers encountered such treatment. Yet Stafford knows that these difficulties are an inevitable consequence of social life: “Did you expect anything different?”
Stafford goes on to list, with sympathetic understanding, the failures and frustrations that, expected or not, can wear people down. “Your work—better than some others’—has languished,/ neglected. Or a job you tried was too hard,/ and you failed. Maybe weather or bad luck/ spoiled what you did.” Stafford takes care to imagine types of disappointments in work that could apply to a wide variety of readers, from writers, who often feel unfairly overlooked, to farmers, whose best efforts may be ruined by the caprice of the weather.
Stafford knows, too, that personal relationships often cause pain. “That grudge, held against you/ for years after you patched up, has flared,/ and you’ve lost a friend for a time. Things/ at home aren’t so good.” In only ten lines, the poem has covered many of the sources of unhappiness that people experience in their daily encounters with the world, and the cumulative weight of the poem has become indeed heavy.
Having reached its low point, however, the poem suddenly turns. “But just when the worst bears down/ you find a pretty bubble in your soup at noon,/ and outside at work a bird says, ’Hi!’/ Slowly the sun creeps along the floor; it is coming your way. It touches your shoe.” After such large disappointments, what can bring back happiness are the small things not usually noticed—“a pretty bubble”—and the steady, dependable forces of nature. If the social world is inevitably the source of frustration and disillusionment, the poem seems to say, the natural world is just as surely the source of contentment, consolation, and beauty.
Bibliography
Andrews, Tom, ed. On William Stafford: The Worth of Local Things. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
Holden, Jonathan. The Mark to Turn. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1976.
Kitchen, Judith. Writing the World: Understanding William Stafford. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1999.
Pinsker, Sanford. “William Stafford: ’The Real Things We Live By.’” In Three Pacific Northwest Poets. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Stafford, Kim. Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford. St. Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 2002.
Stitt, Peter. “William Stafford’s Wilderness Quest.” In The World: Hieroglyphic Beauty: Five American Poets. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.