William Carlos Williams is a physician specializing in pediatric care and a working poet residing in Rutherford, New Jersey. He combines his scientific observation skills with a child-like wonder to create minimalist poetry. Dissatisfied with highly abstract literary experiments, he focuses on capturing clear, immediate snapshots of ordinary life.

Ezra Pound is a struggling poet, student of languages, and a founding force behind the Imagism movement. He acts as a philosophical guide to Williams, advocating for the direct presentation of images in measured poetic lines without imported wisdom or heavy philosophy.

The sick girl is a youth suffering from a virulent, undiagnosable illness in the rural area around Passaic. She receives house calls from Williams, who watches helplessly as the sickness threatens her life. Her illness contrasts sharply with the bright, indifferent natural environment outside her window.

The farmer is a theoretical figure posited by critics who view the poem as an analysis of early 20th-century agricultural life. He relies on modest, sturdy tools like the wheelbarrow to maintain his farm operations and care for livestock.

T. S. Eliot is a contemporary poet whose work embodies the intellectual and social critique of his era. His abstract approach to poetry represents the esoteric style that Williams actively opposes in his own clean, image-focused writing.

Walt Whitman is an earlier New Jersey poet known for freeing American literature from European models. His free verse and perspective of the world as a spiritually charged environment deeply influence Williams's desire to write about distinctively American subjects.