This poem by William Carlos Williams has a distinctly patronizing, yet playful tone, as do several of his other early poems. The topics range from instructions on holding a funeral to love and how people treat it, as seen in Riposte. He uses the term my townspeople in a very condescending manner as he defines love to his fellow compatriots:

Love is like water or the air
my townspeople;
it cleanses, and dissipates evil gases.
It is like poetry too
and for the same reasons.

Love is so precious
my townspeople
that if I were you I would
have it under lock and key—
like the air or the Atlantic or
like poetry!

The language in Riposte is typical of Williams in that he uses common objects with no apparent link to love, which in this case are air and the Atlantic Ocean. This makes his statements more powerful, because they are not conventional metaphors utilising romantic objects, such as red roses and moonlight.

Instead, Williams challenges his audience to see love in basic elements- air and water. He also inserts a clever response to the criticisms he received for his unconventional poetry which many refused to recognize as poetry, due to the straightforward language and subject matter.