“No Ideas But in Things”

No things but in names.
There’s a world out there,
But world is a name,

And thing is a name.
The ideas of things
May predate the name

In well-evolved brains,
As a feel for things,
But to know of things

Is to have that name,
That thing that names thing,
Or something like it—

As Williams well knew
When he used his names
To state his idea

With no things in it,
Actually, at all,
Except that name, thing.