Meaning behind The Young Housewife

William Carlos Williams' The Young Housewife suggests many sad things about the life of the poem's main object, the housewife, through subtle detail. Also, I believe there to be a secret and intimate relationship, or "potential sexual contact" (Barry Ahearn), between the speaker and the housewife.
In the first stanza, Williams describes the housewife as moving around "in negligee". This is significant because it leaves the word "negligee" for further interpretation than just a nightgown. For instance, the sound of negligee sounds very much like neglect. Though this is not its meaning, the sounds are similar. In addition, the word right after negligee, which is also the last word of the second line, is "behind". This gives an connotation of shame and neglect, which complements the association of negligee and neglect.
Other details that add to the housewife's despondent state is how she "stands shy, uncorseted, tucking in/ stray ends of hair." In addition, the speaker compares her to a "fallen leaf", and at the end of the poem he speaks of the "noiseless wheels" of his car running over "dried leaves". This suggests that the author is metaphorically describing the housewife as a crushed and lifeless spirit.
The details and images Williams writes also allude to a possible sexual relationship between the speaker in the poem and the housewife. The very beginning of the poem reveals that the speaker is observing the housewife "at ten A.M." This is fairly late in the morning. If the housewife has children old enough for school, they would have already left. Also, her husband would probably have already left for work. Thus, 10 A.M. appears to be a time for intimate interaction between the housewife and the speaker. In addition, the things he specifically notices about her can be interpreted sexually. For example, she is "uncorseted", meaning that the speaker is noticing her upper body.
As already mentioned, the housewife is compared to a dried, "fallen leaf" that eventually gets run over by the speaker's car. Because of this, I believe that the speaker and the housewife are past lovers who were forced to end their affair because the housewife succumbed to the fear of her husband discovering her and her lover. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes a disheveled, dispirited housewife going about her daily work, yet as he passes her he bows and smiles. He still sends her a fond and warm greeting because he remembers past times.