Many poems depict a wondrous world filled with happiness and blind love. However in If, E.E. cummings characterizes the hardships of life as what makes it beautiful. Cummings establishes that our luck and the good things that happen to people does not m old them into the person that they become and instead that the troubles of each individual over time mold them into who they are. Through the use of repetition and oxymoron, E.E. Cummings establishes a bittersweet relationship between all of life’s virtues and vices. Cummings’ continually suggests that “if day was night” and other oxymorons were true, then every single person would not be themselves.”If false was true” then everything as humans knew it would be radically different due to the fact that the vices of life shape a person not the virtues. Many people only focus on the joys of life and that if nothing was bad in life then “all would seem fair” however Cummings disagrees with this suggesting that instead one must take life with all the slings and arrows. Instead of progressing the poem as each stanza advances, Cummings repeats the same message at the end of each line and instead comes to the conclusion utilizing different evidence. …show more content…
Dumas depicts “life as a storm” and throughout the story through the transformations of multiple character, especially Dantès, illustrates that what makes a man a man is not how they handle the sunshine but instead it’s what they do “when the storm comes”. Dantès endures through wrongful imprisonment for 14 years which in turn shapes his character into the revenge filled man he persists as throughout the remainder of the novel. The fortune he possessed before the incident did not shape him and instead after everything was taken from him and he was forced to struggle to redeem everything back did he become a changed
Throughout, his poems he gives us two different definitions. There might have been more than two meanings of being, but these two were the ones that stood out the most to me. As a person you have a choice to be yourself around others, or to be someone you’re not. Accepting who you are and being yourself makes you a better poet, according to Cummings. His idea of “being” is to accept who you are because you are the only person who can accept of who you are no one else. “Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else” (19). Throughout Cummings poems he believes that “being” is harder than “unbeing” because there may be people out there that won’t accept of who you
Overall, dwell on this process of changing throughout the poem, it can be understood that the poet is demonstrating a particular attitude towards life. Everyone declines and dies eventually, but it would be better to embrace an optimistic, opened mind than a pessimistic, giving-up attitude; face the approach of death unflinchingly, calmly.
...er emotional vulnerability send the reader on a mystery through a variety of people, places, and even time. With a quirky personality, the young heroine`s fearlessness and curiosity, on top of her excellent benefit of age sends her on an exceptional adventure while hints of familial love buried deep down begin to surface near the novel’s end. The poet, E.E. Cummings, is a sophisticated lover who speaks devotedly of his beloved and her mysterious power over him. With a loyal and passionate heart, the ardent poet marvels at the inner mystery, concluding that the mysteries of love and nature are best left alone because if one was to know precisely why they love another, some passion would be stolen. The curiosity, impetus, imagination, and bottomless passion in both narrators reveal that there is much more to mystery, adventure, and love than what meets the eye.
E. Cummings creates a critical and intolerant tone. He uses his work to criticize “most people” and how they blindly follow others. Cummings intolerance arises from others critical opinion of not normal people, whom the townspeople of the writing do not acknowledge. The uniqueness of both the main characters in the writing and Cummings is shown by the distinctiveness, inconsistency, and incorrectness of the writing. This tone directly relates to the theme and how anyone and noone are compassionate, caring people who actually recognize the value of life ,but are surrounded by townspeople who just stumble through life without a care or emotion. Cummings uses the seasons, bells, his unique composition and the repetition of “Women and men” and “anyone” to create and emphasize the unfortunate cycle of life. The use of the seasons in lines three,eleven, and thirty-four emphasise the passing of time and the unchanging ways of the townspeople. “Women and men”, in lines five and thirty-three,are used to remind us of Cummings definition of “most people” and how people tend to blend in and follow. The bells in lines two and twenty-four are used to indicate a change in the character 's, the first bell is before love and the second bell is rang before death.These significant life transitions show how love and death are final. life The character “anyone” introduces a person, unlike any others in the town, between him and his
So begins No Thanks, a book of poetry written by the already well-established Edward Estlin Cummings. When most people think of poetry, certain vocabulary comes to mind. Imagery. Rhyme. Meter. Flow. Figurative language. When the poetry of E.E. Cummings is mentioned, these stereotypical poetic techniques are forgotten. Instead, the mind focuses on Cummings' technique of avoiding technique. The lack of capitalization and nonstandard punctuation most likely begin the list of Cummings' nonrules in the minds of many. Sadly, the knowledge of...
I first read this poem and I thought of love, two people in love. Anyone and noone are in love and that is what matters to them, to be in love with each other and with life. It involves the day, the night, and how the weather changes. The seasons revolve and the children grow up to become adults. As I read the poem I realized there were three sections to it. Which consist of anyone and noone, "women and men" in line four, and the children. The first stanza is strange the first time you read it. You do not understand "anyone" is a person and not just anyone. I believe that line six is referring to all of the adults in the town, Cummings does not want us to think of the town people as separate people but as a whole group undistinguishable from on another. This is told in line five where it states "little and small", he is grouping them in very close together. The children are separated into there own group. As they grow through the seasons in lines nine, ten, and eleven, they pass on into adulthood. They in essence no longer exist in the poem. The bells ringing might have something to do with them becoming adults, since I do not see them relating to any other parts of the poem. The bells seem to be an important part of the town since they are mentioned in the second line of the poem and those exact lines are repeated in line twenty-four, sixth stanza of th...
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
In the poem “Anyone lived in a pretty how town”, E. E. Cummings’ use of structure contributes to the grateful, touched but also sombre mood, which reveals that we must live life to its fullest rather than living with no purpose because death is prominent and cannot be avoided. This is evident in the overall structure and spacing of the poem, as it is unique compared to E. E. Cummings’ other poems. The form and spacing of “Anyone lived in a pretty how town” is quite consistent, as it has been divided into nine even stanzas of four lines each, creating the effect that the “pretty how town” (Line 1) is quite regular and ordinary in everyday life. The fact that this “pretty how town” is just a regular, ordinary town, represents that residents would
Rotella, Guy. "Nature, Time, and Transcendence in Cummings’ Later poems." Critical Essays on E.E. Cummings G.K. Hall & Co., 1984. 283-302.
Ray, David. "The Irony of E. E. Cummings." College English. 23.4 (1962): 282, 287-290. Web. .
In this poem, Humanity I Love You, E.E. Cummings writes about all the negative effects humanity has on the world, which contradicts the title of the poem. In the first stanza the poet talks about how success and money all control people, and this idea of prosperity makes people selfish and exposes the real flaws of society. The poem continues to talk about the people with money and power are the ones who are supposed to be fixing the world, but instead these people are sitting on their money and watching the society fail. The third and fourth stanzas describe how people’s morals are being corrupted by the thought of money and power, and this is causing humanity lose sight of what is really important, that being the future of humanity. The
Through his verse, E. E. Cummings shows readers his natural inclination towards living through emotions and his justification of why his way of living comes "first" (line 1) to living through thought. Living with his heart feels better to E. E. Cummings in comparison to living through his mind, and so it is better. He has also determined that "the best gesture of his brain" (line 11) could never live up to the actions of love or true feeling. Yet, "since feeling comes first" (line 1) the thought must come second. This poet has shown readers that he has an understanding of life, but he could not begin to understand without the gift of thought.
Cummings adapts a style of writing traditionally found in the modernist era. The poem does not contain strict structure or punctuation in comparison to poetry created in the Victorian age, which was very structured with pompous language. One reads this poem by first reading what is outside the parentheses and then reading what is inside the parentheses. This method is very unique and it allows the reader to connect to the imagery created by the words in the order in which they are written. Also, this poem extends vertically down the page and no more than five letters are ever used horizontally in one line. The vertical extension of this poem allows the reader to emotionally connect with its content. Cumming’s poem correctly reads “loneliness a leaf falls”. As the reader interprets the poem they experience the falling motion of the leaves because the words literally fall down the page. The modern structures exhibited in this poem, allows the readers to connect with the poem in an untraditional and unique
“The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness.” This quote said by Stephen Spender depicts a great poet as someone who utilizes their past observations to increase their knowledge about people, nature, love, and life. Like a great poet, E.E. Cummings employed his past experiences in his poetry and life. Known as one of the preeminent poets of the 20th century, E.E. Cummings poetry has received an array of both positive and negative criticism. Nonetheless, Cummings’s poetry has inspired many poets and authors with his liberal views on love, nature, and religion along with his modern writing style. Although many criticized his contemporary style, E.E. Cummings modernized the traditional views of love, nature, and religion in poetry by emphasizing his contemporary beliefs, while incorporating a uniquely modern writing style.
The poem begins almost as a preface to the real message that Cummings is trying to say. The first four lines, in a sense, is Cummings trying to make sure that the reader understands that he loves America. He wants the readers to understand that this poem is not to be misinterpreted as unpatriotic or un-American. Cummings makes a very bold and powerful statement in the first line placing America as, aside from God, his main love. By going to such lengths, it can be assumed that what Cummings is going to say next would have the reader call into question his loyalty...