Next to of course god america i

“Next to of course god america i” is a poem by E. E. Cummings that satirizes the arrogant adamancy with which politicians speak of patriotism in order to fabricate an idealistic sense of national pride. Saturated with uncommon poetic practices, Cummings exploits unconventional syntax, lack of punctuation, and an overall rushed, seemingly nonsensical form of writing to emphasize the satirical tone of the poem and to poke fun at the absurdity of the lengths to which patriotism goes.
“Next to of course god america i” toys with diction, syntax, punctuation, and form in a way that makes reading the poem difficult, much the same way as Cummings finds it difficult to understand the message about patriotism the speaker in the first stanza, a politician, is giving. For example, being fourteen lines in length, the poem can be defined as a sonnet, a form usually associated with love poems. Cummings, however, tweaks the sonnet, shaping it into two stanzas of unequal length instead of three quatrains followed by a couplet. The first stanza is a speech being given by a politician and is denoted with quotation marks, and the second stanza, just one line long, is a comment. In doing this, Cummings ties the symbolic meaning of distorting the poem’s form to the idea that nationalism, too, has dark and distorted aspects. The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet with irregular meter divided in rhyme scheme into an ABABCDCD octave and an EFGFEG sestet. Traditional Petrarchan sonnets have a sestet rhyme scheme of EDEFEF, so here, too, Cummings alters the form to draw attention to the poem’s central theme. It is in the last six lines that the meaning of the poem is exposed with a series of rhetorical questions that sarcastically describe the massacre of soldier...

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...ce of liberty,” but his importance starkly contrasts with the stupidity of his message. The last line of the poem also boasts many interpretations. It can simply mean that he “[drinks] rapidly a glass of water” because he is parched from having delivered such a quick, superfluous speech. On the other hand, the speaker may be downing the water so rapidly in an attempt to cleanse himself of all the lies he told (GCSE Revision, 2012).
E. E. Cummings displays his adamant anti-war, anti-patriotic sentiments in the satirical poem “next to of course god america i.” Through his use of unorthodox form and structure, Cummings was able to effectively convey the perversity of blind patriotism. Though the voices of liberty may be loud, they are not always honest. Too much adamancy of any kind can lead to radicalism, and even when loving one’s country, one must love correctly.