Poet Analysis

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E.E. Cummings's poetry lives in a fun-filled Utopia of hope and love. This Utopia is described in detail in one of E.E. Cumming's poems, "Who knows if". It describes a place of all fun and no work, and could even be considered a sort of Heaven that Cumming's is pushing humanity to achieve through love and kindness. He says, "everyone's in love and flowers pick themselves". Hope resonates throughout Cumming's collection of poems and seems to suggest that there is always hope towards a better life and gives his readers hints of how to work towards a perfect society all while playing with the poem's structure and challenging his reader to interpret his complex ideas. Along the theme of "Hope", Cummings warns against having a brain, but being unable to use it. In "Here is Little Effie", Cummings tells of Judgment Day and Effie being 'left behind'. To end his poem, Cummings writes "here is little Effie's head/ whose brains are made of gingerbread". He says that Effie, which interestingly sounds like the slang term "iffy", couldn't think for herself and therefore couldn't make any decisions or do anything with her life. Our brains don't go with us when we die, but our spirit does and the only way to be spiritual and do the right thing is to use our heads. By humans not using their brain to make a decision or do something great in the world, our spirit achieves nothing either. Resulting in all that's left during Judgment Day is "six crumbs left by the coffinlid". "Hope" however, to use a cliché, comes in all shapes and forms. Hope is also instilled in a different form in "Nobody Loses all the time". In this narrative poem, Cummings describes his "uncle sol" who was a complete failure at everything and anything he did or tried; in fac... ... middle of paper ... ...: "spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things, while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here and placing an inch of air there) and without breaking anything." He begins by comparing spring to a "perhaps hand" and then from there creates pastoral imagery of springtime. He also likes to use extended personifications throughout an entire poem such as in the afore mentioned poem where he personifies a new car with a woman. He also is quite fond of alliterations as many appear in each poem and add to the silliness of his tone and syntax. Cummings, one of the most well-known poets of the twentieth century, uses his own unique style to describe erotic and everyday love, poke fun at snobbishness and conformity, as well as provide hope for better improving individual's and group's lives.

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