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Why did I choose E. E. Cummings? Click this little button thing!  Click here for more poetry and analysis! (known being wishless;but love,all of wishing) though life's lived wrongsideout,sameness chokes oneness truth is confused with fact,fish boast of fishing and men are caught by worms(love may not care if time totters,light droops,all measures bend nor marvel if a thought should weigh a star —dreads dying least;and less,that death should end) how lucky lovers are)whose selves abide under whatever shall discovered be) whose ignorant each breathing dares to hide more than most fabulous wisdom fears to see <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(who laugh and cry)who dream,create and kill <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">while the world moves;and every part stands still: ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 1 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this poem, E. E. Cummings captures the butterfly-filled newness felt by those falling in love. Unlike a predictable, loveless existence, love’s “all of wishing” (2). It gives us the delicious uncertainty of hope, the promise of something wonderful. Wishes provide purpose and justification that life is worth living; the infinite unknown becomes inviting and seductive rather than something to avoid and eliminate with routines and predictability. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unfortunately, most people live their lives “wrongsideout” (3). Line 3 laments letting the stagnancy of routine – “sameness” – suffocate people’s chances at fulfillment – “oneness” (3). The line could also be a warning against fully absorbing the groupthink of the time, as such conformity stifles individuality. As in many of his other works, Cummings scorns societal norms in the poem. Like “fish boast[ing] of fishing,” people delight in having power over one another, knocking down their peers for personal gain (4). Tangible rewards, like “worms” while fishing, drive men to act rather than feelings. Blissfully immune to the world’s opposing forces, lovers appreciate their lives in the face of all that is harshly true; they delight in the warpings of the world and don’t fear dying because to them, death is not the end of all that is beautiful. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lovers choose to bravely “hide,” with their “ignorant each breathing,” in the face all that is awful in the world, while loveless intellectuals just shirk away, afraid to even face it. Yet again, Cummings illustrates the triumph of love and emotion over all else. “Abid[ing] under whatever shall discovered be", lovers follow the ebb and flow of the natural world, accepting all that comes to pass. Instead of blinding them, love is armor when confronting unpleasant reality. It “fabricates” hope, and deliberate, defiant ignorance in the face of evil (1). Lovers fully experience the extremes of life mentioned in line 13, while “the whole moves; and every part stands still”; <range type="comment" id="497059">‍‍the world rushes past them in a blur yet they appreciate every miniscule moment, tasting all the details of being alive ‍‍(14). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummings champions the heroism of lovers, observing and mocking those who live life “wrongsideout,” missing valuable moments as they chase materialistic and power-related rewards (3). The dichotomy between lovers and intellectuals reflects Cummings’ basic philosophy: lovers transcend the bleak reality and forever wish for beauty, whereas the “fish” who “boast of fishing” are missing the point of life itself. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">earth how often have <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">doting <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><range type="comment" id="636966">‍‍‍‍‍fingers of <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">prurient philosophers pinched ‍‍‍‍‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">poked <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">thee <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, has the naughty thumb <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">of science prodded <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">thy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">beauty, how <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">often have religions taken <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">thee upon their scraggy knees <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">squeezing and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">gods <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(but <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">true <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">to the incomparable <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">couch of death thy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">rhythmic <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">lover <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">thou answerest <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">them only with <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">spring) ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 2 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“O sweet spontaneous” is reminiscent of a prayer or hymnal, paying respect to the earth and marveling at its simple responses to man’s many attempts to pull it apart. In the first line, the speaker addresses the earth with an apostrophe as if it were a deity, celebrating its deliciously surprising nature. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the poem continues, the speaker laments the frequency of which philosophers, scientists, and people of faith attempt peel the earth apart in search of truth. Expecting the earth to provide them with answers, they “prod” and “squeeze” and “pinch” it to no avail (6-16). Though philosophers are normally associated with thought and academia, those described in the poem brutishly use their “fingers” to explore the earth, creating unpleasant dissonance with the reader’s previous concept of philosophers (5). From a linguistic perspective, <range type="comment" id="487373">‍Cummings artfully conveys the tone of this portion with his use of phonology. The harsh /p^h/ in lines 6-8 feels violent and aggressive when read aloud, as do the /sk/ sounds in “scraggy” and “squeezing” (15-16). ‍ Per usual, the spoken language in Cumming’s poem both mirrors and invokes the visceral, conceptual reaction he intends. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The speaker continues by calling death a “couch,” linking with Cummings’ belief that death is not an end, but perhaps a rest from the chaotic present. Death is the earth’s “rhythmic lover,” a term that cyclically binds the two. All things live, grow, and die; the earth’s life force works hand in hand with death to keep balance in the universe. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After bemoaning the wounds others have inflicted upon the earth, “O sweet spontaneous” ends on a note of hope. Complementary to the earth’s cycles of death and rebirth, this gentle, humbled finale matches the tone of the poem’s onset. As men assault and destroy the earth in an attempt to derive reason, the earth merely “answerest them” with yet another gift of beautiful renewal, “spring” (25-27). The enjambment of the three final lines places a whisper-soft emphasis on his final image. Answering the philosophers, scientists, and religious thinkers with a gift so joyous and pure may further puzzle them, perhaps indirectly imploring them to simply enjoy the Earth rather than pry it apart. “O sweet spontaneous” honors the Earth for her grace and continuity and exemplifies Cummings’ reverence of nature, an attitude that pervades a large portion of his work. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">say can you see by the dawn's early my <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">country tis of centuries come and go <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and are no more what of it we should worry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">in every language even deafanddumb <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">by jingo by gee by gosh by gum <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">why talk of beauty what could be more beaut- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">iful than these heroic happy dead <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">they did not stop to think they died instead <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">then shall the voice of liberty be mute?'' <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He spoke. And drink rapidly a glass of water ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 3 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of Cummings’ more political works, this poem criticizes hyper-idealism and illogical patriotism. The man speaking seems to hold the deluded belief that everyone in the world adores America just as he does. But as he prattles on, the dialogue’s lack of punctuation and capitalization convey the his true feelings. The star-spangled speech is crowded and rambling as the man seeks to avoid the uncomfortable truth that pervades any silence. Generic and recited, the man’s mentions of “pilgrims” and the national anthem demonstrate textbook patriotism, not true passion. Line 8’s jaunty exclamations mimic the saccharine description of America’s greatness in the lines prior, further underscoring the speech’s superficiality. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To the speaker, the truest “beauty” in the world is the “happy” sacrifice of “dead [soldiers].” This light, airy diction contrasts with the next line’s harshness in describing the soldiers rushing “like lions to the roaring slaughter” (10-11). That shift in diction offers a glimpse into the speaker’s discomfort with war and its brutality, a discomfort he desperately tries to bury in jingoistic declarations. Asking “why talk of beauty,” the man tries to brush off his own doubts as he continues on without pause (9). Instead of speaking to someone else, it’s as if the man is trying to justify the deaths of these young men at war in an effort to console himself. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummings deliberately accentuated the last line of the poem with its punctuation, capitalization, and separation from the speech. When at last confronted with silence, the man immediately focuses his energy on drinking water. The fact that he drinks “rapidly” conveys that he’s exhausted from his breathless recitation of falsehoods and/or desperate to avoid facing the truth. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummings’ voice saturates this poem, but in a different way than many of his other works. Instead of celebrating life or revering nature, he condemns the self-inflicted ignorance of those who look at war as something beautiful and Hallmark-esque. Disgusted by the use of boys as pawns in the horrific game of war, he points out how they died only to preserve “the voice of liberty” (13); to Cummings, dying for an abstract noun is absurd and grotesque, and in this poem he vilifies those who think otherwise. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">not. Progress is a comfortable disease: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">your victim (death and life safely beyond) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">plays with the bigness of his littleness <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">--- electrons deify one razorblade <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">into a mountainrange; lenses extend <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">returns on its unself. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A world of made <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">is not a world of born --- pity poor flesh <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">fine specimen of hypermagical <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ultraomnipotence. We doctors know <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a hopeless case if --- listen: there's a hell <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">of a good universe next door; let's go ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 4 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Progress and nature are opposing forces. Through his coining of the new word, “manunkind,” Cummings clarifies that man is committing a wrong when engaging in the “comfortable disease” of progress (1-2). Calling the disease “comfortable” illustrates how easy it is to become accustomed to following the crowd, even if that means trampling over others. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The “victim” mentioned in line 3 signifies mankind under the influence of progress, an entity the speaker encourages the reader not to pity. Even when man believes in his “bigness,” it’s all relative: in comparison to the earth, everyone is just “littleness” (4). All the while, “death and life [are] safely beyond,” meaning that these illusive hierarchies are meaningless in context with the actual forces of the universe. The real limits of life are lie far beyond the realm of societal constraints and divides. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To Cummings, intellectual arrogance is an abomination. Men have brutally attacked nature’s purity for eternity, believing they have the right as the quote-unquote superior species, a notion Cummings reviles. His lamentation the “world of made” man has built over time not being “a world of born” is made clear by the enjambment of lines 9-10; “world of born” is on a separate line, together with “pity” and “poor.” The clustering of these words was a deliberate move by Cummings, meant to assault the reader with sad connotations. He pities the victims of man’s industrialization – “flesh,” “trees,” “stars and stones” – but not mankind, which he describes with caustic sarcasm as a “fine specimen of hypermagical omnipotence” (10-13). Such a depiction derides the supremacy men often feel over the natural world. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The poem culminates conversationally, as if Cummings is a doctor wrapping up his advice to a patient on how to deal with “manunkind” and the state of the world. Claiming it’s a “hopeless case” and suggesting that they should all go to the “hell of a good universe next door” softly satirizes those who give up as soon as disappointment strikes. Simultaneously this serves to inspire the reader to take action regarding the world’s dismal state; the reader should create a new universe if they can’t change the one in which they live. The current universe consists of cyclical “unwishes” and “unselves,” implying that the one “next door” contains wishes and selves, meaning hopes and genuine individuals. Ending with “let’s go” energizes the poem, suggesting the promise of a better future and leaving the reader intellectually ready to jump up and start creating. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and to your(in my arms flowering so new) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">self whose eyes smell of the sound of rain <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and here's to silent certainly mountains;and to <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a disappearing poet of always,snow <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and to morning;and to morning's beautiful friend <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">twilight(and a first dream called ocean)and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">let must or if be damned with whomever's afraid <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">down with ought with because with every brain <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">which thinks it thinks,nor dares to feel(but up <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">with joy;and up with laughing and drunkenness) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">here's to one undiscoverable guess <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">of whose mad skill each world of blood is made <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(whose fatal songs are moving in the moon ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 5 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A toast to life, “here’s to opening and upward” deprecates doubts and finality, celebrating the earth and its cyclical nature. Life’s continuity drives the world “open” and “upward” in a pattern of beautiful moments (1). Cummings reveres the poetry around us: the dependability of mountains, the progression from “morning” to “twilight,” the “first dream called ocean” (4-7). Calling snow the “poet of always” emphasizes the speaker’s gratitude for the sporadic certainty of the seasons; intermittent sprinkles of snow, a fleeting, intermittent gift, allow people to stop for a whisper of a moment and experience something beautiful. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><range type="comment" id="180473">‍The poem shifts its tone from appreciative to rebuking ‍ as Cummings condemns “must” and “if…with whomever’s afraid,” indirectly imploring the reader to abandon commands and hypotheticals and instead experience life as is (7). Trying to dictate or predict the world is futile. Cursing “ought,” “because,” and “every brain which thinks it thinks”, Cummings brings to light the illusion of superiority people believe they have over the will of the universe (8). Instead of attempting to derive reason from the natural world, people should simply accept the cycles of the earth with gratitude. This somewhat haughty advice on how people should think and behave is prevalent in Cummings’ work and introduces a contradiction; he uses reason as he lectures readers on the idiocy of reasoning their way through the world. The self-believed omnipotent poet continues on, telling the reader to embrace “joy,” “laughing,” and “drunkenness,” as such unfiltered moments of giddiness are essential to celebrating life in the pure, spontaneous present. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The final stanza involves much more complexity as Cummings ruminates over the more violent byproducts of the of life. With “mad skill” living things have created each “world of blood,” a fact that is nothing more than an “undiscoverable guess” (12-13). By employing “are moving” instead of the present “move,” Cummings implies the ubiquitous undercurrent of life’s “fatal songs” (14). Most interesting is the fact that Cummings neither condemns nor judges the presence of evil in the world, remaining objective and soft-spoken. The last stanza’s delivery style is much softer than the condemnations of the previous two, perhaps because the truth of evil is so indisputable that attempting to alter it is pointless. It’s as if he is taking his own advice, observing but not over-thinking the world and accepting it for all its patterns and derivatives. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">who pays any attention <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">to the syntax of things <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">will never wholly kiss you; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">wholly to be a fool <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">while Spring is in the world <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">my blood approves, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and kisses are a better fate <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">than wisdom <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">—the best gesture of my brain is less than <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">your eyelids' flutter which says <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">we are for each other: then <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">laugh, leaning back in my arms <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">for life's not a paragraph <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And death i think is no parenthesis ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><range type="comment" id="158629">‍‍‍‍Analytical Summary 6 ‍‍‍‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“since feeling is first” epitomizes Cumming’s philosophy of being. It mirrors all he believes and creates. Rather than follow linguistic norms, cummings’ oetry warps phrasing to convey raw emotion and truer imagery. He juxtaposes syntax and feeling in his explanation of why it’s invaluable to do just that. The first line (also the title) establishes the baseline theme: emotions reign supreme. Love trumps all else. He goes on to ask, “who pays any attention to the syntax of things,” following the line with a syntactic idiosyncrasy – “will never wholly kiss you” – that oddly enough flows perfectly in the stanza when spoken aloud. Cummings is correct; syntax will never fully touch you the way raw emotion can. Syntax won’t love you or inspire you – not “wholly” enough to be important. Feelings are foremost. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Seeing his surroundings full of life and beauty and things to celebrate, Cummings denounces those who choose to follow the predetermined rules of language “while Spring is in the world”, calling them fools (6-7). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To further emphasize the importance of loved ones over acquired knowledge, Cummings deems “kisses…a better fate than wisdom” (9-10). Memories of happiness and people who care will keep you company when you take your last breath, not “wisdom.” Swearing by the natural world instead of logic – “lady i swear by all flowers (11) – he assures his lover that life’s tiny precious moments are what he values most. Declaring her tiniest gesture more significant than his most profound intellectual thoughts, he illustrates again the importance he assigns to the beauty of human interaction over reason. The body language of the woman he loves is infinitely more wondrous than any academic thought he’s ever had. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Further defying norms, Cummings contradicts himself, claiming “life’s not a paragraph” although he’s quantifying life into writing all the same (15). However, his disregard of grammatical rules preserves his message. Those last two lines accentuate his broader point - life cannot and should not be delineated into units of reason and logical thought. Instead of attempting to gift-wrap the intangible, Cummings chooses to echo how anarchic and wonderfully indescribable it is. His belief in the fluidity of life continues into death, which is “no parenthesis” (16). The use of the singular “parenthesis” rather than parentheses indicates he meant one rather than the pair, meaning that if life is the opening, death is not an end. To Cummings, life is illimitable. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“since feeling is first” is the distillation of E. E. Cumming’s worldview. To celebrate the beauty of the abstract, he flouts linguistic convention and urges the reader to do the same. People should embrace spontaneity and the nonlinear nature of existence; reason is man’s invention and feeling is the only true determinant in the natural world. || <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and the sun strikes to gain a living wage - when thorns regard their roses with alarm <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and rainbows are insured against old age <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">when every thrush may sing no new moon in <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- and any wave signs on the dotted line <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">or else an ocean is compelled to close <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">when the oak begs permission of the birch <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">to make an acorn - valleys accuse their <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">mountains of having altitude - and march <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">denounces april as a saboteur <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">then we'll believe in that incredible <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">unanimal mankind (and not until) ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><range type="comment" id="228371">‍Analytical Summary 7 ‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">More satirical than his usual work, “when serpents bargain” is one of Cummings’ most conventional poems, which for him is unconventional. The grammar and syntax are logical and methodical, making the poem less lyrical art and more of a cautionary tale to people too wrapped up in the world created by mankind. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By personifying untamed nature in a humorous way, Cummings highlights how humans are actually the savages. Only when nature sinks down to our level can we call ourselves “unanimal” (14). As of now, we’re not “incredible” by any means (13). The way we treat others appears absurd when projected onto nonhuman characters. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He decries the vicious byproducts of human society: people are denied their basic rights (“serpents bargain for the right to squirm”), they have to fight to be paid enough to survive (“the sun strikes to gain a living wage”), and injustice pervades the so-called civilization in which we live (1; 2). Cummings also criticizes how people ostracize those who are different, even though all people are innately connected. The lighthearted lens of “thorns regard[ing] their roses with alarm” through which the reader views this social commentary allows for distance, thus the poem does not feel like an attack (3). Using this clever tactic throughout the rest of the poem, Cummings continues to mock the rules and constraints of society. People need legal authentication and permission for everything, a notion that Cummings proves ridiculous by pairing it up with birds and waves. The humor of such an image makes his point ring truer: the rules and constraints of society are unnatural and absurd. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Just as we sue others for inane reasons, the valleys in the poem “accuse their mountains of having altitude” (10-11). “march denounces april as a saboteur” with the same ferocity cutthroat lawyers, businessmen, and the like use on a daily basis. This venomous independence and constant need to push down others to self-aggrandize is omnipresent in human conflicts. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummings’ witty satire in “when serpents bargain” provides enough breathing room for his social commentary to inspire more than to sting. Ridiculing the lofty opinion men have of themselves with comical examples, Cummings points out how animalistic human nature truly is. His poem encourages the reader to follow natures example rather than continue on this corrupted path; in no way can we call ourselves a superior species after objectively viewing our behavior as seen in this poem. By setting up the poem with no introduction and saving talk of the “incredible unanimal mankind” until the end, Cummings allows the reader to absorb and form an opinion about the injustices illustrated in the poem (14). After that, he pulls the rug out from under the reader, exposing that those insensitive and idiotic acts are the very ones we commit on a daily basis. || <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">from each brave eye shall sprout a tree <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">fruit that dangles therefrom <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the purpled world will dance upon <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">between my lips which did sing <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a rose shall beget the spring <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">that maidens whom passion wastes <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">will lay between their little breasts <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">my strong fingers beneath the snow <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">into strenuous birds shall go <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">my love walking in the grass <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">their wings will touch with her face <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and all the while shall my heart be <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">with the bulge and nuzzle of the sea ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 8 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Containing more conventional imagery than Cummings’ other works, “when god lets my body be” offers an optimistic view of death. Discussing nature’s cyclicality, Cummings reveals how <range type="comment" id="690729">‍‍‍even in death there is life, such as in lines 2-3, as he describes plants sprouting from the speaker’s remains: “from each brave eye shall sprout a tree / fruit that dangles therefrom” (2-3). On the same theme, the speaker describes how “between my lips…a rose begets the spring,” again illustrating that death gives rise to new life. ‍‍‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the title suggests, the speaker views earthly life as a burden. The “purpled world” evokes the image of a bruised earth, and the speaker’s eyes are “brave” for enduring it (4; 2). To him, death is not an end, but a period to relax and absorb the earth and its blessings. The speaker’s heart will join “the bulge and nuzzle of the sea,” a phrase evoking the seductive comfort of death. Inviting and innocent, it beckons to him as a tranquil alternative to his life on earth. In a way it’s as if the speaker is back where he belongs, a theme that can be seen in the poem as a whole; man comes from nature and returns to nature in a gentle, predictable cycle. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In fleeting moments, the speaker’s love will remember his presence, symbolized by the appearance of birds. These moments are “strenuous” because they refresh her sadness over her lost love (10). Unlike his love, the speaker is exempt from such grief. His fingers are “strong” and his heart is with the warm, welcoming ocean, as death has embraced him and absorbed his troubles (9). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As in many of Cummings’ works, this poem deals with the concepts of eternity and infinity. All processes follow perpetual patterns, such as the never-ending cycle of life and death. Through his use of archetypal, familiar metaphors and comforting language, Cummings’ placates the reader’s fears of death. Images of maidens, roses, and gentle tides suggest a soft progression of life to death. Rather than viewing it as a daunting finality, the reader can see the cyclical nature of the world from a detached perspective, allowing him/her to appreciate its beauty. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">or which i cannot touch because they are too near <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">your slightest look easily will unclose me <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">though i have closed myself as fingers, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">or if your wish be to close me,i and <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">as when the heart of this flower imagines <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the snow carefully everywhere descending; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the power of your intense fragility:whose texture <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">compels me with the color of its countries, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">rendering death and forever with each breathing <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(i do not know what it is about you that closes <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and opens;only something in me understands <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Analytical Summary 9 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The language of this poem captures the delicate, vulnerable, captivating feeling of falling in love. The use of “somewhere” and “travelled” in the first stanza imply that the speaker is about to embark on a journey of some sort; the journey is positive and unfamiliar, as it is “gladly beyond any experience” the speaker has ever had (1-2). Distilling the enchanting vulnerability of becoming intimately close to someone, this poem equates closed flowers to timid lovers. The speaker describes how his lover’s “slightest look will easily unclose” him, illustrating the power of her tiniest gestures (5). <range type="comment" id="831840">‍‍‍Even though his guard is often up (“i have closed myself as fingers”), she can “open always petal by petal [him]self” just as Spring awakens “her first rose”; the cycle of falling in love is as natural a progression as the seasons (6-8). ‍‍‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Her closeness is so overwhelming that it “beautifully” shuts out every other part of his life; the world is muted and softly obscured as if “snow [were] carefully everywhere descending” (12). The use of “compels” in line 15 emphasizes the speaker’s magnetic attraction to his lover, an attraction he is powerless to fight. So delicately monumental is her existence that she “render[s] death and forever with each breathing” (16). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Looking solely at adverbs, I noticed they themselves mirror Cumming’s message, creating a poem all their own. His word choices – gladly, skillfully, mysteriously, beautifully, suddenly, carefully – mimic the speaker’s progression of falling in love. He welcomes the unknown but never truly understands the mesmerizingly subtle power this woman has over him. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummings conveys the “intense fragility” of the woman with his diction; her gestures are “frail” or things the speaker “cannot touch,” evoking an image beautiful, breakable items like china or crystal (17; 4; 3). The speaker doesn’t understand why she can so easily “open” and “close” him, only innately understanding that the “voice of her eyes is deeper than all roses,” meaning her soul is more breathtakingly powerful than all of nature’s beauty (17-19). || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">everthing he took one <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">breath bigger than a <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">circustent <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">and everthing began <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">when man determined to destroy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">himself he picked the was <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">of shall and finding only why <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">smashed it into because ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><range type="comment" id="371572">‍Analytical Summary 10 ‍ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Employing verbs and conjunctions as objects for his metaphors, Cummings delves into broader ideas about human nature than he could in a more concrete poem. “when god decided to invent” allegorically deals with the inevitable human tendency to deconstruct all ideas, destroying the world’s lovely imprecision. True to the beliefs of romanticism, the poet emphasizes the importance of feeling over endlessly seeking the reason behind it, a common thread in his work. The spontaneity Cummings wishes for others to have in life is reflected in his view of god; he “decided to invent” the world one day, merely taking “one breath” and just like that, “everything began” (1-4). But man is dissatisfied with simplistic decisions. Desperate to analyze and justify, he “pick[s] the was of shall and finding only why smashed it into because” (5-8). Constantly searching for rationalization, humans become frustrated with “finding only why” in response to their questions. The man in the poem smashes why into “because” in an effort to bludgeon the “why” into an absolute answer. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This poem can relate to the fundamentals of religion, but not merely because it mentions God. Accepting truths by faith rather than concrete evidence is difficult but essential to existing harmoniously with the world, at least in Cummings’ eyes. His view highlights the simplicity of the untouched universe, contrasting to the violent aftermath created by the man, who is “determined to destroy himself” in the search for reason (5-6). The use of “determined” emphasizes that even before commencing the destruction, man expects consequences for his actions. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the perpetual quest for understanding, men habitually hurt themselves and their surrounding world. Rather than simply taking “one breath” and creating something new and wonderful, man must “destroy” and what already exists and “smash” it into something he can fit into his worldview. Via lexical instead of visual imagery, Cummings laments the cyclical nature of human destruction, which often results in self-destruction. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Works Cited: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Poem** ||< <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Analytical Summary** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">love's function is to fabricate unknownness
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">O sweet spontaneous
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">``next to of course god america i
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">pity this busy monster, manunkind,
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">here's to opening and upward, to leaf and to sap
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">since feeling is first
 * < <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
 * < <span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">when god lets my body be
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyondany experience,your eyes have their silence:
 * < <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">when god decided to invent