Admirations of Love

Delight me, tickle my senses, I dare you! To be delighted-- isn’t that something we all wish to enjoy. Taking a walk in Edward E. Cummings’ poem, titled; “[S]omewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond”, where he embraces his reader upon revealing a rainbow of “colour[ful]” techniques-- making my mind dance over hills of wild flowers (Cummings 742). With each new flower giving form to a jumble of abstract emotions, he conveys a more pronounced diction. And though I may color myself a portrait with perfect admirations of love, history has a funny way of telling me differently.

“[S]omewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond/ any experience,your eyes have their silence: / in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, / or which i cannot touch because they are too near” (Cummings 742). In the first verse Cummings presents meter, but discontinues this method in the next four verses. When metering the first verse, it sets it apart, --like an introduction to a story-- laying down a path to the rest of the poem. Reading from one verse to the next, we see Cummings’ love for another become unraveled piece by tantalizing piece. His thoughts begin to break down into open words on the page, but still remain embodied within a quatrain structure. Perhaps telling us his love is uncontrolled, but composed.

In the first verse, lines one and two are separate from lines three and four with a colon. A colon, in its most simple of ways, separates Cummings’ topics from his explanations. The first two lines of verse one, tells me of a place which he desires to travel, but has never been. The third and fourth lines in verse one describes that destination and why he must not go. In the fourth verse he entices me ...

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... and the depth in which he sees her, is his understanding.

So where does this leave me now? I have followed Cummings’ path from technique to technique. Even took a closer look through his use of words. Grasping ahold of an image I clearly see, but then questioning my thoughts when reading Cummings history during that time. One thing still remains clear to me; he has admirations of love for this person, and only the innocence behind it-- for me-- remains open for interpretation.

Works Cited

Cummings, Edward. “Somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond.” Literature An

Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Campion, Donna. United

States: Kennedy X. J., Dana Gioia, 2010, 2007, and 2005. 742. Print.

Reef, Catherine. “E. E. Cummings a poet’s life.” USA: Houghton Mifflin Company imprint,

2006. Print