One of the greatest gems of whom America can be proud to say he is one of us, E E Cummings was one of the top poets of his time and even presently. He was a man who had his own style that would bring in-depth cognition to his writing. One of Cummings most renowned poems “in Just” is one such writing that showcases his style and cunning intellect. When analyzed it becomes very clear how many elements Cummings can use in just a few lines; some key principles he uses is musical devices, imagery, patterns, and allusion.
The first part of the poem opens up Cummings use of musical devices. Line 2 provides alliteration with “when the world.” He continues to use alliteration with lines 3-4, 5, and 10 with “ mud-luscious the little lame,” “whistles far and wee,” and “when the world is puddle-wonderful.” Using alliteration like this allows for the poem to just roll off the tongue when read and also to be read faster so to represent how the children would speak quickly. He goes on to use repetition of words and phrase; recurrences of phrases like “whistles far and wee” and “and it’s spring.” Repeating thus is a clue to the reader to pay attention to these phrases to know that there is more meaning to them than just the words that they are. To use this element is like Cummings shouting to say to the audience to pay attention because this is really important. Assonance can be found in lines 5 with whistles and wee, 7-8 with running and piracies, 13-14 with wee and dancing, and 20-21 with goat-footed and baloonMan. Having the same vowel sounds gives the poem a more appealing sound and like alliteration gives the poem fluidity.
Most of the imagery that Cummings uses comes from the words he makes up. In line 2 the word mud-lusciou...
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... singing it’s song to take away the innocence and that one must always be careful.
Cummings was clearly a cunning man who showed his great mastery of poetry especially in this poem. His use of imagery and musical devices to cause the poem to have a light demeanor when underneath shows a different mask was brilliant. Clearly there was more “in Just” these words than what meets the eye.
Works Cited
Doe, John. "Delights and Dangers of Childhood: A Brief Analysis of." John Doe. N.p., 24 Apr. wwwwww2000. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
Genius Media Group. "E. E. Cummings – In Just-." Poetry Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
Monten, May. "In Just by Ee Cummings Analysis." Humanities360.com. N.p., 12 Oct. 2009. Web. wwwwww21 Feb. 2014.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "in Just- Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay." Shmoop.com. Shmoop wwwwwwUniversity, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
The alliteration used is to emphasize rhythm in the poem. On the other hand, the poet also depicts a certain rhyme scheme across each stanza. For example, the first stanza has a rhyme scheme of this manner a, b, c, d, e, a. With this, the rhyme scheme depicted is an irregular manner. Hence, the poem does not have a regular rhythm. Moreover, the poet uses a specific deign of consonance, which is present in the poem (Ahmed & Ayesha, p. 11). The poet also uses the assonance style depicted in the seventh stanza, “Seven whole days I have not seen my beloved.” The letter ‘o’ has been repeated to create rhythm and to show despair in the poem. On the second last line of the seventh stanza, the poet uses the style of consonance, “If I hug her, she’ll drive illness from me. By this, the letter ‘l’ is repeated across the line. The poet’s aim of using this style of Consonance is to establish rhythm in the poem and add aural
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while others didn’t have the same luck. But in history e.e. Cummings has stunned people with his creativity and exposure to the real world and not living in the fantasy people imagine they live in. Cummings was a great poet, and was able to make his own way of writing while he was also involved greatly in the modernist movement. But he demonstrates all his uniqueness in all and every poem, delivering people with knowledge and making them see the world with different eyes as in the poem “Since feeling is first”. Biography Born on October 14, 1894, E. E. Cummings an American poet was born at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings talks about the cycle of life and the importance of structure, symbolism, and language of the poem. For instance, the poem has nine stanzas, which has a rhyming pattern of AABC. The rhythm of the poem is significant for it supports one of themes, the cycle of life. Cumming uses season to explain the poem's progress. “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “sun moon stars rain” (8) symbolizes time passing, which represents life passing. In the poem, as the seasons and skies rotate, life continues along with them. In addition, the uses of the words “snow” (22), “buried” (27), “was by was” (28), and “day by day” (29) leading to death. Towards the end of the poem, the depression of death was mention, but Cumming was just stating the n...
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
Not so much in, "In Just-" but Cummings took his father's pastoral background and used it to preach in many of his other poems. In "you shall above all things be glad and young," Cummings preaches to the reader in verse telling them to love with naivete and innocence, rather than listen to the world and depend on their mind.
“Anyone lived in a pretty how town,” by E.E. Cummings, is a poem that alludes to the circle of life and how birth and death are a natural part of this cycle. This meaning is conveyed by a complex metaphor; broken down, this metaphor slides away to reveal the true social commentary behind it. This poem is an allegory; the speaker uses pronouns with unclear antecedents to mask the true meaning and add poetic flair to the simple belief he or she presents.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The use of alliteration, tone, mood, theme and other elements that construct a well balanced poem are in this piece of literature.
I believe that the structure of this poem allows for the speaker to tell a narrative which further allows him to convey his point. The use of enjambment emphasizes this idea as well as provides a sense of flow throughout the entirety of a poem, giving it the look and feel of reading a story. Overall, I believe this piece is very simplistic when it comes to poetic devices, due to the fact that it is written as a prose poem, this piece lacks many of the common poetic devices such as rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and metaphors. However, the tone, symbolism, allusion and imagery presented in the poem, give way to an extremely deep and complicated
One of Emily Dickinson’s greatest skills is taking the familiar and making it unfamiliar. In this sense, she reshapes how her readers view her subjects and the meaning that they have in the world. She also has the ability to assign a word to abstractness, making her poems seemingly vague and unclear on the surface. Her poems are so carefully crafted that each word can be dissected and the reader is able to uncover intense meanings and images. Often focusing on more gothic themes, Dickinson shows an appreciation for the natural world in a handful of poems. Although Dickinson’s poem #1489 seems disoriented, it produces a parallelism of experience between the speaker and the audience that encompasses the abstractness and unexpectedness of an event.
The poem “the greedy the people” by e e cummings is extremely complex in structure. Each of its five stanzas is composed of six lines that seem to follow a similar pattern with a rhyme scheme of ABCBAC that is made up of both slant and perfect rhymes; however, the poem is free verse in terms of meter. It does follow a pattern where the first line talks about a group of people and is emphasized with a rhyme, alliteration, or assonance; for example: “the timid the tender” is the first line of the last stanza and contains alliteration. The second line of each stanza is a simile that is put in parenthesis and compares antonyms, such as doubt and trust, or all and each. The last line of each stanza is made up of two words and the last words of each stanza are the only capitalized words in the entire poem. Cummings’ choice of breaking the rules of capitalization shows his rebellious disposition toward traditional writing and gives him a childlike persona and although there is a lacking of imagery in Cummings’ writing, his cynical tone is displayed through this persona, where his judgments ...
E.E Cummings’ poem “ i carry your heart with me(i carry it in)” show’s exactly what people truly feel, it’s as if he yanked someones feelings straight from their heart and put them on paper. This poem is the best explanation of true love, that there is. He says, that this woman is his love, he will love her forever, and no matter how far she may be from him, she will still be in his heart. Nothing could ever make his feelings for her fade away. When someone really truly loves someone, nothing could make them stop loving that person. They will always have a special place in each others hearts. Cummings starts out saying in the first stanza that she is in his heart, then in the second stanza it grows into her being his world, nothing means more to him. Now, in the third stanza he tells her that she is his biggest secret, a mystery to everyone else. Lastly, the most meaningful part of the poem, in my opinion is the last stanza, where he simply states. “I carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)”(line 14). It seems so simple, but after going deep in explanation about his love, that small statement has a much bigger meaning than it did in the first stanza. In this beautiful poem, "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in", E.E Cummings shows how permanent his undying love is for this woman, and how no one and nothing in the world will ever mean more to him, He uses themes of love, and possibly longing for this woman in this poem, to possibly teach the reader how to love, or to stay loyal no matter how tough of a fight that may be.
Cummings' "since feeling is first" compares the beauty of emotion and the inadequacy of mental analysis. In line three, attention to "syntax," synonymous with literary construction and order, ruins emotional spontaneity, symbolized by a kiss. "Wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world" ignores social convention in seeking pleasure while "fool" and "Spring" complement each other and suggest the blossoming of love. Line six, "my blood approves," focuses on the physical root of life and evades the hackneyed connotative baggage that arrives with the word "heart." Cummings then swear...
Taking the word “whose”, (3) we can create the word which vocally sounds the same: “who’s”, a contraction of “who is”. Replacing the original word, the line becomes “who is not”, which changes the line to define its subject, the man. Keep in mind that Cummings chose to put “he” (8) in the first half of this poem. This puts emphasis on how this man purely stands; nothing else. However, on the other side of the poem, this “he” is “lift/ing against the/shrieking/sky”. (10-13) As opposed to the regular course of nature where leaves are falling, we see this man going against and breaking nature instead. This “con/founds” the winds, (15-16) showing the stark contrast of the man standing and the man, who lifts and confuses inanimate objects. In this poem, we also witness a change in perspective. Cummings wrote the first half of the poem from the eyes of the man, looking at nature’s falling, which, in the eyes of a leaf, is actually pretty active. Cummings wrote the second half from the eyes of nature, watching as the man from before lifts the sky
When discussing the different aspects of New Criticism in Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle into The Good Night”, the impression that comes to mind is death. The use of imagery was a necessity for Dylan Thomas to express the different techniques of writing which involved a mixture of surrealistic and metaphysical tones. His ability to change a words meaning to incorporate symbolism is noticeable in circle of unity from life to death and renewed life.