The poem “next to of course god america i” written by E.E. Cummings is a poem based on nationalism of America by its patriotic people and what they are capable of sacrificing for it. This interpretation is drawn from the fact that the narrator of the poem seems to be a cheerful patriot who praises America several times throughout the poem and seems to be trying to motivate the reader to agree with what he says. Although the poem is mostly about nationalism and serving your country by blindly obeying you patriotic and nationalistic feelings for the United States there is a sense of proudness to it all. Therefore, it makes the poem appear to be a patriotic piece of literature. However, a deeper analysis of this poem demonstrates that perhaps the real reason E. E. Cummings wrote this poem was to express his negative opinions of patriotism and of the United States involvement in war. The poem starts with the line “next to of course god america I” which when read from the patriot's point of view means that he is prioritizing his love for America after God before anything even himself (1). However, the fact that God and …show more content…
Cummings makes the patriot sound ignorant since in line six the patriot seems to believe that “deafanddumb” is a language. In line seven and eight the patriot states that honor will be reclaimed by the sons of dead soldiers and Cummings uses censored slang to express how foolish that idea is. If lines nie and ten are read using the patriot's perspective it seems that the patriot is complementing the young soldiers who are willing to die for their country. However, another interpretation might be that lines nine and ten are sarcastic and that instead of complementing the soldiers it is saying that sending young soldiers to a war in which they will likely die is a horrible thing to do even if they are willing to go and
Dubbed as “The Greatest Country in the World” by god knows who, America is not as awesome and free as some may see. In doing a close reading of Heather Christle’s “Five Poems for America”, we can see how the author uses metaphors to portray a flawed American, specifically within its political system, religion, obsession with technology and basic human rights. Americans have been living with the oppression of these everyday issues, completely oblivious thus creating the America we infamously know today.
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while other 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”.
Edward Estlin Cummings was born October 14, 1894 in the town of Cambridge Massachusetts. His father, and most constant source of awe, Edward Cummings, was a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Harvard University. In 1900, Edward left Harvard to become the ordained minister of the South Congregational Church, in Boston. As a child, E.E. attended Cambridge public schools and lived during the summer with his family in their summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. (Kennedy 8-9) E.E. loved his childhood in Cambridge so much that he was inspired to write disputably his most famous poem, "In Just-" (Lane pp. 26-27)
“To His Excellency General Washington,” by Phillis Wheatley, is a poem about America’s destiny for freedom and its resolution to fight for liberty. Wheatley addresses this poem to General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. Throughout the poem, Wheatley depicts America as a self-reliant, heaven-favored nation. For example, a divine goddess leads the country in a fight for peace and liberty. The poem correlates America’s army to that of the powerful Greek wind god, Eolus. Wheatley instructs Washington to continue forward, to “Proceed” in the cause for independence (Line 39). She announces that even other countries watch, eager to see America succeed in its quest for liberty. Phillis Wheatley conveys America as an exemplary, independent country that deserves freedom through the use of personification, symbolism, similes, and diction.
Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crevecoeur was a French born citizen who moved to New York and became a naturalized citizen of Great Britain. After living in America as a citizen for a while, Crevecoeur decided to write an essay titled “Letters from an American Farmer”. During this time, tensions in America between the colonists and loyalists were increasing, and because of this the idea of America as a sovereign nation and territory was becoming popular. Crevecoeur wrote this essay in order to discuss what it means to be an American, and why people should be honored to be called an American. Crevecoeur believes that America is a melting pot of the world, and is full of opportunities for anyone who lives there. In order to back up his claim, Crevecoeur uses rhetorical devices, especially pathos, while he does also use ethos and logos as well.
Cummings “next to of course god america i” the reader intensively comes across various patriotic ideas such as: “love you land of the pilgrims”.However after having fully read and further investigated the text it becomes clear that the speaker simply makes use of these ideas in order to create a deeper and better understanding for the reader as well as create a basis for a progressive and effective comparison between the patriotic propaganda ideas and the reality. Besides this very similar to Owens text, Cummings preforms critic on the patriotic propaganda which due to his point of view simply conveys lies to create a deceitful image of war, in order to recruit soldiers.
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
The nature of an ideology is completely personal; one’s interpretation may vary greatly from another’s interpretation. This is demonstrated in the two poems, “America” by Claude McKay and “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes. Both of these poems emerge from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and though these two poems each describe an ideological viewpoint of America as a place and a concept, the two speakers view the subject differently from one another. Both poets employ similar sound devices, yet the tones and themes vary between the two works.
8. E. E. Cumming’s left lasting impressions on the lives of both people in his time and in our time. At the time of the Korean War, he dedicated his poetry to promoting anti-war. This became a driving forces for many in the 1960's, a time of peace and war protests. His writings, preserved by his parents and dear friends, dated back to his earliest childhood moments up until his final moments when he was on his deathbed. His poetry had meaningful, underlying meanings that required a deep understanding to grasp. His messages forver will continue to influence our generation and many to come, for his ideas are universal and pure.
Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” and E. E Cummings’, “next to of course god america i” are poems that critique patriotic propaganda. Both poems use words and images to effectively depict the influence that patriotic propaganda has on war. “Dulce et Decorum Est” uses descriptive words to create realistic images of the horrors soldiers are faced with during combat, whereas “next to of course god america i” uses sarcasm to inform readers that the abuse of propaganda can be used to manipulate others. The attitudes they convey are quite similar; both suggest that propaganda is a lie; it is not sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Let America Be America Again, written by Langston Hughes, was written to make a satirical statement about the American Dream. He uses personification, alliteration, and imagery to bring home his point that the “dream the dreamers dreamed” (Hughes ???) not only has never existed but will never truly exist for the common man. According to the speaker, assumed to be Hughes but in reality could be anyone who is hopeless and unhappy in this land where “equality is in the air we breathe” (???), that as long as there are “kings” and “tyrants” (???), the American Dream is only an unobtainable goal but is something that must be kept alive.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
The era of the American Revolution was a time of great nationalism, hope, and unity. People who were once only colonists were now citizens of a new and exciting nation. As the years wore on, however, the citizens of the United States were faced with the reality of building a country. The nation strove to find a place for itself, to become secure against the power of the rest of the world. Industry grew along with the population, but what the new country gained in strength it lost in spirit. Regional tensions emerged as well as burning political issues. In the aftermath of the civil war the still young nation attempted to regain this nationalism that was once the strength of the country. One area this attempt was prominent in was literature. Two poets specifically sought to find a national mythology by examining what American's value and why it is necessary to pass it on through tradition. The poems by John Greenleaf Whittier and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are a call for preserving the roots found in the land of America and in the heart of an American.
Claude McKay is the author of the poem “America”. It was written on 1921when McKay lived in a neighborhood in Manhattan. At that time, New York was a center of black American artistic development known as “Harlem Renaissance.” (Meyer 865). McKay thrush this poem wants to demonstrate how he thinks about America. For everyone, America is a wonderful place where several people come to get their dreams, but McKay sees America as a cruel system where the Afro-American’s dreams are destroyed. In the poem “America”, written by Claude McKay, the reader can appreciate social characteristic such as inequality and racism during the first half of the Century XX in United States.
The poet is said to be one who can perceive the beauty of the world around them though it is argued, “men and women perceive the beauty…as well as he” (1318). In other words, the grand vision of the poet is not unique to their vocation but rather is a trait that is seen as well in the people of the United States, which creates an environment in which the vision through which both parties see the world is synonymous. Generalizing this equality and defining the poet as being “commensurate with a people” emphasizes the status of the poet further as being a symbol of the American (1316). Partnered with the argument that the poet is unsurpassed in greatness by any other individual, this pushes forth the idea that the people of the United States are the finest pin the world. As a result, the poet being seen as the average American creates a basis for which the rest of the world his placed below the United States on a hierarchy of being. Whitman constructs a characterization of the American citizen that all people should view as synonymous with the “greatest poet”, and the effect being that in the order of the universe they are at the