Next to of Course God America I by E.E. Cummings

Next to of Course God America I by E.E. Cummings

e. e. cummings' poem, "next to of course god america i," is a wonderful example of stylistic variation in a text. Once again, we see his skill and mastery at manipulating the English language in order to foreground a thought and turn it into a commentary on society. As with all of cummings works, there is evidence of a multitude of variances and deviances at work, however, I shall concentrate on the area of language variance, more specifically, domain.

Language variation and the area of domain, subject matter and function, are the easiest kinds of variation to see within a text. Subject matter involves the use of lexical fields, that is to say, a grouping of words, belonging to a specific field of study, like law, medical or religious terminology. In this poem, cummings has chosen to incorporate popular clichés to portray the irony of what people say and what they mean. Through syntactical deviance, cummings shows just how jumbled these attitudes were and produces a poem that is very ironic in tone.

Short says that "there is clearly a relationship between subject matter and accessibility." (p 85) To some extent, what typically counts as a subject matter depends on our knowledge and purposes. cummings has used popular clichés of the time in order to foreground his commentary on blind patriotism.

Language variation according to domain is used for characterization and for parody. In this poem, we see a speechmaker trying to communicate his feelings regarding patriotism. However, with language, he ends up letting us know the insincerity and lack of thought for the subject matter he upon which he is concentrating. Phrases like "dawn's early," "voice of liberty," and...

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...ctuation and a run on word cummings has portrayed a confused speechmaker who has put little though behind his words. In the beginning section of the poem, cummings uses no punctuation except for the quotation marks, an apostrophe and a question mark. This is so the lines run into each other, creating a sense of confusion. The lines in the poem are a collection of clichés that have been used throughout the years describing patriotism for America and are phrases that have been used in everyday life. cummings is discussing feelings towards a nation's attitude of war, through quotation marks and clichés. It is a difficult to understand why a nation would send troops off to "the roaring slaughter." This poem suggests the question of whether a country has nothing better for its young men to do than to send them off to die at the hands of a senseless act such as war.