New love is a powerful force. It can be overwhelming, inspiring, and a bit scary. Ultimately, though, as REO Speedwagon once said, it can “make everything so clear” (“Can’t Fight This Feeling”). In “since feeling is first,” e. e. cummings utilizes contrasting metaphors, as well as unconventional syntax and form, in order to portray this sentiment. The speaker, in a flash of romantic interest, experiences a sudden realization of his past follies in the way he has approached love, and shares this new understanding with both the reader and the object of his desire. Through this, cummings conveys a centralized dogma which holds living without inhibitions to be not simply recommended, but the only honest way of experiencing human interaction. Throughout …show more content…
The speaker compares the moment before a kiss to “syntax,” suggesting that, oftentimes, much thought goes into the forming of an emotion. He quickly juxtaposes this, however, against a relationship with nature. Immediately following this kiss, he remarks that this prior mentality has caused him “wholly to be a fool” (cummings 5). Throughout the middle of the poem, he compares the human body to the flourishing of the world. This is first introduced this in the second stanza, as he writes that “Spring is in the world” (6). This evokes imagery of life, of rebirth, of the sun rising to vanquish the cold winter behind us. The speaker goes on to speak of “kisses” from his lover, stating that “my blood approves,” in other words, races at the introduction of unreserved affection (7). If we analyze the symbolism in these lines, we can read them as the short narrative of a moment of enlightenment. The speaker, who has previously approached life in an analytical manner, has been suddenly inspired by the tenderness of a kiss. He realizes, in a flash of emotional impulse, that his prior lifestyle, his careful attention to “the syntax of things” has been dishonest (3). …show more content…
The suddenness with which the events of the fourth stanza occur mimics the speaker’s own stumbling into actions without second-guessing them. Particularly, in line thirteen the speaker excludes spaces between words to make the audience read them more quickly. By presenting the phrase as “we are for each other:then / laugh, leaning back in my arms,” we have little time to think of what that initial awareness means before we see the action which it prompts (13-14). This is the sort of unrestrained, natural human reaction which the speaker, and cummings, are promoting. Moreover, his implication in the final sentence – that “death […] is no parenthesis,” (16) provides a fascinating insight. The speaker does not use the plural of the word ‘parentheses, ' which if used, would suggest a closed qualifier for life. Instead, he uses the singular form of the word, saying that death is not the introduction, or opening, of such a qualifier. With this word choice, the speaker very deliberately indicates that death is not the beginning of new event, and, by doing this, assigns a greater significance to life. He suggests that death is not an addendum to life – that it is final, and because of this realization, that he has decided to devote less effort to constructing his life and more effort to experiencing it first-hand. The culmination of cummings’ symbols
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”.
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
In The New Humanities Reader edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. We read about Barbara Fredrickson the author of the book “Love 2.0” copy right (2013). Barbara Fredrickson is a psychologist who show in her research how our supreme emotion affects everything we Feel, Think, Do and become. Barbara also uses her research from her lab to describe her ideas about love. She defines love not as a romance or stable emotion between friends, partners and families, but as a micro-moment between all people even stranger (108). She went farther in her interpretation of love and how the existence of love can improve a person’s mental and physical health (107). Through reading
1) The theme that I will explore for the two independent pieces, will involve the theme of simply finding who you really are. As a viewer we should see past the complications of the obstacles we face in our day-to-day lives, for our eyes should only then become fixated on the endless possibilities of the time we have left within the intersection of time and space. The viewer can than grasp each of the moments that are left, so they can imagine beyond the emptiness - alone to see a sense of self-discovery in the very center, only pondering on the isolated sense of power we hold as humans to create a new life of belonging. Also, the depiction of having a positive approach to life’s challenges is essential to explore life and work
So begins No Thanks, a book of poetry written by the already well-established Edward Estlin Cummings. When most people think of poetry, certain vocabulary comes to mind. Imagery. Rhyme. Meter. Flow. Figurative language. When the poetry of E.E. Cummings is mentioned, these stereotypical poetic techniques are forgotten. Instead, the mind focuses on Cummings' technique of avoiding technique. The lack of capitalization and nonstandard punctuation most likely begin the list of Cummings' nonrules in the minds of many. Sadly, the knowledge of...
This passage marks the first of several types of love, and gives us an intuitive
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker
E. E. Cummings' poem "since feeling is first" is a poem which shows how emotions dictate people's actions and why the narrator thinks they should. The poem implies that to follow one's heart is better than following one's mind, yet, at the same time the poem is the narrator's analysis of why emotion comes before thought. The last line of the poem brings a twist on theme that the rest of the poem seems to be following. It speaks of death and of thought, rather than of life and emotion, showing that death is something that should not be ignored in life, and that thought is important even with the domination of feeling. Cummings enhances these themes by using the literary elements of diction and tone, irony, and setting and situation.
Cummings theme of how strong someones love can be appeals to readers minds, because everyone wants that connection with their partner, That undying love for one another. Some people long for a love...
Predominantly the poem offers a sense of comfort and wisdom, against the fear and pain associated with death. Bryant shows readers not to agonize over dying, in fact, he writes, "When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart -- go forth under the open sky, and list to Nature 's teachings." With this it eludes each person face their own death, without fright, to feel isolated and alone in death but to find peace in knowing that every person before had died and all those after will join in death (Krupat and Levine
Wintersen’s narrator experiences love as a series of trials, questioning along the way, and analytically drawing conclusions through introspection. In the many meditations on the emotional aspects surrounding being in love, and amongst the limitations science has put up, the narrator still finds a precision through the use of scientific prose. Something something of how I feel that I proved my point….
The poem “since feeling is first” is about a man expressing his love to his beloved women written by E.E Cummings. The poem is in a stanzaic form with a total number of 16 lines. The sentences carry no more than nine words and no less than four words. Cummings use of literary devices such as; metaphor, personification, imagery and denotation express his feelings. “Since feeling is first” is a romantic poem that teaches a lesson about life. Its use of figurative language makes the poem appealing to the readers.
Gordon uses descriptive details such as “Pale grew thy cheek and kiss” (5) showing that he knew the end was near. The real question that mood can help to answer in this poem is, is it love or lust that these partners feel? Lust establishes our one sided relationship because both people will not feel the same. The excitement of an affair or short hook up with end. Lust is temporary rather than eternal. When that feeling ends the fall is harder because you were so high and then reality strikes again that it is not possible to do it anymore. One person is usually left with a lot more heartbreak than another. Throughout this poem Gordon mentions “They know not I knew thee, who knew thee too well” (21-22). People do not know they know each other. They are a damned, they have no future, to exist only behind closed
In the first stanza, the poet seems to be offering a conventional romanticized view of Nature: