Cummings: Selected Favorites

“in Just-”

While all of his poetry seems to speak of nature, “in Just-” contained just the right wording and style to capture the excitement of springtime. Cummings uses playful words to illustrate the life and joy that Spring ignites in children (and adults, for that matter). Appearing to skip randomly across the page, his words (i.e. “puddle-wonderful” and “mud-luscious”) seem simple, yet evoke the same anxiousness that exists when Spring arrives in the reader.

“somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond”

Before glimpsing at the length of the poem, the reader can already predict that strange spelling and punctuation will follow simply be looking at the title. In this poem, Cummings relates his love interest to the blooming of a rose in the springtime. He compares almost everything that he mentions, whether significant or insignificant, to the coming of Spring. I favored this poem over many of the others that we read, because it has the potential to relate to people on a more personal level. With delicacy, Cumming’s word-choice was very honest and touching.

“anyone lived in a pretty how town”

His usage of paired contradictions to express his overall view proved not only unique but intriguing, as well. I interpreted this poem as saying that no matter how different people may seem, they are essentially indistinguishable in their general goals. The careless way he, more than likely, purposefully wrote this poem makes me think that he deems people as predictable and simple. He uses a complicated strategy to reveal the simplistic and similar though process behind every human despite any meaningless differences that exist.

“O sweet spontaneous”

Out of all the words that Cummings could have capitalized in this work, he choice the first word, “O.” Aside from the very words in his poetry, perhaps Cummings was trying to prove another point. His random capitalizations and punctuation might symbolize his thoughts on the spontaneity of nature. In this work, he almost seems to be mocking scientists who analyze the patterns of nature. He states that the earth is spontaneous and insinuates that those who try to understand nature are naïve. I enjoyed his final comments in this work: “to the incomparable/ couch of death thy/ rhythmic/ lover/ though answerest/ them only with/ spring.”