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61
– E.E. Cummings –
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.
Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then) they
said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.
Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain
If E.E. Cummings’ poem 61 (from his book 100 Poems) strikes us
as hauntingly beautiful and highly original it’s because he
departed radically from poetry as usual in crafting it.
Ordinarily, poets use metaphor to move from the specific to the
generic or universal; but the world Cummings creates in poem 61
and the people who live in it are merrily lacking in specificity.
Cummings’ poem-scape has a fairy tale / nursery rhyme air.
Everything in his pretty how town
is in motion. There’s bodily
motion (singing, dancing, sowing, reaping, laughing, crying,
loving); and mental motion (guessing, wishing, hoping,
remembering, forgetting, dreaming). The sound of floating bells
radiates music up
and down
, in all directions.
The inhabitants of anyone
’s town include his love
noone, along
with unspecified someones
and everyones
, women and
men (both little and small)
, and children
. Noone
and anyone
fall in love, marry, procreate, grow old, until
one day
busy folk buried them side by side…
If everything is generic, why are we so affected, so saddened by
the death of two nobodies in stanza seven? Is it not because we
suddenly break free from the generic, feeling that not no one, but
an emotionally involved individual stooped with tenderness to
kiss her beloved’s
face,
and that her grief was so great she soon
joined him in death?
Wallace Stevens says, “
Poetry
is abstraction bloodied
.”
Cummings may begin his poem by giving us the abstract side of a
metaphor; but when we look at it again we realize that he is
bloodying
abstraction with specificity nurtured by
noone
’s
unconditional love for
anyone
(whose any was all to her
).
Their love makes their
how town pretty
. Spring
and summer
radiate warmth;
autumn
sheds leaves from
trees each year and
april returns them;
winter
’s snow
causes
birds to fly south.
Noone
and anyone
may feel generic at first. But many parents
name children May or April, Leo or Glen. The fact that Frank
Zappa named his daughter Moon did not mean that she was not a
specific one-time-only individual. When Frank spoke her name
he was surely thinking of his daughter, rather than an object that
appears nightly in the sky.
Cummings makes his lovers feel real by giving them emotion.
Anyone sang his didn’t
and danced his did. Noone
laughed anyone’s joy and cried his grief.
Both are
distinguished from the unenlightened, conventional
men and
women (both little and small)
who sowed their isn’t
and reaped their same
and cared for anyone not at all
. Despite
what their names suggest,
anyone
and noone
stand out as
individuals from the
someones
and everyones
that surround
them.
Cummings has created a flickering metaphor. On the abstract
side where no one stooped to kiss his face
anyone
is forgotten.
Still, we remember that in the world-that-once-was, an individual
named noone
did stoop; was profoundly saddened by her lover’s
death; died of grief; and was buried with her mate.
****
T.S. Eliot imagined an aesthetic universe wherein poets living and
dead continue to speak to one another through their verse. I
wonder if E.E. Cummings was carrying on such a conversation
with Gerald Manley Hopkins via that poet’s famous poem:
Spring and Fall to a Young Child
:
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
A child subconsciously intuits her mortality as autumn leaves fall
from trees. Hopkins knows that, although she is too young to put
it into words, Margaret is sensing her own mortality and
mourning for herself.
Autumn leaves are also coupled with grief in Cumming’s poem,
wherein noone
shares anyone’s grief
over leaf fall.
The present disappearing into the past in
when by now
makes
it clear that, here too, unleafing is a metaphor for mortality. Still,
if Hopkins poem focuses on the grief our knowledge of mortality
brings, Cummings reminds him and us that bare trees will sprout
leaves again. Acceptance of our place in life’s cycle allows us to
assuage grief and sorrow with joy and laughter.
Hopkins knows that by the time Margaret is an adult her intuitive
fresh thoughts
of childhood will have declined:
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie…
And yet you will weep and know why.
Both sadness over falling leaves and grief for a loved one dying
are included in such sights.
As an adult Margaret will no longer
spare a sigh
over yet another autumn; and she will
know why
she grieves for the loss of a father, mother, or lover; but her
intuitive feeling of mortality, will have vanished.
Cummings knows that as
noone
’s and anyone
’s children grow
up
they will lose the childhood sense they once had for the
parental love that brought them into the world:
children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more
****
Because they accept their role in the natural cycle
anyone
and noone
are Cummings’ hero and heroine. They know they have
been inextricably wafted into the structure of existence.They
appreciate the gift of life, knowing they must
one day
give way
to others waiting for their lives to begin. They answer the
question Mary Oliver poses to readers in the concluding lines of
her poem “The Summer Day.”
Anyone
and noone
are dead; but unlike their wholly generic
brethren they sang
their didn’t
and danced
their did
, refusing to sow
their isn’t
and reap their same
. They lived life fully,
accepting both its joys and sorrows.
Was by was
, their when
was filled with
nows; their
wish by spirit
; and their
if by yes
.
sun moon stars rain
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