in Just / Buffalo Bill’s /anyone lived in a pretty how town

e. e. cummings

Presented by Rebecca

Vita

Revised by Cecilia H. C. Liu

e. e. cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings born in Cambridge, Mass

achusetts artist, playwright and nov

elist Known for typographic in

novation, Cummings controlled both the look and the content of his poems.

ViVa 1931 No actual titles Love poetry

About the poem“somewhere I have never travelled,

gladly beyond” Love Power The speaker Ann Barton Imagery: Human anatomy and nature contradictory E. E. Cummings married three times. His first marriage to

Elaine Orr (who left her husband for him) lasted only 6 months. His second marriage, to Ann Barton was a stormy, passionate one lasting only a few years. He at last met Marion Morehouse, an actress, model, and photographer, whom he married and lived with for the remaining 30 years of his life.

In Just

Celebrates the arrival of spring from a children’s point of view.

Grouped with poems called “Chansons Innocentes” →Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience.”

Pattern3 regular stanzas: 3 quatrains + 2 refrainsDwindled patternMarblesHopscotch4-1-4-1-4-1-4-1-4

Symbol

Children → spring time Pan: god of music and

play; god of the goatherds and shepherds.

Christian conception: devil/shepherd.

Long vowels: “lame balloonman,” “far and wee…”

Wide spacing and line-breaks:

1. dramatic pauses

2. distance: the space of far and wee (“far and wide” or “far and away”)

eddiandbill / bettyandisbel: suggest a child’s running of words together breathlessly.

balloonMan: naïve qualification by the speaker.

“Buffalo Bill’s” Buffalo Bill: a famous wild west showman in America. The word “defunct” instead of “dead.” (l. 2) The speaker admires Buffalo Bill’s skill in shooting an

d his good looks. (ll. 6, 8) “how do you like your blueeyed boy”(l. 10) a sarcasm. The death cancels Buffalo Bill’s skill and erases his g

ood looks. A self-portrait of a disdainful speaker. Be unaware of a logical flaw in his reasoning and the

irony of his situation.

anyone lived in a pretty how town

By using contrast between characters’ daily lives in “the pretty how town” (suggesting modern society), cummings satirizes the fight against individual by society.

Characters: (3 groups)

* anyone, noone spiritual values

* someones, everyones social values

* children between the individualists and the conformists

Contrast between the two groups

1. the bell: melody-like vs. sounds only

2. time: seasons vs. days (clock)

3. live happily vs. live reluctantly

4. care vs. indifference

5. life vs. death

6. spiritual values vs. social values

The speaker is also worried that the children might become conformists when they grow up.

Playful tone: anyone, noone, someones, everyones.

The contrast between those who prefer individual spiritual values and the self-interested who prefer earthen values.

Works Cited

E.E. Cummings (1894-1962). The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Shorter 5th Edition. New York: Norton, 1999. 2112-20.

Picture sources:

<http://www.burbankymca.org/images/jumprope-copy.jpg>.

<http://www.exposingmyself.net/2005/bag-o-marbles/>.

<http://www.geocities.com/ SoHo/8454/eecs.jpg>.

<http://www.streetplay.com/photos/images/hopscotch.jpg>.