explain.
 

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 hoe and then)they
said their nevers and they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt for 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

-- E. E. Cummings

Opium

Life's a cycle.

Individually we have a personal view and personal experiences that seem just for us, but collectively it's the same for everyone (or maybe that should be for many).

Interesting poem, and an example of an amazing mind that can present an observation this way. It's like an individual view of life, but at the same time the view is that of a way of life shared by many, and that is repeated generation after generation. You have no clue as to when it might have been written, and it doen't matter because it is a timeless view.

Still, my interpretation may not be a fair one so worth waiting for others who could read this differently.

Write your own english paper. I'll do it for cash (in advance). :eyebrow:

it's not for english. it's not for any class. i was looking at old posts and this came up somewhere. it was interesting.

i just wanted to know what other people thought of it.

ee cummings was a brilliant poet. IMHO.

Obfuscation. :eyebrow:

There are no photos included with your post so when I realized that it is a poem and that this is not the creativity thread, I just stopped reading it.

It's surely great and insightful but I try to avoid reading more than a few lines here.

Have you taken the time to explore the Cellar? Hopefully you will. It's an interesting place.

Welcome aboard. Have a good time. Eat your veggies.

Explain?

Why should we?

Of course if you posted your own opinion/explanation first it might be a whole different story. Until that time the best I'll offer is........ acorns.

i think it's a love story...

It's a picture of a community and the persistence of time, and how they coexist without one altering the other.

OK, this better not find its way under some dread red pencil:

A man lived in a town that was about the mechanics of life, rather than the lyrics of it. Most people didn’t care for this man because he didn’t fit in with the rest of them. Some of the children were able to sense this man’s uniqueness, but they grew up and became like the rest of the towns people.

Noone loved the man – maybe no one really did or maybe it took the town nobody to love him. At any rate, he ultimately met the same fate of everyone else in this town all about how – ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

That’s what happens when you live your life based on “how” rather than “why.”

I have never been able to explain poetry. I can barely read it.

Nobody can explain poetry, Beestie. Being far from straight forward communication, everyone that reads it will conjure up different images, have their mind strike off on different tangents and end up with an experience that's unique to them. :cool:

explain? ;)

I never did a lit class beyond O-level (age 16), I have little interest in it, but I feel this has christian overtones. The him is Christ. Not sure why, though.

sadly missing recognition
loved, unloved, unrequited
racing time, life escaping
fleeting love, breifly tasting
settle into death together
it's not at all about the weather

marichiko's is more accurate than mine. but there are still elements of what i was saying, because anyone isn't just one person, it's every person. Any individual in the town can fill the place of "anyone".

Except that stanza with the children in it. that throws a monkey wrench in my whole theory. I have an alternate Santa Claus theory (spirit of Christmas, whatever), but i can't write today.

you see, when i read this, my initial thought was that noone, like anyone, was a person. a female. his lover. and she loved him. i think the children were still innocent enough to recognize their love.

i don't think she was the town nobody. i think she was just another non-conformist. they were like ying and yang.

the town people slept their dream, they had dreams and ambitions, they just never realized any of them, they went to sleep at night to experience them. they taught and practiced the same existance generation after generation, never aspiring. anyone and noone dreamed their sleep, they lived their lives and dreams, they slept to sleep, they were satisfied even when they awoke. they didn't end up like the rest of them - they stayed true through it all.

here're 113 more opinions about it.

I'll stick with my life cycle interpretation - the abstracts noone (no-one) and anyone are to my mind just a way of describing how we don't know about other people that aren't close to us. This is typical of the life of everyone and life in general. We may see the same person on the train every day (anyone) but they have no significance for us nor we for them - but there is someone close to them (and us) who does - as anyone is to noone. We just get on with our own lives, and even in these lives events come and go - maybe some are significant at the time but these are seldom remembered for long, except when with those who are close to us. Isn't this true of every life and every generation, and, what's to make it change?