2-21-07

I have read e.e. cummings in high school, but it was not until now that I have an appreciation for his image. I love his poems. I love how they have nice fluffy, pleasant surface meanings; then, when you are stumped with a strange derived spelling of a familiar word, you are drawn into the poem and eager to figure out the meaning behind his madness. You then realize that that he mixes good and bad, life and death with in his poems. I like the way he thinks about things like this. I am the kind of person who usually only sees the good things in life. I do not pay attention to subtle warning signs of things turning bad. e. e. cummings opens my eyes and shows me the whole picture of the good with the bad, the vitality with the death.

e. e. cummings goes about merging his content with his form by using alliteration, repeating words and groups of words in order to make the message more distinct and important. He uses words such as “spring” that then refer to things such as flowers, and fluttering eye lids which lead my mind to visualize butterflies. As he discusses these themes in his poem, another theme of mortem is intertwined. He uses words such as blood and death. Death is not associated with Spring time. Spring is usually associated with rebirth and vibrant lushness fostering growth, happiness and frolicking. He also uses spaces in order to give his reader time to visualize what he just described. For example,

lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelinds’ flutter which says


we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

He gives the reader time to visualize how her eye lids are moving and possessing the fluttering. In this excerpt, you can also notice the importance of the speaker. He uses a lower case “ i” lessening significance. The most important part in this line is the emphasis not to cry. He uses his form to add meaning by making his reader stop at the strange punctuation or spelling and think about the importance of the image. The reader usually stumbles over different spellings of words and odd punctuation which draws their attention to why e.e. cummings uses this strange form.

2-10-07

As I read “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, I could not help but feel compassion for the speaker. I felt ashamed that a white person would shun someone so much. I feel that in this poem he is speaking about slavery. Blacks are the backbone of our country. They produced all the crops that produced revenue for the American economy. I think he is say that when people come over, his owner sends him into the kitchen and hides him out of sight because he is not good enough to be part of society. In the kitchen he takes advantage of the food and eats his fill. I get that he likes when company comes over because he gets to eat a good meal because he usually does not get that chance. He plans to fight back and sit at the table one day. They will see how he does so much for them and they will begin to appreciate him because he is part of America, just as they are. I really liked this poem, it made me realize the shame and disappointment people felt, but they still had enough pride to fight back and stand up for themselves.

The relation ship between Hughes’s “I, Too” and Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” is that they both express the same underlying theme of hardworking men and women. Whitman’s poem, talks about these hard working American people contributing to the vitality and achievement America is known for at this time period. All these people Whitman speaks of have accomplished so many different feats. This is why they have their own proud song to sing. Each is different due to each person’s individual experiences on his or her way to success. Whitman lionizes human labor in this poem. However, he does not discuss the themes of hardworking slavery which is the core of America. He left out the true songs, the songs of the slaves building America up bent over in the blistering sun. These are true Americans and he left out their voice. I feel that Whitman left out the slaves in his poem because he is ashamed of what the white people of America have done to their fellow human kind. This common theme of hardworking Americans is the relationship these two poems share. It has not always been easy to hold onto dreams of hope for the black culture in America. In “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, he voices that even though America has come a long way from the day of slavery, this nation still has a long way to progress into a united, equal America. Hughes responds to Whitman by saying that the black American population has achieved the greatest feat by getting where they are today through their hard work and endless dedication to their own freedom and equality among white America.