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Top 100 or so Poems -- POEM OF THE DAY -- "SNOW" by ee cummings

11/22/2011 -- E. E. Cummings has several poems in the "Top 100" list we're compiling. This one -- "Snow" is the most compelling - and interesting - and is actually responsible for the most "hits" on our blog.

Cummings contribution is one more of "form importance" than popularity (both aspects are considered as we make our list) -- you won't find this poem being presented to children as one of their first exposures to the world of poetry. His sideways, backwards, metaphori-symbolic word play -- using other techniques such as line spacing, vertical letter orientation, odd punctuation, rythm and the sequence of feelings as part of the poem itself, defy clear definition.

But it is very interesting and many of his poems have a very high "time per line" analysis rate, lol.

Snow, by ee cummings. Enjoy!

Snow

by E. E. Cummings

SNOW

cru
is
ingw Hi
sperf
ul
lydesc

BYS FLUTTERFULLY IF

(endbegi ndesignb ecend)tang
lesp
ang
le
s
ofC omego

CRINGE WITHS

lilt(
-ing-
lyful
of)!
(s
r

BIRDS BECAUSE AGAINS

emarkable
s)h?
y&a
(from n
o(into whe)re f
ind)
nd
ArE

GLIB SCARCELYEST AMONGS FLOWERING

11 comments:

  1. OK, readers, help out here; I love cummings - but all I can do is scratch the surface on this - one of his classic abstracts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OK, readers, help out here; I love cummings - but all I can do is scratch the surface on this - one of his classic abstracts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. all right, this is what I get out of it:

    SNOW

    cruising
    whispers
    fully
    desc(end

    BYS FLUTTER FULLY IF

    (begin
    design
    becend)
    tangle
    spangles
    of
    Come
    go

    CRINGE WITHS

    lilting
    liltlyful
    lilts of!

    BIRDS BECAUSE AGAINS

    remarkable
    shy & and
    (from no(into where)re
    find)
    ArE

    GLIB SCARCELYEST AMONGS FLOWERING

    The last line sounds to me like "Glibs are lest among flowerings", though I know that doesn't make sense.

    If you look at the capitalised letters in each section, from top to bottom they form the word EACH.

    I'm not sure what to make of the extra S's that hang about. Could they be stand-ins for the word snow?

    I don't want to say there's not a deeper meaning, but it sounds like it's really just about snow.

    This is a really interesting poem; I'd not heard it before. Thanks for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. snowy trains smashing butterflies and birds at weird angles hither dither

    ReplyDelete
  5. just an abstract strain on the poem , beautiful and painting like music like rather than stressing on words and meaning even sensibility a poem as a sight , senses as music

    ReplyDelete
  6. please tell me what type of poem this is

    ReplyDelete
  7. A poem about having sex in the snow and bursting with joy from the butterfly on the nut from the sack below on the face so clean and white yum and swallow bird.

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks Melville. I think you're read is brilliant. Here's my go:

    Cruising
    High
    perfectfully descending

    BYS FLUTTERFULLY IF

    ending beginning and designing and be-scending
    tangles
    p
    angels
    of come and go ('omego' is the accusative for omega in Ancient Greek, so cummings' play on letters and words imply this being-with, angels "CO-ing")

    CRINGE WITHS

    lilting (sly, lilting)
    lyful (gleeful, liltingful)
    of)!
    (s
    r

    BIRDS BECAUSE AGAINS

    remarkable
    shy?
    yes
    from no (into whe)re find)
    and
    dArE-GLI B SCARCELYEST AMONGS FLOWERING

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Snow
    Crushing whispers fully decended
    Fluttering fully by
    If endings and beginings, by design, become entangled
    The spangles of come and go do cringe
    Within its liltingly full branches
    Birds chirp because, again,
    The remarkably shy come from nowhere
    And argue scarcely amongst the flowers

    I thought I had already posted this, but it looks like it didn't work. Soooo, here it is again. As I said before: this was fun to do and only took me a minute to figure out. Once you start, it's easy to continue. If you don't like my version or don't get it, that's O.K.! Try it out yourself, it might be easier than you thought.

    ReplyDelete