Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town by Edward Estlin Cummings - Essay Example

1 Syntactic Analysis of ee Cummings’ Poem ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ The poem ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ of Edward Estlin Cummings is one of the greatest poetry ever written in English language, especially during the 20th century. It is distinct and sublime. I am convinced that the poem is a crusader against those rules and fundamentals formulated by grammarians like Robert Lowth, Priestley and others through the centuries. (Patricia T. OConner and Stewart Kellerman, Grammar Myths, 30th March, 2009, http://www.grammarphobia.com/grammar.html, viewed on 30th March, 2009). This poem draws my special attention and is inspiring than the poet’s other poetry and stands singular in matters of typography, punctuation, syntax, diction, imagery, rhythm etc. and the grammar is often pushed to their extreme ends. I feel that the common way of using syntax and semantics are clearly torn apart. The poet has adopted an eccentric zigzag fashion of putting common lexis virtuously, breaking and ignoring the standard poetic styles. The poet’s unorthodox typographical style and his jubilant word power forcing the ‘innocent’ proper nouns, verbs and prepositions really challenge my perception. My analysis of the poem is focused on its syntactical characteristics to show how Standard English Language and its discipline are broken by the poet. I want to illustrate how the poet stretches and breaks the rules of Standard English, using terms associated with orthography and punctuations. 2 I regard the opinion of Michael Ryan about reading this poetry. He says, “The way to read a poem is to read the sentences (not the lines)—and you parse each sentence as you read it, from phrase to phrase, gambling on the relationships of the phrases, constructing a multi-dimensional Lego, making larger pieces of the smaller pieces as they click into place.” (Michael Ryan, Grammar for Poets, 14th March, 2009, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19268, viewed on 14th March, 2009). In the first line of the poem the indefinite pronoun ‘anyone’ is used as a proper noun. From the subjective point, such a transfer has given the indefinite pronoun to collect a more generic feel to itself. In the third stanza also the pronoun ‘noone’ is used as a proper noun. The adverbs ‘up’ is used in contrast to the word ‘down’ in the same stanza. In the second stanza though the poet used the words ‘no’ & ‘one’ as ‘noone’ instead of ‘none’, it does not change the meaning at all. Here also, it is automatically acceptable that the pronoun ‘noone’ acts as a proper noun. In the first line, the interrogative adverb ‘how’ is used in the form of an adjective. Likewise, the auxiliary verbs such as ‘did’ and ‘didn’t’ are used as nouns. The same application is made with the isn’t in the 7th line too. However, the lexis ‘same’ acts as a pronoun to the implied noun (isn’t). The poet questions and mocks at the grammar schools with these usages. The poet has adopted a systematic style of combining certain common words to form a new synthesis of phrases. For example see the word combinations: how town, by snow, by still, little by little, was by was, little and small etc. The poet has crossed the boundaries of grammatical dictum and has modified it to make it ‘writer friendly’ but 3 creating some sort of ambiguity and at the same time giving a new dimensions in meaning. Cummings used the pronouns anyone, noone, someone and everyone by breaking the grammatical pattern, used in contemporary English. For example, see this line: ‘someones married their everyones’. Here, the poet uses only pronouns, without the initial usage of a noun. Generally, a pronoun refers back to a noun or takes the place of that noun to make clarity and understanding. The poet with this usage only brings in ambiguity. The words everyone, anybody, anyone, each, neither, no one etc. are singular and always they should remain singular. (Using Pronouns Clearly, Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 26th March, 2009, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ handouts/ grammar/g_pronuse.html, viewed on 26th March, 2009). Nevertheless, these pronouns do follow some peculiar rules of their own. The poet might have used them as proper nouns, denoting names. If the poet’s liberty is accepted, then these pronouns can be utilized in all kinds of sentences such as affirmative or interrogative. Apart from the above, the word “anyone” has been put to show combined figurative variation. Anyone could mean anyone in conjunction with the dictionary meaning. As per Longman dictionary of Contemporary English, ‘anyone’ is defined as a word used to refer to any person, when it is not important to say exactly who. It is also used in questions to mean someone. Thirdly, it is used in negative sentences to mean no person. Therefore, it can be assumed that the poet has used the pronoun to denote a single entity. Pearson Longman, Dictionary results for ‘anyone’, Longman Dictionary of 4 Contemporary English, http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/anyone, viewed on 25th March, 2009) In the third line of the first stanza, the poet has placed four nouns in succession to point out seasons. The poet has used these nouns namely, spring, summer, autumn and winter as a synonymn for the word ‘year’ or ‘years’. In other words, the passing of time is expressed by putting the names of the seasons in sequence (lines 3, 11 & 34) or by listing the nouns as in lines 8 & 25. In line 5, the poet has gone to the weird usage of adding the word ‘small’ to ‘little’ with the conjunction ‘and’. It must be realised that the adjective ‘small’ is a synonym of ‘little’. I have never read any other English poem having two synonyms combined together with the conjunction ‘and’. This is a clear contradiction of the universally accepted usage of phrases like ‘little and large’ or antonyms like ‘small and big’. Another unique characteristic that I found in this poem is the exceptional sentence structure seen in the line: "with up so floating many bells down". The sentence has a sequential order of words, as if it moves along, generating a visual effect. The adverbs ‘up’ and ‘down’, and the verb ‘floating’, give an impression that the action is going on as per the implied meaning of these words and that the actions are in momentum. Cummings often changes the standard order of lexis in this poem compelling me to rearrange the words in proper order in my mind and to retain a fitting rhythm. The normal order, ‘with so many bells floating up and down’, would only be an insignificant statement. 5 However, it is quite worth to mention that Cummings has shown some sort of leniency to Standard English in the 6th stanza. Here, it is a straight narration without any ambiguity: It is read thus: ‘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’. Unquestionably, the poet has gone back to the solace provided by the grammar schools. The above line is an independent clause and it is a complete sentence. It has subject and predicate and it is in the S-V-O order. And it stands alone. (Word order in statements - Subject - Verb - Object (S-V-O), etracker.de, 26th March, 2009, http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/satzstellung_1.htm, viewed on 26th March, 2009) Cummings creates a new phrasal verb in line 10 (forget down) in order to achieve a down/up symmetry. The usage gives an impression of emphasis on the verb ‘forget’ and also the status of the act ‘forget’. The poet, by using the two prepositions ‘with’ and ‘by’ together in the form of ‘with by’ is unclear as it is against the general usage of prepositions. And in line 12, he replaces ‘and’ with ‘by’ in the expression ‘more by more’, presumably on the analogy of ‘little by little’. The construction of the lines in this poem is not totally against the established styles as per grammar rules. It means, in this poem, ee cummings has not taken any undue advantage of the inherent liberty a poet has in finding own style, and as such it can be said that cummings has adhered to the S-V-O order. Truly, he is on par with the style of every poet, like keeping the rhythm, usage of metonymy, simile, creation of semantic field (polyseme) etc.. For example: “when by now and tree by leaf 6 she laughed his joy she cried his grief” These lines have all the elements of diction and simile. The third line of the very stanza proves his wonderful semantic style. To express the passage of time, instead of saying it directly, the poet just went for the words ‘spring summer autumn winter’. It is followed by ‘he sang his didn’t he danced his did’. The metaphoric lead transits into simile and at the same time the application of the auxiliary verb is in tune with the whole sense of the stanza. The typographical style is excellent because the words and the punctuation marks are sparingly used, and the effective usage of parenthesis makes the poem superb. I was left with an impression when I started reading the poem that the poem creates a notion that it is senseless and comic in the beginning, but on continued reading I could easily perceive it with admiration to the poet’s style and craft. Cummings has repeated certain words and phrases several times by changing its order which catches our attention abruptly. For instance, “sun moon stars rain” and spring summer autumn winter” three times. He has made use of the preposition “by”, and adverbs “up” and “down” in between verbs to give a vibrant account to show what was happening and where. The poet has strikingly repeated several prepositions in this poem continuously. The lexis ‘more’ is also applied many times, assuming it as adverb and then adjective as in: ‘that noone loved him more by more’ and, ‘and more by more they dream their sleep’. The lack of the element of capitalization is very important in this poem. He has neither capitalized the first letter at the beginning of a sentence nor has he done so with a 7 proper name. Example: 1, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25 & 29. He has a totally different application for capitalization. He has used it only twice after the two full stops. He has applied capital letter for “Women and men” to harmonise the arrangement and power of the diverse characters. Absence of capital letter in the beginning and ending without full stop shows that the end is actually the beginning. The most arresting part about the whole poem is the lack of a proper title. Only a single clause can be seen throughout the poem. The unconventional orthography used by Cummings for example ‘noone’ which is actually ‘no one’ in this poetry and his name in lower case without a break is an encounter with the regular English practice. Though it questioned the contemporary pattern of poetry of others, it still had a traditional mode of narration, and carries basic feelings of romance, relationship of people to community, the life, and the death. He has also broken the concept of parts of speech like transforming adverb into adjective etc. For instance, he has used "how", an adverb, as an adjective here, "pretty how town". The poem is very precise, and at the same time keeps an excellent rhyming pattern. Every first 2 lines of each stanza rhymes systemeatically. The rhyming scheme of the 7th line is in harmony with the 35th line is not limited to mere ending sounds but also highlight the transition of the indepth meaning of the 7th line to the 35th line. Though the poem has an undertone of obscure and incomprehensible effect, it is really very clear and perceivable. On analytical reading and tracking further into the meaning between the words, I could easily find that the poem is simple to follow, but at the same time it tends to change in the meaning altogether. 8 The linguistic value of the poem is par excellence. It is satirical in nature and questions the social attitude of our fellow beings and proclaims that the entirety of life is in the realization of the truth that we all shall die….And knowing that we walk towards it, the ultimate, we find that the very life and death are akin too. Apart from these, it has a great liking towards romanticism. It celebrates love, passion, empathy and has the elements that hail the marvels of mother nature and the inevitable rebirth. To conclude, I must say that Cummings has experimented drastically with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax in this poem, rejecting the traditional styles and structures. I feel that the poet might have adopted this unique technique in order to create a novel style in poetry with highly potential elements of poetic expression. Reference: 1. Patricia T. OConner and Stewart Kellerman, Grammar Myths, 30th March, 2009, http://www.grammarphobia.com/grammar.html, viewed on 30th March, 2009). 2. Michael Ryan, Grammar for Poets, 14th March, 2009, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19268, viewed on 14th March, 2009). 3. (Using Pronouns Clearly, Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 26th March, 2009, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ handouts/grammar/g_pronuse.html, viewed on 26th March, 2009) 4. Pearson Longman, Dictionary results for ‘anyone’, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/anyone, 9 viewed on 26th March, 2009) 5. Word order in statements - Subject - Verb - Object (S-V-O), etracker.de, 26th March, 2009, http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/satzstellung _1.htm, viewed on 26th March, 2009) Read More