Explication of "Poem" by e.e. cummings

First of all, I really wanted to have a copy of the poem in this post, but it is a little long for that. So instead, here is a link that can take you right to the poem!

http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/cummings/beauty.htm

Modernism is one of my absolute favorite literary periods; I love all of the radical changes occurring during the years 1900-1950. The changes were happening in every part of life: science, technology, religion, economics, and social views. One of the most drastic changes in my opinion happened with the rise of capitalism and materialism in America. This country became the place of frozen meals and barbie dolls within a matter of years, and many Modernist writers reacted to that sudden boom. e. e. cummings was merely one of many, but he is worth taking note of because he not only argued about the changing times, he performed that argument in the form of his poetry. For example, cummings broke traditional poetry norms all over the place by having irregular lines, crazy syntax, broken-up words, and punctuation that was the furthest thing from "traditional." His writing shook people out of their comfort zones, and his approach to the changing time period he lived in was unique.

This poem, which is humorously titled, "Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal," is set up in the typical style of cummings: no regular form at all. He breaks lines wherever he wants to (though his line breaks are highly important), uses no regular rhyme scheme, and (though not important to the form exactly) all rules of grammar go flying out the window. The speaker of "Poem" speaks in a very casual tone to readers; he even addresses readers of the poem as "kiddos" in the first line.

The plot of the poem is harder to summarize because it isn't a narrative. The speaker seems to be having a rant of some sort, and the ensuing words are jumbled and somewhat confusing. It seems strange at first because the poem is mostly made up of popular brand names, slogans, and famous songs and people's names. For example, he cites the brands Gillette razor blades, Kodak, and Wrigley gum. He also randomly throws into the poem slogans such as "Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (Campbell Soup) and "comes out like a ribbon lies flat on the brush" (Colgate toothpaste). What cummings seems to be doing by mixing together all of these popular symbols into a jumbled mess is critiquing the rising materialism of American society. This is revealed in the negative language he uses toward both America and the mass-produced items. cummings rewrites the lyrics to the patriotic song "My Country Tis of Thee" when he says, "my country, 'tis of/you, land of the Cluett/Shirt Boston Garter...of you i sing: Abraham Lincoln and Lydia E. Pinkham/land above all of Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (3-12). Pinkham was a popular figure during this time; she created a pill that supposedly instantly cured all kinds of 'women's ailments.' By putting someone like her next to the figure of Abraham Lincoln and equating their positions, cummings is saying that Americans value the contributions of Pinkham and Lincoln equally as much, which is ludicrous. However, it is a comment on the rampant consumer culture existent at this time.

Each of these stanzas in "Poem" is just as rich and complicated as the one before it, and it takes a lot of outside research to figure out exactly what product from the early 1920s each brand and slogan represents. The pessimism continues throughout: "A/mer/i/ca, I/love,/You.    And there're a/hun-dred-mil-lion-oth-ers" (36-42). Near the end of the poem (or collection of phrases and product names), he describes Americans as "tensetendoned and with/upward vacant eyes painfully/ perpetually crouched, quivering" (48-50). The reader expects some kind of closure in the last lines of "Poem," but cummings stays true to form and concludes with only the Colgate toothpaste slogan.

While America's materialism is the most obvious theme in the poem, I found a smaller and more interesting idea in lines 30-33: "...according/to such supposedly indigenous/throstles Art is O World O Life/a formula." Writing about art in art is a topic we've talked about a lot in class, but it was a surprising theme in a poem like this one, surrounded by discussion of "stuff" when art is so valuable and intangible (the opposite of material goods). cummings is saying that according to some people, art is an exact formula that people follow; however, to him that is not the case (and he proves that throughout all of his poetry). cummings even just proved he could create art out of the meaningless brand names and slogans and materialism. I think calling this piece "Poem" reiterates that fact; he is making a sly comment that this is art, and can simply be called what it is. Obviously, there is much more to go into with this poem (my analysis only covered the tiniest portion of this piece), but it is clear that cummings not only wanted to say something in his poetry, but also DO something different from anything readers in the early twentieth century had ever seen before.