This poem reveals some of his deepest, if unpopular, beliefs. The opening lines of ‘next to of course god america i’, which you can read in full here, reveal the speaker’s sarcastic tone toward patriotism. The fact that he does not capitalize “god” nor “america” reveals his irreverent tone from the onset.
next to of course god america i is a 14 line sonnet with a rhyme scheme ababcdcdefgfeg and an inconsistent iambic meter (metre in British English) which helps vary the rhythmic stresses of the lines. Basically this is a hybrid English and Russian sonnet with a cumming's twist - a single line at the end.
The words that seem to be serious, are the ones that say, “My country tis of centuries come and go and are no more”. This is the one thing that the speaker takes seriously, the mortality of himself and all other human beings. Patriotism aside, he knows that each and every human being will one-day face death. He knows that centuries come and go.
Throughout, cummings mocks or makes light of many of the slogans and features associated with the United States of America, such as when he follows the phrase ‘land of the pilgrims’ with the offhand words ‘and so forth’. We get further casual, colloquial everyday phrases – such as ‘what of it’ – peppered throughout the poem as we read further.
next to of course god america i is a 14 line sonnet with a rhyme scheme ababcdcdefgfeg and an inconsistent iambic meter (metre in British English) which helps vary the rhythmic stresses of the lines. Basically this is a hybrid English and Russian sonnet with a cumming's twist - a single line at the end.
Lines 9-13 With these lines of 'next to of course god america i', the speaker is again heavily sarcastic. He asks a sarcastic and yet rhetorical question, “What could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead?” In effect, he causes the readers to question the point of patriotism to a dead person.
poet e. e. cummingsThe American poet e. e. cummings (as he styled himself) was one of the most linguistically experimental mainstream modernist poets writing in the United States in the twentieth century, and his poem 'next to of course god america i' is a fine example of his innovative style.
The opening allusions in lines 1 through 3, from "The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814) and “America/My Country 'Tis of Thee” (1831), are also used in Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech of 1963.
E.E. Cummings “next to of course god america i” is a poem about patriotism and the war. The poem starts off with the speaker being someone that is a patriot and feels strongly about America. As the poem progresses it takes a different approach becoming very sarcastic.
Here's a quick and simple definition: Free verse is the name given to poetry that doesn't use any strict meter or rhyme scheme. Because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer.
'the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls' by E. E. Cummings is about the differences in social classes, ignorance, and reality. The speaker judges the Cambridge women for the fiction they engage in and their lack of interest in the real world. This piece is one of Cummings' easiest to read.
ee cummings, a pacifist, was imprisoned during World War One for his supposed disloyalty to America. He was also accused, falsely, of being a spy. After the war he moved to… Read More
ee cummings, a pacifist, was imprisoned during World War One for his supposed disloyalty to America. He was also accused, falsely, of being a spy. After the war he moved to Paris where he wrote satirical poems. His novel The Enormous Room (1922) was the first of his many literary attacks on authoritarianism and rabid nationalism.
He has the authority to speak on the patriotism of the United States, because he is a U.S citizen by birth. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1894. In 1917, Cummings left the U.S to go to France and work as a volunteer ambulance driver during World War I. This fact gives the author even more authority to write about U.S patriotism. Being an ambulance driver, he would have seen the worst atrocities there were to be seen in World War I. After some time of volunteering, Cummings and a friend were detained in a prison camp, as the authorities became suspicious of them, partly due to Cumming’s habit of being rather outspoken about his anti-war beliefs. It is no surprise, then, that Cummings wrote about his anti-war beliefs. Not only did he experience the tragedies of war first hand, but he was also detained for being outspoken about these beliefs. This clearly did not stop Cummings from continuing to speak and write according to his beliefs. He was a man who valued humanity and hated war.
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum. With these lines, the speaker reveals that people of every language, and yes even deaf people have “acclaim [ed” the “glorious” name of patriotism through the “gory details of war”. The use of the words “jingo”, “gee”, “gosh” and “gum” suggest that the speaker believes the gory wars in the name ...
He removes himself from the poem by using a speaker within a speaker, but the content of the poem directly corresponds with Cummings’ life experiences. As a volunteer during World War I, Cummings acquired a bitterness for war which he did not scruple to express. He was outspoken and willing to go against the grain to stand up for ...
Quotation marks begin this poem. Someone is about to speak, is speaking. This could be a speech about God, America, the ego. All three are right next to each other and all three are written in lower case, which is the poet's prerogative but looks kind of odd.
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light. The poet's allusion to the anthem is stark and the patriotic musical association is reinforced as line three ends with my and line four begins with country 'tis of - the opening line of a hymn written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith:
The American poet e. e. cummings (as he styled himself) was one of the most linguistically experimental mainstream modernist poets writing in the United States in the twentieth century, and his poem ‘next to of course god america i’ is a fine example of his innovative style.
The poem goes on to summon a number of earlier patriotic poems about the United States, such as Francis Scott Key’s ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ (better known as the US national anthem), specifically the opening line ‘Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light’ , and the patriotic hymn ‘ America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee) ’.
E.E. Cummings “next to of course god america i” is a poem about patriotism and the war. The poem starts off with the speaker being someone that is a patriot and feels strongly about America. As the poem progresses it takes a different approach becoming very sarcastic. In this sarcasm the writer shows that we are ignoring the negative aspects ...
Most of the poem is in quotation marks, probably because it was from a public speech. This unknown speaker could well have been a politician or a soldier showing his patriotism and religious belief.
Thus the poem by E.E. Cummings “next to of course america i” has a lot of meaning. The title shows faith, patriotism, and self-importance.
The element of the poem is mostly tone because it depicts sarcasm and even anger largely in part because of the fact that some people would go as far as to die for patriotism. The entire poem was written within quotation marks and had absolutely no punctuation which made it seem like a fast speech.