next to of course god america i when was it written

What kind of poem is next to of course god america i?

Who said the next to of course god america i love you?

What does the speaker do at the end of next to of course god america i?

What could the title next to of course god america i mean?

What is the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls about?

Is a sonnet?

Next to of course god america i

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

About

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.

Modernist Poetry

Modernist poetry emerged at the end of the 19th century and reached its apex in the early 20th. An increasingly urban and industrialized society drifted away from the pastoral (related to the countryside) and individualist strains of the Romantic movement that had preceded it.

Sonnet Form

The sonnet is one of the most enduring poetic forms in Western literature. It consists of 14 lines of rhymed verse, usually in regular meter, such as iambic pentameter (five stressed syllables, each followed by an unstressed syllable).

Pacifism

American poet E.E. Cummings was a declared pacifist during World War I, meaning he excused himself from participating in combat on moral grounds. He volunteered for noncombat service driving an ambulance, but French military authorities imprisoned Cummings for sentiments critical of the war that he and his friend expressed in letters.

What is the meaning of "next to of course God America I"?

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 ...

Why is the poem "Next to of course God America I" in quotation marks?

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.

What does "country tis of centuries come and go" mean?

When the speaker says “and so forth oh” the reader can see the way he really feels about America and patriotism. The words “country ’tis of centuries come and go” further emphasizes his lack of interest and saracasm. The actual words “come and go” mean that things don’t change; therefore America will never change and will always have the same problems.

What are the opening allusions in the Star Spangled Banner?

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. The whole cloth of cummings’ text, written nearly a century after the patriotic hymns, weaves deliberate deceit, however; it is far from a dreamer’s vision. The orator speaks of the passage of centuries in line 5, adding “we should worry,” but his warning is lost in the flood of his political rhetoric. We should indeed worry if politicians like cummings' speaker retain their powers of persuasion.

What line does Cummings use in his speech?

Cummings' speaker uses an amusing contradiction that alludes to senseless babbling in line 6, as he speaks of “every language even deafanddumb.” He then proceeds in line 8 to hyperbolically allude to common folk/salt-of-the-earth clichés, sprinkled in his text like field fertilizer; “by jingo by gee by gosh by gum” is his attempt to find the right metaphor for his plain, simple audience, the more easily to appeal to them as a man of the people. His previous allusion contradicts him, however: The speaker, deaf to his audience, speaks to the dumb who cannot reply.

Mechanics, Syntax, and Stylization

Form and Rhyme

Speaker and Listener

• American poet E.E. Cummings was a declared pacifist during World War I, meaning he excused himself from participating in combat on moral grounds. He volunteered for noncombat service driving an ambulance, but French military authorities imprisoned Cummings for sentiments critical of the war that he and his friend expressed in letters. His poem, "ne...

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Irony

• The poem "next to of course god america i" uses punctuation, capitalization, and line breaks in a number of unconventional techniques that enhance its effects. These effects are most readily apparent when the poem is read as text rather than heard, as it is impossible to hear capitalization and spacing. The speaker uses no capitalization and little...

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Allusion