E. E. Cummings published "next to of course god america i" in 1926 as part of his poetry collection Is 5, which contained a number of anti-war poems. In keeping with this, the poem satirizes the intense patriotism that many people adopted during World War I.
E. E. Cummings published "next to of course god america i" in 1926 as part of his poetry collection Is 5, which contained a number of anti-war poems. In keeping with this, the poem satirizes the intense patriotism that many people adopted during World War I.
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.
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.
The poem is a parody of a ‘speech’ to extreme patriots — the ranting monologue of ‘God-fearing’ America.
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.
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.
Cummings' poem 'in Just' is a poem about spring. In the beginning of the poem, spring is starting and the children are called outside to play. It is the start of something new. However, the poem also represents a time of innocence in children and the suggestion that there is a change, adulthood, coming to them.
Examples of Allusions in the Poem "Next to of Course God America...Deceitful Patriotic Allusions. ... Deaf and Dumb Listening, Speaking. ... Keats, Lions and Lambs. ... Should Liberty Be Mute?
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.
Major Themes in“[in Just-]”: Nature, joy, and childhood are two major themes underlined in this poem. Throughout the poem, the speaker talks about two things; the happiness of the children and the wonderful spring season, which brings colors to the earth.
Poetry is literature written in stanzas and lines that use rhythm to express feelings and ideas. Poets will pay particular attention to the length, placement, and grouping of lines and stanzas. This is called form. Lines or whole stanzas can be rearranged in order to create a specific effect on the reader.
E. E. Cummings's "in Just-" celebrates the thrills, pleasures, and subtle dangers of spring—both the literal season and the symbolic time of life. Childhood, in this free verse poem, has a lot in common with the very earliest part of spring, when the world feels full of delicious, muddy potential.
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.
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.
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 ...
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 ...
It is also a satire on the type of blind jingoism that distorts otherwise intelligent minds in relation to their country. cummings applies a reductio ad absurdum technique, mocking the way in which people blinded by patriotism can acquire illogical and dangerous beliefs.
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.
These are broken up by few dismissive words, like, “and so forth” and “what of it”. It is notable that there are fourteen lines — the length of a sonnet.
This is ironic, as sonnets are formal, structured and intelligently witty, whereas this poem is nonsensical gibberish — though of course also extremely intelligent. cummings deliberately makes the poem incomprehensible, like the extreme patriotism he is mocking.
The poem "next to of course god america i" is narrated in the third person. All but the final line of the poem take the form of a rambling speech by an unidentified speaker who delivers garbled patriotic opinions in the first person.
The poem "next to of course god america i" is narrated in the past tense. The speech that forms all but the last line of the poem is spoken in the present tense.
The title "next to of course god america i" is the first line of the poem, which is common for poems not ascribed a separate or distinct title. The line's lack of standard punctuation and capitalization characterize the poem and the poet, as does the jumbled patriotic tone.
This study guide for e.e. cummings's next to of course god america i offers summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs.
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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.
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.
In line 9, the speaker asks rhetorically, “Why talk of beauty?” an allusion to Keats’ “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” as he drums up false sentiment for war, alluding hypocritically to the honor of casualties: “what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead” who, in a mixed metaphor, rush like “lions to the slaughter” rather than lambs. The allusion to the alleged biblical verse of lion lying with lamb -- a phrase that occurs nowhere in Scripture -- has happened already to these warriors; they are lambs to a slaughter the speaker urges upon them.