The poem "next to of course god america i" alludes to the patriotism of a nation, namely the United States. It brings up the issues of what's a patriot and what in actually the norm of the average American citizen's response is to war and fighting?
The poem is a parody of a ‘speech’ to extreme patriots — the ranting monologue of ‘God-fearing’ America.
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:
A (very) loosely structured sonnet, the poem features a speaker who feverishly rants about America and war, making a number of patriotic and nationalistic comments that feel hollow. However, it's hard to determine if the speaker says these things sarcastically or if the speaker actually thinks this way.
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.
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?
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.
'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.
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.
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 ...
The use of the words “jingo”, “gee”, “gosh” and “gum” suggest that the speaker believes the gory wars in the name of patriotism to be senseless, just like the words he uses to describe it.
next to of course god america i is one of the strangest sonnets ever written. It is a poem that delights in its own satire, that whimsically dances with cliches and pays little heed to punctuation.
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.
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.
The centuries are no more.... the speaker reminds the reader that time has gone and what's the use of time? Does a country have to learn from its history? What about the past, the present, the future?
A slight change in rhythm as line 9 brings beauty out of the blue, repeated at the end of the line as Cummings splits beaut/iful in two. This not only allows the line to end with a rising beaut- but ties up the full rhyme later on with mute (in line 13).
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) ’.
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.
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.
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 ...
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.
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.