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 poem is a parody of a ‘speech’ to extreme patriots — the ranting monologue of ‘God-fearing’ America.
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.
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. then shall the voice of liberty be mute?
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.
The next line of the poem uses metaphor “thy sons acclaim you glorious name by gorry by jingo by gee by gosh by gum” it shows the innocence of the soldiers with “thy sons” and so the speaker shows a sort of frustration when replacing explicit words with “by gory by jingo by gee by gosh by gum”.
The poem 'i sing of Olaf glad and big' by Cummings is a typical poem based on Cummings's experience in the army. It is an ironic retelling of the torture and death of a conscientious objector during World War I. The character Olaf in the poem was a soldier in another barrack when Cummings was also a soldier in France.
'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.
The townspeople are likened to the sounds of the church bells, and the list of seasons repeats itself in yet another variation on their order. The townspeople are born and they die. They live the same lives and this cycle repeats itself endlessly.
#1 i carry your heart with me E.E. Cummings is considered one of the best love poets of all time and this poem is his most famous work in the genre.
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.
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 ...
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.