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 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 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.
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) ’.
Sir Christopher Ricks, the literary critic, made a similar point about great religious works of art risking the charge of blasphemy. The same, we might say, is true of all interesting patriotic poems. You can read ‘next to of course god america i’ by Cummings here before proceeding to our analysis.
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.
This poem is a satirical sonnet with a rhyme of ABABCDCDEFGFEG and thirteen lines.
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.
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.
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).
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.
A secondary speaker, who remains unidentified throughout the work, opens the poem by declaring his patriotism. Identifying himself as both faithful and nationalistic, he says "next to of course god america i / love you." However, neither God nor America are capitalized, which undermines the sincerity and solemnity of the proclamation.
The lack of punctuation in these lines opens up more than one possible interpretation of the text. The phrase "centuries come and go / and are no more" is straightforward, but "what of it we should worry" is slightly more complicated.
The speaker asks what could be more beautiful than soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in war. Indeed, he implies that no other beauty could be worth talking about. However, his delivery undermines his intended message. When he compares the soldiers to lions who rushed "to the roaring slaughter," the phrasing is again ambiguous.
The speaker asks if the voice of liberty will be mute. Rhetorically, "the voice of liberty" means the poet's own position and is declaring his right to speak. Grammatically, because there is no punctuation separating it, the phrase can be read as connected to the dead soldiers, who can no longer speak at all.
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 poem "next to of course god america i" is a formal sonnet. The base of the traditional structure stands in contrast to Cummings's unconventional use of language. In places, the form supersedes and overwhelms the language. The word beautiful is broken in the middle to adhere to the rhyme scheme, so beaut rhymes with mute.
The first 13 lines of the poem are in quotation marks, and the secondary speaker is only positively identified as someone other than the primary speaker in the last line. The poem gives no context for the delivery of the speech. It could be a political rally, a dinner party, or any other venue.