The speaker at the beginning tells the reader his love for America after God and lastly himself in the phrase “next to of course god america i”. 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.
This poem reveals some of his deepest, if unpopular, beliefs. The opening lines of ‘next to of course god america i’, which you can read in full here, reveal the speaker’s sarcastic tone toward patriotism. The fact that he does not capitalize “god” nor “america” reveals his irreverent tone from the onset.
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.
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 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 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 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.
Enjambment, from the French meaning “a striding over,” is a poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next. An enjambed line typically lacks punctuation at its line break, so the reader is carried smoothly and swiftly—without interruption—to the next line of the poem.
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.
On the most basic level, the speaker's thirst after ranting about patriotism indicates that something about the speech itself has exhausted the speaker, who tries to recover by drinking deeply. This, in turn, represents the speaker's intense commitment to this particular topic.
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
He worked in France in the ambulance corp, which later didn’t seem like such a great idea when he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp in Normandy on suspicion of espionage and undesirable activities. When Cummings returned to the United States he was drafted into the army and served the 12th division.
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.
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.
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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Gilmore states that the people would try to please “the warrior’s heart” (27). In addition, a “laurel wreath [that] is ready” hints at a victory; victories come from conflicts (Gilmore 19). Since Gilmore composed the piece during the Civil War, this evidence reinforces the relationship between the war and the song (“When”).
An astounding memorial, a piece of artwork, and a commemoration of all the Veterans who died or went missing is all shown in this text. What started as not even being considered Veterans soon transformed into creating a whole memorial in memory of them.
He disagrees with this assumption by saying “I’m more than just a uniform.” Fredrick says this in order to separate himself from the dreadful German stereotypes. Spiritually he has the same beliefs as Sergeant Alvin York, who contemplates joining the war because of his non-violent beliefs and his desire to serve his country [5].
A difference in the poems is the point of view of the speakers. The point of view of the speaker in "I Beg You Brother: Do Not Die" is of someone who was never in war, but in “Dulce et Decorum Est”, the man was speaking about his experience in war. Therefore, the characters have different
Unlike “Conscientious Objector”, “Flander’s Fields” is spoken from the point of view of dead soldiers. The soldiers want the people they have left behind to carry on in their absence and continue fighting the good fight.
Furthermore, I would be exploring a varieties of world war one poems to compare how war is presented in different viewpoints. In Henry V Shakespeare ‘once more unto the breach’ speech, shows war to create hero’s that are confident, whereas the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ shows hero’s to be scared and vulnerable. He makes war sound very patriotic.
In “ The Red Badge of Courage ” by Stephen Crane, symbolism is frequently used as a demonstration for the main character’s credulity, his instinctive perspective of war as well as the barbarity of the battlefield .
The persona of the speaker has added ‘iful’, on the enjambed line, after a moment’s after-thought!! cummings further satirises the jingoistic speechmaker with the absurdly alliterated oxymoron of the ‘heroic happy dead’
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