In the poem, “anyone lived in a pretty how town”, author, E. E. Cummings sometimes uses words in very unusual ways. Line 7, which says “they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same” is no exception (line 7). To start off we need to decipher who the “they” Cummings is talking about in this line. The “they” Cummings is talking about here is made known in line 5. Cummings points out that “Women and men (both little and small)” are the “they” who “sowed their isn’t” and the “they” that “reaped their same” (line 5 & 7). If you think about line 7 from the farming standpoint you can infer that “sow” could mean to plant something and “reap” could mean to harvest what was planted. Now, let’s talking about how “they sowed their isn’t” (line 7). To sow something, you have to have a …show more content…
A seed is something a farmer places in the ground in hope of it sprouting and becoming a plant. However, the seed “isn’t” a plant just yet. Thinking about what seed women and men “sow” this part of the line could possibly be actually talking about children and how the women and the men “sowed” what doesn’t exist quite yet-a child! Moving forward, to the next part (and back in the farming mindset), “they reaped their same” (line 7). If you planted 7 tomato seeds you would expect 7 tomato plants to grow, not 4 tomato plants and 3 cucumber plants. Here, the same logic can apply. When the women and men plant their seeds (future children) and they sprout(are born) they raise them and grow them together and they all grow up to be the same uniform product. So in line 7 Cummings may be describing how in this little town the women and the men have children who all grow up to be the exact same, just like tiny little rows of tomatoes. In lines 19-20, Cummings states, “they/said their nevers they slept their
The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and
4. Do you assume the mason/carpenter/wood-cutter is a man or a woman? How come? In my opinion, they were all probably men because the poem was written in 1860 and during this time not many women could be seen doing these kind of jobs. Women would oftentimes sew, wash clothes, cook, and take care of the family. It also says the word “his” after introducing them.
The writer shows the reader this throwout Seedfolks in chapters “Wendell,” “Leona,” including “Maricela.” These chapters show how two people who created
“Steam rising from ovens and showers like mist across a swampland” has a double meaning, steam rises from ovens and showers, but also in summer, as it rains on a hot highway, steam rises. It is comparing the lives of the people living in these houses to the disorder of a swampland by using the simile “like mist across a swampland”. It may also be suggesting that as cities expand, more land is being stolen from nature. The last line of this stanza “The cricket sound of voices and cutlery” is appealing to the reader’s sense of sound, indicating that the people on the highway can hear the noise of the people in the houses. It is likening the noises of the people to noises made in nature by crickets. In the next stanza Foulcher has written, “Only the children remain outside”, which informs the reader of what it is now like, with all of the adults gone inside. He describes the children as, “bruised with dirt and school”, this gives the indication they are both covered in patches of dirt, and bruised, which are similar colours. Also informs that they are relaxing by play after a hard day at school.
Seedfolks is a book about family. One day, a little Vietnamese girl named Kim plants some lima beans at a vacant lot in Cleveland to honor her father, who was a farmer. A neighbor notices and decides to also plant her own plants. Soon, more neighbors notice and it turns into a community garden. The people of Cleveland have to avoid their differences and come together as a family to make it successful. The book Seedfolks implies that family is the true source of love because almost everybody in the book does something to express their love through the garden.
The atmospheric conditions may represent the hardships that the couple had to go through in their relationship, and may also be used contrast the unpredictability of the outside world compared to the steady relationship that the couple have. ‘A Youth Mowing’ is also a poem about relationships, this time it is between a younger couple. The river ‘Isar’ is a symbol of freedom, it represents the way that the men’s lives are. However, this sense of liberty is broken by the ‘swish of the scythe-strokes’ as the girl takes ‘four sharp breaths.’ Sibilance is used to show that there is a sinister undertone to the freedom that the boy has which will be broken by the news that his girlfriend is bringing. She feels guilty for ‘what’s in store,’ as now the boy will have to be committed to spending the rest of his life with her, and paying the price for the fun that they had.
and fruitful land/ Babes reduced to misery/ Fed with cold and usurious hands” (lines 1-4).
Soon the men began to gather. Surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk.(1)
The poem hints that a woman lived with the man in the old farmhouse and that she appeared to be a homemaker. Kooser makes this known when the speaker mentions “the bedroom wall papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves covered with oilcloth” (10-11). The food choices that the woman had available to feed the family really makes the reader think about the poverty that they may have lived: “money was scarce say the jars of plum preserves and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole” (13-14). What food they had needed to last, as the man had failed to produce any food for his family in his untended fields.
Stockett incorporates nature imagery in the book to symbolize the bitterness which grows internally day by day. Aibileen, one of the most important characters in the novel, refers to a bitter seed that was nourished inside of her after the horrific death of her son, Treelore. “I feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the one planted after Treelore died,” (Stockett 14). Since the tragic death, the seed planted inside of her began flourishing after every time she was degraded for the color of her skin. As sweet and genuine Aibileen’s character is, the racism she experienced from her own boss and the cruel remarks about her appearance has made Aibileen use this bitterness in an essential way. As bitter as she was, the seed implanted within Aibileen, giving her the motivation to prove the white people wrong.
The speaker says, “…older than the flow of human blood in my veins” (Line 1). Blood is only developed when a fetus is being grown, in the Mother, but within the blood lies DNA of their ancestors from past generations. The speaker uses human blood to relate to the fact that our blood is old and connected to our heritage because we carry their DNA inside of us. “I’ve seen its muddy bosom” (Line 9). Muddy, implies a bleak outlook of not being able to see the end. Lose of hope. “Turns all golden in the sunset” (Line 9) the ominous of a sparse future comes to an end with the sunset signifying hope and a new beginning. The association to his ancestors’ bleak past is his what binds their experiences to him.
It is possible that the narrator is trying to reassure herself in this passage by claiming that the child was never made, but then why write the poem to her unborn children?
Physical growth is something that cannot be reversed, people grow by the minute and that is beyond their control. Cummings says that the people in the manmade world “ungrow” to emphasize the growth of the soul and mind that are the essence of individuality. When people become immersed in social conventions, they ungrow because they do not develop their content. May is the last name in the order, and this name has the least letters. This fact symbolizes that the girl has the least content and time of all girls. She has the least content because she is closer to an adult who is immersed in conventions and less time because she is older than the other
There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as
In his poem “Acquainted with the Night,” Robert Frost describes a character who spends his nights wandering the city streets. The reader can infer from both Frost’s tone, and the time of day in which the speaker chooses to walk, that the character is in a world of isolation. This is especially evident in the lines, “When far away an interrupted cry/ Came over houses from another street,/ But not to call me back or say good-by” (Frost 898). From this line, the reader understands that the poem’s speaker feels as if he is completely isolated in the world. In a similar way, E. E. Cummings poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” expresses the loneliness felt by people of this era. Cummings creative use of pronouns gives the poem a double entendre. The characters, anyone and noone, can represent their literal meanings, or a single man and woman. Therefore, when Cummings writes that “noone loves him more by more,” he could mean that anyone is being loved greatly, or not at all. This loneliness is expressed yet again when Cummings informs the reader, “Women and men (both little and small)/ cared for anyone not at all” (Cummings 922). The works of both Frost and Cummings both portray the hardship that accompanied the feeling of loneliness during the modern