A Pretty How Town
Poets have the gift of taking fewer words than novelists and still instilling grand emotions within their readers. In “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by e.e. cummings, Cummings uses language in various ways to portray setting, mood, and meaning. It isn’t just the words he chooses, but the order by which he layers them. The setting isn’t described through adjectives, but through imagery and nouns. “a pretty how town” creates the setting of a happening town that is active throughout “spring summer autumn winter” (the whole year). The setting is often described by “sun moon stars rain” — three of the words refer to the universe and only one refers to the weather. The weather, much like the mood, is dreary and therefore these scenes becomes
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They mold together suggesting that it isn’ just anyone who is different, but there lies an entire population of different people. The couple thinks the same way and acts the same, all differently from how the town would like them to act, “she laughed his joy she cried his grief”, “laughed their cryings and did their dance”, and “said their nevers they slept their dream.” This shunning that the reader sees from the town is the same as how the government and society will shun or ignore anyone who isn’t their perfect example of a citizen. Throughout these words that move together, cummings creates a montage of moments in the couples lives from meeting to marriage to life and finally death. Time is also picked upon in the language to provide mood, setting, and meaning. The children “grew’, the girl anyone chose that was the same as him “when by now”, the children “forget to remember” moments, and anyone became “earth by april.” The time isn’t direct nor specific and therefore you get to see the couples full life span in a series of stanzas with the imagery filling the gaps. This creates a high-low-high-low mood for the reader as they experience a set of different happinesses and disappointments with Anyone. In the end of the poem the town goes on without the couple, without ever really acknowledging that their presence made a
They mold together suggesting that it isn’ just anyone who is different, but there lies an entire population of different people. The couple thinks the same way and acts the same, all differently from how the town would like them to act, “she laughed his joy she cried his grief”, “laughed their cryings and did their dance”, and “said their nevers they slept their dream.” This shunning that the reader sees from the town is the same as how the government and society will shun or ignore anyone who isn’t their perfect example of a citizen. Throughout these words that move together, cummings creates a montage of moments in the couples lives from meeting to marriage to life and finally death. Time is also picked upon in the language to provide mood, setting, and meaning. The children “grew’, the girl anyone chose that was the same as him “when by now”, the children “forget to remember” moments, and anyone became “earth by april.” The time isn’t direct nor specific and therefore you get to see the couples full life span in a series of stanzas with the imagery filling the gaps. This creates a high-low-high-low mood for the reader as they experience a set of different happinesses and disappointments with Anyone. In the end of the poem the town goes on without the couple, without ever really acknowledging that their presence made a