Analysis Of The Poem In Spite Of Everything By Ee Cummings

I am reading and analyzing a poem by E. E. Cummings called “in spite of everything”. Unlike several of Cummings’ other poems, this one is actually relatively short. In the second line, Cummings begins to use personification for ‘Doom’: “Doom / (with white longest hands” (2-3). This provides a very vivid image in the reader’s mind. When I was reading this line I was imagining a hand slowly smoothing out wrinkles and creases in a bed sheet. Cummings says that ‘Doom’ “will smooth entirely our minds” (5). This image of ‘Doom’ kind of reminds me of death or the grim reaper, but it is an interesting symbol because ‘Doom’ is described as white when you would assume black to be involved. It seems as if the lovers in the poem are accepting impending
death as means of being apart, but it is very vague and ambiguous. I think this poem could have many interpretations. The wrinkles in the bed seem to symbolize the lovers’ wrinkles in their mind, or any doubts they may have about their relationship. I find it interesting how instead of calling the room “our room” the author says, “before leaving my room” (6). In the last line you get a sense of the lover’s relationship being over, or possible one of them being deceased: “where our heads lived and were.” (10). It seems as if maybe the girl left the boy, and that is why he calls it “my room”. Their relationship is over but instead of being bitter and sad he is paying a sort of homage to their relationship by kissing the pillow: “kiss / this pillow, dear” (8-9).