"Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town" Poetry Explication

“Anyone lived in a pretty how town” Poetry Explication Edward E. Cunnings’ poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” is a love story about two people. The lovers live in a town where no one cared about each other, but the man and the woman did love each other. Cummings uses repetition to show the effects of time: “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “stars rain sun moon” (21). Then, when the couple die, their children take their place, but they forgot something or someone. Within each stanza though, there is a much deeper meaning. The narrator thinks that the men and women of the town cared only for themselves: “Women and men (both little and small)/care for anyone not at all” (5, 6) “They sowed their isn’t they reaped their/same” (7, 8) indicates that the women and men from the town have a negative view in their life. They have a lack of self-confidence and do not want to take risks, so they gain nothing in life; therefore, they all have the same experience. In lines nine through twelve, the speaker suggests that as children get older, they lose their innocence and imagination. But only one pure hearted no one liked anyone. That is why children kept on guessing because they forgot the meaning of emotions, like love, and do not understand why adults have a better understanding of these emotions. In the poem, the no one is a woman and the anyone is a man. The fourth stanza describes how the no one’s love for the anyone grows and deepens as time goes by: “when by now and tree by leaf” (13).To an extent, she becomes a part of him and shared his life intimately: “she laughed his joy she cried his grief” (14). They have connected with each other and become one, becoming important towards one another. In the line “someones married their everyones”, the speaker refers to the people in the town who married that special someone they loved dearly. They start to settle down and enjoy life. But then, when they “said their nevers they slept their dream” (20), they