Pretty How Town
“anyone lived in a pretty how town”
Opening Statement In “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings, the author creates a strong depiction of a pretty town in which two people fall in love. The lilting sound of this poem and the positive word choice help convey the heartwarming happenings of the town, and overshadow the darker occurrences and grief. The poem follows the life of "anyone" a single person in the town who meets "noone" and falls in love. As the poem goes on, the two characters lives continue, even journeying into death; until we reach the end and the focus returns to the other townspeople. One of the strongest points of this poem is the obvious distinction between the townspeople and anyone. While the townspeople's …show more content…
lives remain the same, stagnant and unchanging even as they grow older, anyone and noone grow and evolve, living very seperate lives from the others. The main theme of this poem is the difference between people, and the human tendency to follow the same lives as their ancestors. It also creates a strong theme of the unchanging lives of humans, and insignificance of individual people.
Questions
Does this poem have an overall positive or negative view?
What does the line "with up so floating many bells down" mean? Do you think that the lack of capitalization in the majority of the poem besides on the word "Women" is used to intentionally bring new significance to the poem? Does the different order in the lines regarding the seasons and "sun moon stars rain" represent something? What effect does the lack of punctuation create on the poem?
Title
The title "anyone lived in a pretty how town" immediately draws the readers attention in, because at first glance it does not seem to make much sense. The title is read first, and it greatly effects how the reader will interpret the rest of the poem. Before reading the poem it is hard to realize that "anyone" does not actually refer to anyone in general but to a single person; this makes the title seem unrelated until after reading the poem, when it becomes obvious that it is the basis of the entire poem. The title is actually an introduction to the story that this poem presents, and is also the same as the first line of the poem, which introduces us to the character "anyone". The title is entirely lowercase, which makes it seem as if it has little significance, however just by leaving the title lowercase E.E. Cummings has brought significance into his poem; it makes "anyone" seem insignificant, which is a major theme within the
poem.
Literary Devices
The overall themes of this poem is that overall each individual human life is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This is represented by the other peoples lives in the poem, even after knowing anyone and noone they continue on their original path, and do not change, because anyone and noone' lives did not create a profound effect on theirs. The strongest representation of this within the poem is the line, "children guessed(but only a few and down they forgot as up they grew" (9-10). This line uses the imagery of children aging to explain how the children of the town lost their realizations as they grew up, and ultimately became just as their parents had been. Similarly, in the line, "they sowed their isn't they reaped their same" (7). The speaker references the townspeople's children, as he uses this farming metaphor to represent childbirth and then describes the children as exactly the same. The poem's tone is overall quite positive, as it uses words with a mainly positive connotation, especially when he references dancing, singing, dreaming, floating, and the seasons. However, when you read further into the poem it begins to take on a darker tone and meaning, as it discusses topics of death, insignificance, grief, and conformity. For example, at first the his reference to bells sounds happy and joyful when he says, "with up so floating many bells down" (2,24). However, when you look at the circumstances surrounding these bells, it becomes obvious that not only do they represent birth and life, but later on they ring at anyone's death, representing an end of life, making the tone radically different.
Opening Statement In “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings, the author creates a strong depiction of a pretty town in which two people fall in love. The lilting sound of this poem and the positive word choice help convey the heartwarming happenings of the town, and overshadow the darker occurrences and grief. The poem follows the life of "anyone" a single person in the town who meets "noone" and falls in love. As the poem goes on, the two characters lives continue, even journeying into death; until we reach the end and the focus returns to the other townspeople. One of the strongest points of this poem is the obvious distinction between the townspeople and anyone. While the townspeople's …show more content…
lives remain the same, stagnant and unchanging even as they grow older, anyone and noone grow and evolve, living very seperate lives from the others. The main theme of this poem is the difference between people, and the human tendency to follow the same lives as their ancestors. It also creates a strong theme of the unchanging lives of humans, and insignificance of individual people.
Questions
Does this poem have an overall positive or negative view?
What does the line "with up so floating many bells down" mean? Do you think that the lack of capitalization in the majority of the poem besides on the word "Women" is used to intentionally bring new significance to the poem? Does the different order in the lines regarding the seasons and "sun moon stars rain" represent something? What effect does the lack of punctuation create on the poem?
Title
The title "anyone lived in a pretty how town" immediately draws the readers attention in, because at first glance it does not seem to make much sense. The title is read first, and it greatly effects how the reader will interpret the rest of the poem. Before reading the poem it is hard to realize that "anyone" does not actually refer to anyone in general but to a single person; this makes the title seem unrelated until after reading the poem, when it becomes obvious that it is the basis of the entire poem. The title is actually an introduction to the story that this poem presents, and is also the same as the first line of the poem, which introduces us to the character "anyone". The title is entirely lowercase, which makes it seem as if it has little significance, however just by leaving the title lowercase E.E. Cummings has brought significance into his poem; it makes "anyone" seem insignificant, which is a major theme within the
poem.
Literary Devices
The overall themes of this poem is that overall each individual human life is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This is represented by the other peoples lives in the poem, even after knowing anyone and noone they continue on their original path, and do not change, because anyone and noone' lives did not create a profound effect on theirs. The strongest representation of this within the poem is the line, "children guessed(but only a few and down they forgot as up they grew" (9-10). This line uses the imagery of children aging to explain how the children of the town lost their realizations as they grew up, and ultimately became just as their parents had been. Similarly, in the line, "they sowed their isn't they reaped their same" (7). The speaker references the townspeople's children, as he uses this farming metaphor to represent childbirth and then describes the children as exactly the same. The poem's tone is overall quite positive, as it uses words with a mainly positive connotation, especially when he references dancing, singing, dreaming, floating, and the seasons. However, when you read further into the poem it begins to take on a darker tone and meaning, as it discusses topics of death, insignificance, grief, and conformity. For example, at first the his reference to bells sounds happy and joyful when he says, "with up so floating many bells down" (2,24). However, when you look at the circumstances surrounding these bells, it becomes obvious that not only do they represent birth and life, but later on they ring at anyone's death, representing an end of life, making the tone radically different.