Stars Rain Sun Moon

The theme of time again makes another appearance at the commencement of this stanza, “stars rain sun moon” (this is an example of repetition) before going back to the idea of children and the theme of the cycle of life. The next line holds an example of paradox with the line “how children are apt to forget to remember”; this accompanying the symbol of passing time signifies how as children grow up, they forget to see the small things, to notice the minute details, and as a result grow into adults who tend to look more at the bigger picture. Perhaps the children that Cummings is referring to are the same ones who noticed the relationship between Noone and Anyone; the ones who, by now, have grown old and have “forgotten to remember”. This serves
The whole idea of their burials being carried out by these busy men and the nonchalant statement that “anyone died i guess” are a commentary on both the desensitization of the people that live by Anyone and Noone and the cycle of life, including death, being both a natural and normal part of life. In this stanza, the idea of human nature, the sort of coldness and indifference we harbour towards each other is evident when Noone is really the only person who loves Anyone enough to show him affection when he dies (“Noone stooped to kiss his face”) and when she dies, she too is hastily buried alongside him by the society who couldn’t care less about losing them. There is alliteration of the “b” sound on the third line “Busy folk buried them side by side”, this aids in the flow of the poem and more specifically, the transition from life to death. The last part of the stanza again refers to the theme of the cycle of life with the words “little by little and was by was”, which could refer to the importance and legacy of both Noone and Anyone dwindling, becoming more and more insignificant by the
The first line could be interpreted as dirt being thrown on the coffin, the couple getting dug deeper and deeper into the ground, “all by all and deep by deep”. This creates imagery as one can picture the process of the dirt covering the coffins, the wording helps to make this more vivid as again it is repetitive, almost mocking the motion of shovelling the dirt from ground to coffin repeatedly. In the second line, the poet once again revisits the wording of “dreaming their sleep”, this time in a way that denotes an eternal sleep. Dreaming and sleep in this case are metaphors for resting dead since they cannot literally be dreaming in their sleep as they are no longer alive. For the most part, this metaphor is used to keep with the structure and wording of the poem as saying “and they stayed dead forever” would seem rigid and confusing in such a whimsical setting. In the third line, the poem again makes a reference back to time, in this case with a very certain date in mind, April. The fact that the line says “noone and anyone earth by april” helps the reader to infer that the main characters died in the springtime/were buried in the earth by April. The use of symbolism (and archetype) of springtime is apparent here as spring is used in literature to represent renewal and change, in this case it is the renewal of the cycle of life, with the death of some creatures comes the rebirth of