Marlowe Brant (4/28/2005 8:38:00 PM)
When reading inside the parenthesis, one reads 'a leaf falls'. But if one looks outside the parenthesis, one sees 'loneliness'. There is one leaf, a leaf, that falls, by itself, alone. I think this is why e.e. cummings chose to structure this poem like he did. It is a kind of skinny structure, the words and letters aren't together. They are alone. One also reads the poem downwards, giving the impression of a falling leaf. This is a great example of how cummings uses structure to influence the meaning of his poetry. |
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