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Martin Springer (10/11/2007 8:19:00 AM)
'a leaf falls' is embedded within loneliness; it interrupts loneliness. I imagine a person being lonely and confused, just as we are by the typographical dislocation of the words; yet as we process the poem, we make sense out of it, just as the lonely person might make sense of experience, converting what begins as 'loneliness' into 'oneliness'. A lonely person has separated him/herself from others, has perhaps been morose, but before it can become despair, he/she sees a leaf fall and an epiphany occurs about the subject's at-one-ness with creation. |
A Bunt (2/7/2007 11:43:00 PM)
Hmmm, at first I didn't think so, but upon reflection, I do believe both Michael Toland and Bobby Lankin to be correct: that the first line is 'l(a' (letter 'L') , and that it is IN rather than ON.
Look: l(a leaf falls) onliness
the parenthetical '(a leaf falls) ' is embedded IN the word 'l...oneliness'
(loneliness/Loneliness, not 1liness)
Plus, semantically, it makes more sense to say 'a leaf falls in loneliness' rather than the 'on' version. Think of it this way: 'in loneliness, a leaf falls' makes more sense than 'on loneliness, a leaf falls', don't you agree?
AND, I agree with Michael Toland that including 'a leaf falls' in the 'false title' ruins it for the first time reader- it's like including the punch line at the beginning of a joke. |
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