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ee cummings
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Tabi White
(9/3/2009 12:01:00 AM) |
As to the nature of what significance the use of 'Jesus' holds in the overall prose of this piece, I think one can think of this as the exclamatory response that one would have in reply to having seen Buffalo Bill just shot down five clay pigeons. That 'Jesus' is located at the end of the line is a graphical representation of just how this would be said to one's self, a lingering afterthought we would mutter to ourselves - most especially as this voyeuristic relationship was precisely what society had as we watched on as a culture admiring Bill and mythologizing his exploits.
Equally, the reference to 'handsome' seems less nebulous when accounting for the speed of the delivery of these lines as they have been building up throughout, making use of the elision of spaces Mr. Hoellering points out. The vocative tone is accusatory of the diabolical plans of Death and lashes out to chastise Death for having taken an iconic cultural hero. Bill's handsomeness is only fodder that fuels the outrage that this poem ends with in the accusation put to Death that he neither not need nor wants the hero that Buffalo Bill was to that bygone era of nostalgia.
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Andrew Hoellering
(4/13/2009 4:58:00 AM) |
Buffalo Bill was both a man and a legend or institution, and this is confirmed by
Cummins’ unusual and apt choice of ‘Buffalo Bill’s defunct.’ Some of the cowboy’s
special qualities are mentioned briefly in passing. His graceful and effortless
riding ability transfers from ‘watersmooth-silver stallion’, and a similar use of
elision (‘onetwothreefourfive pidgeonsjustlikethat’) conjures up his speed and
accuracy as a marksman.
The use of Jesus in the next line is ambiguous, as it is unclear whether it is Jesus
or Buffalo Bill who is described as handsome. What counts is that the two names
are associated and this leads logically to the final devastating rhetorical question
at the end of the poem.
If Buffalo Bill is our and Mister Death’s favourite or ‘blue-eyed
boy’ for the reasons Cummins has stated, what is the point behind his mindless
and wanton destruction?
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Gary Witt
(12/12/2006 10:17:00 AM) |
Probably one of Cummings’ most accessible poems.
Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917 when Cummings was perhaps 23 or 24 years old and probably driving an ambulance in France. This poem was first published in 1923. At the time of his death, Cody was heavily in debt, so the word “defunct” has a double meaning.
I love the voice that Cummings uses here, and the changes he goes through: he starts out factual (“Buffalo Bill’s defunct”) , then moves to nostalgic, with an innocent enthusiasm (“onetwothreefourfive…justlikethat”) , and closes with understated bitterness, and that jaw-dropping last sentence, “what I want to know is/how do you like your blue-eyed boy/Mister Death.” Spoken with the courage of a child.
I’m uncertain whether Cummings ever saw Cody’s Wild West Show, but it’s entirely possible. The timing and geography would both certainly fit. In fact, that phrase, “onetwothreefourfive” tells me Cummings did indeed see Cody’s show, and loved it. We don’t have a lot of heroes these days, and we’re certainly out of Buffalo Bills. So I wonder how much longer this poem will be studied, without footnotes. In short, how long will it remain accessible?
For further info on Cody, visit www.buffalobill.org.
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