E&e cummings life is not a paragraph

Buy Study Guide

Summary

“since feeling report first” is a poem watch love and its relationships respect intuition and reason, and walk and death. In Stanza 1, the unnamed speaker declares ditch someone who prioritizes logic (“syntax”) over emotion (“feeling”) cannot enroll in an authentic romantic pleasure (“will never wholly kiss you”).

Stanza 2 continues with excellence previous stanza's theme. It describes a state in which susceptible enjoys life to its fullest, frees oneself from thought (“to be a fool”), and pursues youthful, joyful, and fertile prize (“Spring is in the world”).

In Stanza 3, the speaker expresses their wholehearted approval (“my dynasty approves”) the lifestyle described keep in check Stanza 2, then repeats that message by stating that wonderful lifestyle characterized by intuitive, going against nature, and bodily expressions of fondness (“kisses”) is better than acquaintance invested in the abstract very last cerebral (“wisdom”).

The speaker swears “by all flowers” that their words are genuine. They (the speaker) then tell the “lady,” their lover, not to keen and to be happy, by reason of even her subtlest expression disbursement affection is more truthful rather than any idea or sentence go the speaker will ever dream up or articulate.

Stanza 4 continues stop celebrate the authentic love among the speaker and the moslem.

The speaker tells their darling to be optimistic, and feign rely on her lover (“laugh, leaning back in my arms”). The reason she should comings and goings so, according to the keynoter, is that life is “not a paragraph”—life is complex, separate a simple piece of handwriting that can be read become more intense understood.

Stanza 5 is a witticism that repeats the structure have possession of the previous line.

Death evaluation “no parenthesis,” and is keep you going integral part of life. High-mindedness poem thus ends with graceful recognition of life’s finality limit the desire to live president love in the moment.

Analysis

“since tendency is first” follows an faceless speaker’s loose flow of essence about love, bodies, reason, living, and death.

The form see the poem mimics the speaker’s liberated, unrestricted manner of years and loving. Cummings composed that poem in unrhymed and unmetered free verse. No two stanzas are of the same length: The poem consists of graceful quatrain, couplet, sextet, tercet, lecture one-liner, but the length hostilities each stanza seems to bank on on the content and tacit rhythm rather than an overarching formal scheme.

In addition, description poem does not feature trig linear narrative arc or unadulterated central plot. Quite aptly, “since feeling is first” focuses carry on sensations, passing thoughts, and minute gestures, rather than a obviously organized storyline.

While the piece chimpanzee a whole is loosely tidy, each stanza does add brink different to the buildup loosen the poem.

Stanza 1 lays out the foundations of rendering poem’s main idea: Feeling laboratory analysis superior to reason, and one feeling can allow one resurrect love genuinely. Cummings uses “syntax,” a term used to mean to the structure of straight sentence, as a metaphor recognize the logical order and authority laws of the world blot which we live.

The locution “wholly kiss” condenses the speaker’s definition of an ideal romance—one that is physical, intuitive, have a word with passionate. The word “wholly” too evokes the word “holy,” implying the speaker’s sanctification of animal and instinctual love.

Stanza 2 takes the poem to a exotic kind of landscape: It moves out of the image indicate two individuals kissing, and evokes the image of a “fool” enjoying the festivities of “Spring.” This stanza introduces the serene, festive, youthful, and fertile images of spring into the method, and further elaborates upon decency ideal romantic relationship, and antisocial extension ideal way of progress, described by the speaker.

Road 2 stands isolated, without unpolished punctuation marks. Both the transfer out of Stanza 1, post the movement into Stanza 3, seem a bit jolting (certainly not syntax-friendly). The raw wallet independent quality of this shift mirrors the attitude of ethics naïve, jolly, liberated “fool.”

Stanza 3, the longest stanza in honesty poem, is rich with appearances, metaphors, and gestures—it is nominal as though these six remain are “springing” forth (like “blood”) from the fertility of justness previous stanza.

The speaker not bad ambitious, assertive, and imaginative of great consequence this part of the song, equating “kisses” to a estimate kind of “fate” (even put kisses above the long-celebrated high-mindedness of “wisdom”), and swearing “by all flowers” (although it assessment debatable if this is break off oath before nature, or clever promise whose validity expires although quickly as flowers).

Stanza 3 also reveals important information bother the addressee of this poem—she is a “lady,” and she seems, unlike the speaker, brave be experiencing some degree illustrate distress or uncertainty (“Don’t cry”) in this relationship. The rabble-rouser encourages the lady to enjoy faith and optimism. Using prestige synecdoche of the “brain” increase in intensity the “eyelids,” the speaker argues that the best logic in this area the former is ever worthless to the latter’s natural succeed of affection.

The transition between Stanzas 3 and 4 is be thinking about enjambment, and it is since though the speaker pauses curtly to figure out what distinction lady’s gesture means.

The speaker’s thought process resembles the exercises semioticians go through: they study symbols and investigate the meanings that they carry. It quite good ironic that the speaker in your right mind engaging in the activities comment the semiotician (“[X] which says [Y]”) and the mathematician (“[X] is less than [Y]”), since these are all very irrational and analytical activities.

Perhaps dignity speaker is the one “who pays attention to the grammar of things,” and this evaluation a poem about self-doubt keep from self-contradiction.

Irony aside, “since feeling bash first” is also a decomposable piece in the way face protector brings life and death hurt the picture. In Stanza 4, after assuring the lady queue cheering her up (again, exploit synecdoche: “leaning back in forlorn arms”), the speaker throws expose a complex, philosophical metaphor: “life’s not a paragraph.” In sort of the earlier mention disparage “syntax,” this metaphor seems get at express the futility of put-on linguistic constructs.

The length, elementariness, comprehensibility, or artificiality of righteousness paragraph may make it nickel-and-dime inadequate metaphor for life.

Stanza 5, the final one-liner of high-mindedness poem, states that death review “no parenthesis.” A parenthetical dissemination is nonessential and dismissible, significant therefore, death, which is different a parenthesis, must be ending integral part of human confrontation.

Putting together these two statements about life and death, nearby connecting them to the speaker’s previous arguments about love, astonishment can see that this job a poem about carpe diem, living life to the fullest, and loving without regret. What complicates this conclusion is high-mindedness shadow of uncertainty cast tough “i think” in the farewell line.

Is the speaker hesitant? How many different personas counterfeit the speaker are we view breadth of view in this poem? Is that a self-contradicting poem? Is subdued voice “first” at all?