Page 1 of 5 "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e. e. cummings From The Best Poems Ever, Ed. Edric S. Mesmer, pp. 34 35 Much like Dr. Seuss, e. e. cummings plays with words in his poems, including this one. He doesn't necessarily make up new words, but he does make up new meanings and ways to use existing words. Keep this in mind as you read. The poem opens with a character named "Anyone." In the first stanza, the reader learns that Anyone lives in a town with an abstract description ; cummings uses "how" as an adjective to describe the town and talks about floating and bells but doesn't concretely describe a bell tower. Anyone sings his "didn't" and dances his "did," implying that he is optimistic regardless of what he is actually doing. In the second stanza, cummings reveals that the townspeople don't really like Anyone; they "cared for Anyone not at all." Cummings refers to these townspeople as "little and small," which could refer to their physical size or to their state of mind. (Ever heard the phrase "small minded"? What does that make you think of?) Cummings describes the townspeople's sowing and reaping, which is very different from Anyone's singing and dancing. Cumming's use of sowing and reaping and the list ing of the "sun moon stars and rain" suggest farming and the passage of time. Children have a different relationship to Anyone. If you follow the sentence grammatically, a few of the children guessed that a new character, "noone," (No One) loved Anyone. However, cummings likes to play with grammar and may have meant that the children guessed something else. What might they have guessed? How might they have felt differently from the adults about Anyone, who sings and dances? In the parentheses, cummings makes the point that the children change as they grow older; they forget something. What might the children forget? That Noone loves Anyone? That it is O.K. to sing and dance when everyone else is farming? Fourth Stanza The fourth stanza describes Noone's relationship to Anyone. She seems to really love him. She feels his joy and pain, and his "any" (perhaps what makes him unique) is her "all." Fifth Stanza The fifth stanza describes life continuing in the town. People get married, they laugh and cry and dance and sleep and wake, and finally "sleep their dream." On the surface, it is the town being a town. But wait there's more here. The way cummings describes the town makes everything seem a little reversed. In the previous stanza, Noone laughed Anyone's
Page 2 of 5 joy and cried Anyone's grief. Laughing at joy and crying at grief makes sense, but now the townspeople laugh their crying, not their joy. In the first stanza, Anyone dances his did. Now the townspeople "did their dance." "Said their nevers" sounds a little ominous and "sleep their dream" could be interpreted to mean death. At any rate, the townspeople are different from Anyone and Noone. Sixth Stanza The sixth stanza marks the passage of time with "stars rain sun moon," now in a diff erent order, and comments on the children forgetting to remember. Seventh Stanza The seventh stanza has a few possible interpretations: 1. The most literal interpretation is that Anyone dies. Noone kisses him, and she must die as well since they are buried "side by side." The townspeople are described as "busy." But what else could cummings mean by death and burial "little by little and was by was"? 2. The townspeople could be metaphorically killing Anyone and Noone. We've already established that Anyone and Noone are different and that the townspeople don't like Anyone. Perhaps they are further excluding Anyone and Noone and burying them with criticisms "little by little." They are described as "side by side" because they are facing the townspeople together now. 3. Death could mean conformity. Anyone and Noone could be becoming more like the townspeople "little by little and was by was." Eighth Stanza The eighth stanza, as a continuation of the seventh, also has three possible interpretations: 1. Anyone and Noone "dream their sleep" underground, in the earth, where, much like seeds in the planting season, they have been buried in April. With "more by more they dream their sleep" and "wish by spirit," cummings creates images of heaven or anothe r afterlife state. 2. As the townspeople reject Anyone and Noone, they become more and more committed to each other and themselves. In this interpretation, "dream their sleep" could be a reference to living in their own dreamy world. "Wish by spirit and if by yes" could refer to their uniqueness and determination. 3. At the same time, with the alternate interpretation of death as conformity, the stanza could be continuing to describe Anyone and Noone's assimilation into the town "all by all," and "more by more," dreaming through life as the townspeople seem to. Ninth Stanza
Page 3 of 5 The final stanza returns to the townspeople who are going on as before with their reaping and sowing over time (indicated by "summer autumn winter spring" and "sun moon stars rain"). Just as in the fifth stanza, they appear to be doing things backward as they "reaped their sowing" and "went their came." What happens when you read the poem and substitute names for Anyone and Noone? What additional meanings does cummings give the poem by naming his characters Anyone and Noone? What are the denotations of these words? The connotations? What elements does cummings use to represent continuity? How does the last stanza of the poem indicate continuity? Do you think cummings considered continuity a good thing? How does Anyone represent a challenge to an accepted norm? Where can you see evidence of this? Where do changes take place in the poem? What do you think about the different ways the seventh and eighth stanzas can be interpreted? Any other ideas? Be sure to read through the poem with an ear for the rhythms and sounds. Do the sing-song rhythm and the rhymes add anything to the effect of the poem? "The Bean Eaters" by Gwendolyn Brooks From The Best Poems Ever, Ed. Edric S. Mesmer, p. 55 In "The Bean Eaters," Brooks gives the reader a window into the life of an elderly couple. Their life is simple, and they don't seem to have much money, but they take heart in their memories. The poem mentions the objects in the couple's life, including a long list of the contents of the back room where they eat dinner. With the couple's humble lifestyle, their stuff, and their contentment with memories, Brooks is making a social commentary about poverty and materialism. What do you think her opinion is about these issues? How does that relate to the African American community of the '40s, '50s, and '60s she so often portrays in her poems? In the first stanza, the narrator observes an elderly couple (an "old yellow pair"). Their life is characterized here by the details of their dinners they often eat beans, and their dishes, utensils, and dinner table are plain and inexpensive. The plain, conversational language she uses for the poem, and the poem's lack of formal structure, match the plain dishes and simple dinner. However, the meal is not depressing. Brooks 's use of rhythm and rhyme gives the stanza, and the entire poem, a cheerful note. She carefully chooses words and creates images that reveal the poverty of this couple's life without making it seem undignified or even unsatisfactory to them. In a large part, the
Page 4 of 5 reader is left to create a contrast between what is described in the poem and, for example, how he or she might want to live as an elderly person. This couple is past their prime of life ("they "have lived their day"), but they continue on, dutifully "putting on their cloths / And putting things away." The way Brooks places "Two" at the beginning of the first two lines of the stanza gives the word special emphasis. This reinforces the couple as a unit and makes them seem strong. The couple have happy and sad memories. The reader learns that they live in rented rooms. Their "back room" is full of bits and pieces of life that have accumulated beads, receipts, dolls, cloths, tobacco crumbs. Brooks uses an extra-long line here and a running list that is very different from her previous shorter lines. By doing this, she makes the list seem longer than it is and gives the effect of a big pile of stuff or a long inventory of everything someone owns. The stanza is even less structured than the previous two stanzas, giving it a dreamy, memory-like quality. What details does Brooks give readers about this couple's situation? How can you tell they are poor? What do you think of eating beans most of the time? Is that something you'd want to do? What do you think is the point that Brooks is trying to make with the beans? "The Bean Eaters" is clearly not a love poem the reader doesn't see the couple as two separate individuals or in relation to anyone else, such as grandchildren. Why do you think Brooks chose to portray the couple this way? What is the relationship Brooks is emphasizing in the poem? Look at the list of things in the couple's home in the last stanza. What does each of these objects say about the couple? For example, what does it mean that an elderly couple have dolls in their house? The title "The Bean Eaters" is probably a reference to Vinc ent Van Gogh's famous painting The Potato Eaters, which also depicts a poor family eating dinner. The Potato Eaters takes place in the Netherlands in the 1880s, while "The Bean Eaters" was written in the 1950s in Chicago. How do you think the life of the couple in the poem is different from the lives of farmers eating potatoes? Are there details in the poem or qualities of the poem that support your ideas? Now that you have broken down all of the elements of the poem, read it again and let go of the meanings. How does the overall poem make you feel? What impression are you left with? "Travel" by Edna St. Vincent Millay From The Best Poems Ever, Ed. Edric S. Mesmer, p. 63 In Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem, the speaker of the poem is very aware of the train that is traveling by while he or she goes about daily life. While not strictly tied to a formal poetic
Page 5 of 5 structure, Millay's poem has formal elements. The abab cdcd efef rhyme scheme is consistent throughout the poem and echoes a sonnet, and each stanza is a complete sentence with proper punctuation. However, she does use contractions, which give the language of the poem a conversational feel. In the first stanza, the speaker of the poem reflects t hat although the railroad track is far away and "the day is loud with speaking," he or she hears the train whistle every time a train goes by. The speaker still hears the train and sees its cinders while he or she is in bed at night. There is a strong contrast between the night that is "still" and the description of the train, with its engine noise and fire. Although Millay's language creates concrete images, the reader is left wondering, can the speaker really see the train if it is so far away? Does the speaker see it only in imagination? In the third stanza, the speaker notes how he or she has good friends, but this still doesn't stop the speaker from thinking about trains and traveling. The final line of the stanza, "no matter where it's going" (referring to the train), is open ended and leaves plenty of room in the reader's imagination for where the train might be headed, just as the speaker might dream about all the places the train could be going. Compare and contrast the descriptions of the train with the descriptions of the speaker's life. What are some of the contrasts Millay sets up in the poem? Millay traveled quite a bit in her life, and one interpretation of the poem is that it is literally about someone with the "travel bug," but what other meanings could the poem have? What might the train represent? How does the poem relate to the theme of continuity and change? Have you ever thought about traveling when you wanted a change? What represents travel for you? A car? An airplane? A skateboard? Re read the poem, out loud if you can, and listen to the sounds it makes. Can you hear the sound of the train in the rhythms of the poem?