Read the following E.E. cummings poem carefully, and then in a well-organized essay, analyze how cummings uses language to describe the setting as well as to convey mood and meaning.
In the uniquely constructed Anyone Lived In A Pretty How Town, E.E. Cummings uses abstract grammar, symbolism and free indirect speech to subjectively describe a story of “anyone” living in a “pretty how town” that conveys the poem’s mood and meaning.
The most distinctive and noticeable aspect of Anyone Lived In A Pretty How Town is its syntax. The author disregarded grammar throughout the entire poem in a way that made readers pay close attention to the content of the poem. Cummings states that “he sang his didn’t he danced his did”. This line is informing
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Cummings describes that the women and men in the pretty how town “sow their isn’t they reaped their same”. This is an allusion to Galatians 6:7 “for whatever a man sows, this he will so reap”. This is stating that the women and men put out in the world or do their “isn’t” and get back in return the same. The word “isn’t” gives a negative indentation of things have not been done or don’t exist. In other words, the women and men sow nothing and reap nothing in return. This line expresses the theme what goes around comes. Cummings also describes that the compassion of the female character expressing that “she laughed his joy she cried his grief”. Cummings used very few words to characterize the woman of the story informing readers that she was emotionally connected to “anyone” sharing in his ups and down.
Cummings used random and indirect repetition of the seasons to establish time. In the third line he states “spring summer autumn winter” and in line 11 “autumn winter spring summer”. Cummings switches the order of the months a third time in the last stanza creating the idea that time runs on an endless cycle. Cummings implements this change in the seasons order at random times in the poem to remind readers of the infinite quality of