275 Paper

Dillon Karichner

Carrie Seymore

Engl 275

31 October 2012

To Behold Beauty

In E.E Cummings poem, “I have never traveled, gladly beyond,” which was written in 1931, he expresses the theme the power of love. He does this through writing his poem in a lyrical fixed form, and providing the allusion for his love of his second wife in 1929 named Anne Barton, who is drawing him out after his father’s death. He shows this through describing how Anne draws him out of his emotional enclosure and how wondrous love is. He indicates this in lines six and seven, “your slightest look easily will unclose me/ though i have closed myself as fingers,” (pg 599). He also shows it through his figurative language and form in the poem. I believe he wrote this to show her his love during the time period since the economy was still dealing with the great depression.

E.E Cummings who is the speaker of his poem as can be seen with his lowercase I’s, uses a good amount of poetic devices to provide the theme he is trying to get across. The most common is the symbolism of the eyes, which acts as reference to the power she has, for example on page 599 line nineteen he provides the imagery and metaphor of the eyes as having a voice, “The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses.” Showing the power that her eyes has upon him for earlier he made a reference using a two similes “though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as spring opens, (touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose,” (pg 599 line 6-8), this indicates that even though he’s closed off she can open him back up for she is opening him up one finger at a time bringing his curiousness in the last line how something so precious holds so much power, backing up the theme of the power of love. To build upon this symbolism he also uses an implied metaphor such as the one on line two page 598, “your eyes have their silence:,” which when it is combined with line one, “somewhere i have never...