The Exploration of the Pictorial Power of the Poem

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Abstract: E. E. Cummings is one of the most well-known poets in the U.S. in the 20th century. He is also a well-known painter, and sometimes he uses a poem to describe a picture. This paper tends to explore the pictorial power of one of his poems.

Key words: Pictorial Power ; E. E. Cummings; poem language

1 Introduction

Cummings was a famous poet in the 20th century in the U.S. because of his unconventional use of typography, super-realism, and sometimes scandalous choice of words and topics. Some of the titles of his poems are very strange, and the lines of his poems are often uneven. He also tries to be unique in grammar and terms, and arbitrary in division, unusual in punctuation. Except emphasis, his poems are not capitalized; even “I” and his own name are lowercased.

Under the unique form, He showed remarkable lyric talent and artistic sensitivity. He is adept in the use of slangs and dialects of the streets and lanes. The sociality of his poems has been enhanced, compared with those of the same age, but the themes of his poems are not broad enough, lacking enough depth of thought.

As an American modernist poet, he is also a well-known painter, so he always tries to use poem to create an image and a picture, and use typography to “paint a picture” with some of his poems, in this way to make the impression and feeling of the readers more vivid. The experiments and trials he has taken are brand-new, strange, bold, and endless.

This poem is one of the most famous in Cummings. Not only because it is very short, it is very unique in form. Not only because it creates a picture in form, but the form and the content are very consistent. So this paper tries to have an exploration of the pictorial image of this poem and its content.

2 Analysis of the pictorial power of language

L(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

—By E. E. Cummings

The first impression comes to readers’ mind is this poem is laid out in a longitudinal way, besides just one line which visually makes readers have the feeling of loneliness. Generally, the poet wants to express the loneliness and sadness.

Transversely, the poem just has one sentence: “a leaf falls loneliness”. But the poet arranges it in a longitudinal way. Firstly, the first row just has two letters “l(a” which indicate the loneliness, in addition, pictorially speaking, “l(a” is very like a person who is very lonely. Secondly, in the third and the fourth rows, there are just two letters respectively “af and fa” which pictorially are very like a leaf falling in the wind, and increases the feeling of loneliness. Thirdly, in the fifth row, there are two letters “ll” which actually are very like the equal sign and emphasizes the loneliness. The “ll” is followed by “s)” which indicates loud sound. Even the sound of a falling leaf can be heard, and the quietness and loneliness are even further emphasized. Fourthly, in the seventh line, there are three letters “one” which means “single”, so it is very clever and wise for the poet to divide the poem into several parts to create the meaning of loneliness, and furthermore, “one” is followed by “1”, and visually, this letter “l” is like a lonely person and emphasizes the loneliness. Fifthly, the last line is “iness” which is the longest in the whole poem and indicates the quietness and stillness, and “ness” is the suffix of being.

In general, the poem itself is like a “1” which indicates the loneliness. The poet designed the image of the number “1” on purpose which signifies sorrow, sadness, and loneliness. The number “1” is very illustrative of loneliness. It has amazing interpretations. It could be “1” leaf falling, or one person watching one leaf falling… And all the pieces of images come together to set up a sad mood of one lonely person watching one leaf falling. How clever of Mr. Cummings! How wonderful that pictorial description is! Loneliness signifies one, and is like a leaf falling, which is a metaphor, and a very pictorial metaphor.

The whole poem is that “a leaf falls loneliness”. This poem signifies sorrow, sadness, in other words just loneliness and the number 1. It means one is loneliness and the loneliness is one, so Cummings purposely structured it to resemble the number one. By using the parentheses, the poet creates a picture and separates the initial letter which is very illustrative. Moreover, take the four lines as an example, “a leaf falls loneliness”, and by using the parentheses as a rhetorical device to locate this part in the middle to indicate the inside and the internal world of the poet is very lonely. So, externally, the poet creates the image of being lonely and sad, and internally, the poet is lonely just like the feeling of a leaf falling on loneliness. The parentheses can be used as an indication of the poet’s internal world.

In general, the poem is “a leaf falls loneliness”. Readers can even take different stops, for example “a leaf, falls loneliness”, or “a leaf falls, loneliness”, or “a, leaf, falls loneliness”, “a, leaf, falls, loneliness”, and all of the versions can create the image of loneliness and the image of autumn. On reading this poem, people can’t help thinking about the falling leaves of autumn, and experiencing the feeling of loneliness.

How to express the loneliness is the poet’s top concern, and then he uses a falling leaf. When it comes to a falling leaf, we can think of the loneliness of autumn, and psychologically, we readers can get the image of loneliness first. And then, the poet wants to express the loneliness by the division of words to create the pictorial loneliness. Moreover, the poet uses the parentheses as well to create the image of loneliness. The lower case of “L” and the numerical “1” are almost similar, so “loneliness” implies “1-one-1-ness”. This poem is very brief in form, but it is very rich in content. On the whole, the poem is very “thin” just like a number “1” which indicates the loneliness, concerning each line, it can embody the pictorial image of loneliness, and the parenthesis is used in the middle to indicate the internal world of the poet.

3 Conclusion

By what is mentioned above, the poem is externally, internally, pictorially and literally very successful and skilled in expressing the loneliness. This poem is a picture, and the picture is an expression of the poem. The poem and the picture are interweaved.

References

[1]Landles, Lain. “An Analysis of Two Poems by E. E. Cummings”. SPRING, the Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 10:31-43, 2001.

[2]区鉷.美国现代诗[M].广州：花城出版社，1988