E. E. Cummings’s ‘‘Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town’’ rolls across the tongue like a preschool song. On one hand, the playful rhythm and sound complement nature’s sequences where life cycles rotate throughout the nine stanzas like a merry-go-round, life on a proverbial fast-paced playground. Masked, however, is life’s monotony and death’s certainty as…
Tag: Poetry
anyone lived in a pretty how town – Analysis
Several critics comment that cummings’s writings are transcendental in their overarching themes of individuality and spirituality (the very touchstones of transcendental thought). Certainly, ‘‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’’ is no exception. The poem’s themes of the passing of time and of mortality mirror the transcendentalist ethos of spirituality. Its focus on the individual…
anyone lived in a pretty how town – Modernism, Transcendentalism – Setting
Modernism Modernism is an artistic movement that began in the early twentieth century, reached its zenith during the 1920 and 1930s (coincidentally cummings’s most prolific years), and remained a prominent movement well into the middle of the century. Modernism was prominent in both literature and the visual arts, beginning in Europe and later making its…
anyone lived in a pretty how town – Literary Devices – Rhyme, Syntax, Assonance & Repetition
Repetition There are thirty-six lines in ‘‘anyone lived in a pretty how town,’’ and eight of them are repetitions of or variants on a previous line. These repeated lines have to do with the list of the seasons, the list of celestial bodies and precipitation, and the bells ringing throughout the town. All of these…
anyone lived in a pretty how town – Themes
Passage of Time One of the most prominent themes in ‘‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’’ is that of the passage of time. This is communicated in the thrice-repeated lists of seasons and of celestial bodies coupled with the rain. With one exception, each time the lists are repeated, the order in which they…
anyone lived in a pretty how town – Summary
Cummings’s ‘‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’’ consists of nine four-line stanzas. The poem is predominantly written in tetrameter, or lines consisting of four feet (each foot represents one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable). Stanza 1 The first line of the poem, which is also the poem’s title, introduces the character of Anyone…
Woman Work by Maya Angelou: Analysis
The definition of protest literature is fluid and varies according to perspective. For example, social critics could insist that protest literature must include a specific political purpose. A feminist critic may look to protest literature to promote (or avoid promoting) a gender bias. The deconstructionist who is concerned only with language and definition and not…
Woman Work by Maya Angelou – Literary Devices – Tone
Rhyme Rhyme is a technique that often lends a singsong quality to a poem. Angelou’s use of rhyme in much of her poetry is one aspect critics tend to criticize because they believe it makes her poetry sound juvenile. Angelou’s use of rhyme in the first 14 lines of ‘‘Woman Work,’’ however, is appropriate and…
Woman Work by Maya Angelou: Themes
Slavery Upon first read, ‘‘Woman Work’’ may seem like a poem written about any woman with a family to care for. Lines 11 and 14 clearly change that impression because most women in modern America do not cut (sugar) cane or pick cotton. These two chores indicate that the woman is a slave. Considered in…
Woman Work by Maya Angelou: Summary
Lines 1–14 This first stanza of ‘‘Woman Work’’ is the most important in the poem because it is here the reader could infer that the woman speaking is a slave. Lines 11 and 14 talk about crops that need tending. These are not just any crops, but those grown in the Deep South and traditionally…