Cummings the Lyric Poet:
Reading The ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ with ShakespeareÕs Romeo and
Juliet
In his studio at Patchin Place in New York, E. E. Cummings read and loved a book by John Cowper Powys called Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions. CummingsÕ biographer, Charles Norman, found the book filled with notes and comments by Cummings, and reprints a passage from it in The Magic Maker, writing that it is heavily scored by Cummings. The passage Cummings marked in Powys includes the following:
Ò ÔNo one can read Shakespeare with direct and simple enjoyment without discovering in his plays a quite definite and personal attitude towards lifeÉHe is a sad and passionate artist, using his bitter experiences to intensify his insight, and playing with his humours and his dreams to soften the sting of that brutish reality which he was doomed to unmaskÉ[T]he personal mood which emerges as his final attitude isÉthe perfectly natural man confronting the universeÉThe natural man, in his unsophisticated hours, takes the universe at its surface value, neither rejecting the delicate compensations, nor mitigating the cruelty of the grotesque farce. The natural man accepts what is givenÕ Ó (Norman 195-196).
Cummings himself said, Ò ÔShakespeareÕs tragedies never end in gloomÑthere is always an upward surge, of life to be lived,Õ Ó and Romeo and Juliet he called Ò Ôan incredible tour de force, the greatest love story ever writtenÕ Ó (Norman 196). Moved by PowysÕ words about William Shakespeare, Cummings wrote his own love poetry in which man comes face to face with the universe.
As a modernist poet, E. E. Cummings is celebrated for his technical advances and frank treatment of subject matter, often employing innovative versions of traditional forms. While he is known popularly for his inventive punctuation, many critics have also discussed CummingsÕ nature poetry. Norman Friedman, in his important E. E. Cummings: The Art of His Poetry, characterizes CummingsÕ poems as often Òassociating love, as a subject, with the landscape, the seasons, the times of day, and with time and deathÓ (28). In his first collection of poetry, Tulips and Chimneys, Cummings tackles the nature of romantic relationships in three series of sonnets. The second series, ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ explores an idealized romance that has ended. Since CummingsÕ nature poetry developed in sophistication over the span of his career, his early sonnets are often considered too amateurish to study in detail. Friedman, in E. E. Cummings: The Growth of a Writer mentions the ÒUnrealitiesÓ only briefly, identifying the poems as dealing with Òidealized romantic loveÓ and with the seasons (41). I believe that the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ are underappreciated poems that follow a sophisticated narrative structure and that lay the foundation for CummingsÕ later nature poetry. In the tradition of classical lyric poetry, Cummings uses nature imagery to characterize a doomed love affair.
Nature in Cummings defines the nature of man, as human action and emotion reflect the changes of the seasons, the blooming and withering of plants, and the coming of daylight or darkness. The inevitability of natural events suggests that the human activities to which they are tied are destined; fate plays a role in charactersÕ lives. This is essentially an ecocritical perspective: CummingsÕ sonnets share in the Òfundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting it and affected by itÓ (Glotfelty 1). A rose that symbolizes a love affair suggests beauty and romance, but also delicacy; the relationship withers as the roseÕs petals deepen and wilt. A man contemplating the coming of autumn sees the dwindling feeling in his loverÕs eyes, but as winter ends, the budding trees presage renewed hope.
CummingsÕ use of hyperbole, along with the theme of love and the sonnet form, connect him to the European poetic tradition (Ruiz 77). Certainly his use of nature imagery dates back to much earlier literature; indeed, using nature as a mirror of humanity is a technique employed by classical Greek minstrels and contemporary ecopoets alike. Pashpa N. Parekh refers to this relationship between man and nature as ÒinteranimationÓ (64). Cummings, she says, reacts Òagainst an increasingly technological Western societyÓ by turning Òto nature as did the Romantics in the nineteenth centuryÓ (Parekh 63). Cummings pays homage to classical poetry in the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ by employing modified versions of the traditional fourteen-line form, archaic expressions, and embedded language to explore themes that are both universal and contemporary. I have chosen to discuss the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ alongside Romeo and Juliet because the two works relate thematically as well as stylistically. Cummings and Shakespeare share many nature metaphors, but the two works are also both narratives of ill-fated love. Comparing the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ to Romeo and Juliet allows for an appreciation of the poetic tradition from which Cummings draws his imagery, while also providing a basis for defining CummingsÕ particular nature apparatus.
Although the version of Tulips and Chimneys that was originally published in 1923 contained only six ÒSonnetsÑUnrealities,Ó in the original 1922 manuscript edition contains eighteen poems. The numbering of the sonnets in CummingsÕ original eighteen ÒUnrealitiesÓ (the order of which was altered by his 1925 editors, the same ones who, presumably, also cut twelve of the poems) and the unifying function of several nature motifs suggest that this is the story of one love affair, told by a speaker who looks back on it through the lens of fate. The relationship, though begun with the fervent optimism of springtime, like the inevitable death of plant life in the fall, was doomed to failure. The ÒunrealitiesÓ here are death and dreams, both of which serve as dominant metaphors in the poems.
In order to characterize the traditional milieu in which Cummings places the ÒUnrealities,Ó I will first provide a brief overview of the ways in which nature defines ill-fated love in Romeo and Juliet. ShakespeareÕs nature imagery works in tandem with dream imagery to assemble the structure of fate that drives the plot of the tragedy. There is a cyclical motif in which a new emotion replaces an old, reminiscent of the changing of the seasons. The play begins with a brawl between the Capulets and Montagues of Verona. Romeo Montague, lovesick over Rosaline, is encouraged by his buddies to go to the CapuletsÕ party. Romeo and Juliet Capulet meet, fall in love, and marry the next morning. Tybalt, JulietÕs cousin, challenges Romeo but ends up killing RomeoÕs best friend, Mercutio; Romeo retaliates by slaying Tybalt and is banished from Verona. In order to avoid marrying Paris, and to escape with Romeo to Mantua, Juliet fakes her own death. Romeo, thinking his lover dead, poisons himself, and Juliet, in turn, commits suicide. The tragedy ends with the reconciliation of the Capulets and Montagues.
Friar Laurence, as the only character who serves as confidante to both Romeo and Juliet, acts as a driving force in the play. When we first meet him in Act II, he is busy tending his herb garden, philosophizing on the cycle of nature: ÒThe earth thatÕs natureÕs mother is her tomb,/ What is her burying grave, that is her wombÓ (2.3.10-11). He goes on to speak of flowers, saying,
ÒTwo opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbsÑgrace and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plantÓ (2.3.28-31).
For Friar Laurence, the emotions of mankind are analogous to the powers of flowers: just as the same plant can produce both a healing medicine and a fatal poison, the nature of man is equally fickle. Since sexual climax is a symbolic death, this means that if earthly desire outweighs honorable (or spiritual) intentions, disaster inevitably results. In Act IV, Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion (presumably made from plants) that will place her in a death-like state, a well-intentioned plan with disastrous consequences. Flowers, which can be either a symbol of purity or fertility, marriage or death, represent the way in which love follows nature in Romeo and Juliet.
As Jonathan Goldberg observes, the birth of RomeoÕs fascination with Juliet marks the death of his feelings for Rosaline as he exchanges one for the other (275). When Juliet speaks of Romeo from her balcony, she makes the famous claim that ÒThat which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweetÓ (2.2.45-46). Romeo has replaced his former Rosaline (a modified spelling of ÒroseÓ) with a different name, Juliet, as the object of his romantic desire. This exchange echoes the death and rebirth of life to which the Friar refers in his soliloquy
Shakespeare sets up the idealized nature of Romeo and JulietÕs doomed romance by using language that is unearthly, setting the expectations of the lovers above nature. In the Prologue to Act I, the protagonists are Òstar-crossed loversÓ (6). According to David Lucking, this, ÒÉin the final analysis, is their being inescapably in thrall to that conception of time which takes the revolutions of the celestial bodies as its cosmic sanction and ultimate standard of referenceÓ (115-116). The loversÕ dialogue echoes this proclamation, infused with celestial imagery. Romeo, especially, attempts to subjectify time through language, his desire seizing imaginative control over the natural order (Lucking 120). When Romeo woos Juliet on her balcony, it is the middle of the night, yet she is the dawn for him, her eyes so bright that birds would start to sing before it is their time. Juliet also tries to manipulate time, but more cautiously. After the loversÕ first night together, which follows RomeoÕs banishment, she says ÒIt is not yet near day./ It was the nightingale and not the larkÓ (3.5.1-2), but soon accedes to RomeoÕs departure when she realizes the danger of his lingering. This failure on the part of the lovers to adhere to the laws of the natural world foreshadows the doom that will befall them.
From the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, love and death are related. Dreams presage not only the inevitability of the loversÕ meeting, but also their deaths. The Prologue to Act I names the subject of the play Òdeath-marked loveÓ (9), and so, ÒWith the loversÕ deaths announced from the start, audience attention is directed to the eventsÕ fateful courseÓ establishing Òthe play as a Ôtragedy of fate.ÕÓ Shakespeare follows in the Petrarchan spirit in structuring Romeo and Juliet as a tragically fatal and idealized romance (Davis 57). Before he and his buddies crash the CapuletÕs party, Romeo says, ÒÉmy mind misgives/ Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,/ Shall bitterly begin this fearful dateÓ (1.4.112-114), foreshadowing his meeting and subsequent relationship with Juliet. The most famous dream images in Romeo and Juliet are probably those in MercutioÕs Queen Mab speech. Mab, the ruler of dreams, brings out dreamersÕ benign desires. Then suddenly Mercutio speaks of sex: Mab is Òthe hag, when maids lie on their backs,/ That presses them and learns them first to bearÓ (1.4.96-97). This shift in tone from whimsical to lewd mirrors the mercurial affair in which Romeo is about to become involved. While dreams play an integral role in setting the tragic tone of Romeo and Juliet, the preponderance of references to death drives the plot toward its fateful conclusion. Both Romeo and Juliet tell Friar Laurence they would prefer death to being apart from each other after RomeoÕs banishment from Verona, and threaten to kill themselves violently in his cell. They do, of course, ultimately commit suicide. All of these death references can be traced back to the FriarÕs speech about the powers of plants in Act II. Death brings about rebirth; all living things have the ability to be both positive and negative. The cycle of Romeo and JulietÕs love affair is reflected in the natural world.
While the natural course of Romeo and JulietÕs affair is clear to the audience but not to the lovers themselves, the speaker in CummingsÕ ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ uses nature imagery to consciously construct a romantic relationship he views in hindsight. The emotions of the speaker in the ÒUnrealitiesÓ are incarnated intuitively in the physical world. Richard S. Kennedy, who has divided CummingsÕ body of poems into three principle styles, identifies as mythic such early poems as the ÒUnrealities.Ó The poetry of this style takes an idealized approach to mythic materials, and is concerned with the cycles of nature or the essential rhythms of human life (Kennedy 195). The affair that CummingsÕ speaker recounts shows idealized love to be the stuff of mythÑhyperbolic, emblematic of the nature of mankind, but unreal. Guy Rotella points to the destructiveness of the cycles of nature in Cummings, but this is not necessarily negative. Attention to natural process leads to an awareness of time, which is potentially a threat to love and beauty (Rotella 284). Rotella concludes that natureÕs acceptance of time and death permits growth. (285). CummingsÕ lover is ultimately hopeful in the face of the end of his love affair.
The ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ do not follow a linear narrative; rather, the poems tell the story of an ill-fated romance through memory and metaphor. The speaker and his lost love met at the end of another of his love affairs, elevated their views of each other so as to idealize their love, but ultimately did not see their relationship in the same way. In the end, the speaker resolutely vows to remain hopeful about love. I will focus my exploration of the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ on five poems, numbers I, V, VII, IX, and XVIII from the 1922 manuscript edition of Tulips and Chimneys, not only because they are among the most dense, but because they contain poetic conventions that compare readily to classical poetry in general, and to Romeo and Juliet in particular. This selection examines CummingsÕ original ordering, although of these five poems only one, number XVIII, appeared in the original edition of the book published in 1923 as the fifth poem. I take the manuscript to represent CummingsÕ original sense of natureÕs reflection on the tragedy of lost love.
The first poem places the series alongside Romeo and Juliet and sets the speakerÕs doomed love affair in his memory. Just as Shakespeare introduces his drama with the end of the romance, Cummings begins his sonnet sequence at the end of the love affair.
I.
and what were roses. Perfume?for i do
forgetÉor mere Music mounting unsurely
twilight
but here were something more maturely
childish, more beautiful almost than you.
Yet if not flower, tell me softly who
be these haunters of dreams always demurely
halfsmiling from cool faces, moving purely
with muted steps, yet somewhat proudly tooÑ
are they not ladies, ladies of my dreams
justly touching roses their fingers whitely
live by?
or better,
queens, queens laughing lightly
crowned with far colors,
thinking very much
of nothing and whom dawn loves most to touch
wishing by willows, bending upon streams?
(Tulips 130)
The first poem loosely follows the structure of an Italian sonnet. The lines approximate iambic pentameter, while the rhyme scheme ends with a cddeec sestet instead of the traditional Italian cdecde. The poem is not spaced in the usual manner; indeed, the fourteen rhymed lines actually appear on eighteen typed lines, in seven stanzas of varying length. The sonnet is comprised of two short sentences followed by three long sentences. The spaces between lines seem to indicate a stream-of-consciousness on the part of the speaker. Rather than a static account of one thought or event, Sonnet I is an associative description of a memory. The two short sentences at the beginning of the poem represent the seeds of the reverie, and both are nature images. CummingsÕ use of the universal symbol of the rose places his love language in the idiom of classical love poets, but he employs inventive technique in Sonnet I. The speakerÕs multiple definitions for the rose and for the haunters of dreams make his emotions seem ambiguous. The word ÒPerfumeÓ follows a caesura and serves as a question that is itself questioned: Òfor I do/ forgetÓ follows immediately without a space between the question mark and the Òf.Ó The beginning of the sestet does not mark a shift in thought, as is often done in Italian sonnets; rather, the language of the final six lines moves further into the realm of fantasy, as the speaker contemplates a ÒbetterÓ description of the dreams that haunt him.
The first four words of the poem, ordinarily a question, are written here as the end of a declarative statement, indicating that action has occurred before the events depicted in the poems. The verb ÒwereÓ sets the time of the poem in the past, as the speaker ponders the meaning of what used to be roses. The ÒPerfumeÓ that is the speakerÕs first definition for the roses is an alluring substance derived from nature. This designation for roses leads directly to the speakerÕs former lover, whom he associates with allure and mystique. The speakerÕs other explanation for his memory of roses is ÒMusic.Ó Since it is irregularly capitalized, ÒMusicÓ suggests divinity, perhaps the sound of celestial choirs. This seems to indicate the dreamlike, idealized nature of the speakerÕs feelings for his lover. Yet the music is Òmounting unsurely,Ó indicative of the speakerÕs reluctance to trust in his dreams.
ÒTwilight,Ó appearing alone on a line of type, indicates that this reverie recounts the beginning of the end of the speakerÕs romantic relationship. The setting of ÒtwilightÓ to the left of the subsequent line creates a visual Òstep,Ó making the words below it appear to be the result of the hazy acuity allowed by twilight. The ÒhereÓ that is Òsomething more maturely/ childish, more beautiful almost than youÓ is the realm of perfume and roses, the speakerÕs romanticized view of love and his lover. The speaker acknowledges that this view, while attractive, is not equal to the lover herself.
The identities of the Òhaunters of dreamsÓ like the meaning of roses, is ambiguous to the speaker. They seem to be women who, Òdemurely halfsmiling from cool facesÉtouching roses their fingers whitely live by,Ó see roses as forbidden passion, a natural force they try to resist, wanting to rise above natural instinct like queens and to remain pure. But the neologism ÒhalfsmilingÓ characterizes them as essentially unhappy, putting up the appearance of piety cautiously, but proudly. It would seem that the speaker has had a succession of lovers who he has viewed with idealism. The idealized lovers of his dreams are not his real lover, but a romantic reincarnation of what their relationship might have been. Yet the idealized view of love appears to be ÒqueensÓ in the speakerÕs dreams, thus viewed by him as powerful and able to control his actions. The speakerÕs lover is ultimately placed above the idealized lover, as this idealized notion of love is not as beautiful as she; he prefers his mature understanding of the flaws of his lover and their relationship. Reality, based in nature, is beautiful to him, even if perceiving love for what it is causes pain.
The speaker is one Òwhom dawn loves most to touch.Ó He moves forward after the end of one relationship onto the next. He does so with the benefit of hindsight. The ÒwillowsÓ by which he wishes represent the enduring strength of nature, while the ÒstreamsÓ upon which he bends seem to signify the tears and sorrow he is eager to wash away as he moves forward onto a new romance.
The roses in this sonnet recall Romeo and JulietÕs rose. The speakerÕs view of his lover, like RomeoÕs, is associated with his idealized vision, but also delicate; his passion for her can fade and be replaced by feelings for another lover, like Rosaline is replaced by Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Queen Mab, the mythical lady who controls dreams in MercutioÕs conception of them, metaphorically relates to the queens in CummingsÕ speakerÕs dreams. His ladies Òhaunt,Ó and so have power over the speaker to reveal his desires. The speaker wants pure, idealized love, but he knows that, like the ladies in MabÕs dreams, women are susceptible to sexual desire.
In Sonnet V, Cummings describes love using his second ÒUnrealityÓÑdeath.
V.
when my sensational moments are no more
unjoyously bullied of vilest mind
and sweet uncaring earth by thoughtful war
heaped wholly with high wilt of human rindÑ
when over hate has triumphed darkly love
and the small spiritual cry of spring
utters a striving flower,
just where strove
the droll god-beasts
do thou distinctly bring
thy footsteps, and the rushing of thy deep
hair and the smiting smile didst love to use
in other days (drawing my Mes from sleep
whose stranger dreams thy strangeness must abuseÉ.)
Time being not for us, purple roses were
sweeter to thee
perchance to me deeper.
(Tulips 134)
Sonnet V follows the traditional Shakespearean rhyme
scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/
gg. The diction is often archaic, with Òthou,Ó Òthy,Ó Òthee,Ó and Òdidst,Ó echoing lyric poets of the past. The poem is one sentence, an extended metaphor that again compares love to roses. The caesuras after Òrind,Ó Òflower,Ó and ÒabuseÓ break the sentence into four sections, each recalling a different quality of the rose. Cummings does not separate the quatrains into separate stanzas; instead, his spacing of lines allows for multiple interpretations as one line may be read as the end of one idea and the beginning of another. The poem itself may be read on two levels.
On the literal level, Sonnet V is an apostrophe to Mother Nature. When the speaker dies, he leaves the Òsweet uncaring earth,Ó with all of its human drama, behind. The speaker understands that after his death, the metaphorical winter, spring will come, bringing new life and hope to those who have survived him. He connects himself back to this cycle in the last quatrain, as nature is said to bring her Òsmiting smile didst love to use/ in other days,Ó indicating that the speaker has witnessed natureÕs destructive force. The final couplet presents a sort of turn in thought, in the classic style of ShakespeareÕs sonnets. ÒTime,Ó or the passage of the seasons, causes changes in human relationships. The roses that go from red to purple as they wilt are ÒsweetÓ to nature, since they will nourish earthÕs soil after they die. But to the speaker, the wilting roses symbolize the ÒdeeperÓ understanding of timeÕs perpetuity and its effect on humanity.
Read as part of the speakerÕs narrative of doomed love, Sonnet V characterizes the difference between the lovers using nature imagery. The speaker characterizes the death of a romance as the time Òwhen my sensational moments are no more/ unjoyously bullied of vilest mind.Ó While with his lover, he was aware of his senses, more noticeably human, but also susceptible to negative thoughts about the future of the relationship. He equates the death of his romance with the aftermath of war, the results of which is an earth Òheaped wholly with high wilt of human rind.Ó The word ÒwiltÓ is usually associated with plants, and flowers in particular. The speaker seems to be including himself among the empty shells of spurned lovers who mimic dead flowers. Yet a ÒloveÓ allows for the renewal of these people as Òthe small spiritual cry of spring/ utters a striving flower.Ó The love comes Òdarkly,Ó which indicates that the hope of new love comes unseen, as a new bud appears inexplicably on a plant that has been left for dead. The spurned lovers will find new love as spring follows winter. Humans are equated with other animals, the Òdroll god-beasts,Ó whose lives also follow the cycle of nature.
If we take the ÒthouÓ in the final quatrain to indicate that the speaker directly addresses his lover, we see that she is described using images similar to those used in the first two quatrains. The archaic second person pronoun places the lover among those described in lyric poetry of the past, while at the same time giving her a sort of mythic quality. Her ÒfootstepsÓ are analogous to the ÒsmallÉcry of spring,Ó while her hair is ÒdeepÓ and her smile is Òsmiting.Ó It would seem that the speakerÕs lover came into his life like a rose, just as he was getting over another lover: beautiful but also potentially harmful, as a rose is lovely but thorny. The speakerÕs lover brought him back to life from ÒsleepÓ with her Òstrangeness,Ó her alluring promise of a new and different love. The speaker calls this idealized view of their romance Òdreams.Ó Referring to the title of the sonnet series, the speaker again places his lost romance in the realm of Òunreality;Ó it was built upon idealistic thoughts and feelings.
The final couplet summarizes the ultimate cause of the romanceÕs failure, providing a turn of thought: the speaker and his lover viewed their love differently, the passage of time marking the end of their relationship. The capitalization of ÒTimeÓ seems to personify it; time is a character that influences the other characters in the poems. As the relationship developed over time, or became ÒpurpleÓ in the manner of a maturing rose, the speakerÕs lover, like Mother Nature, saw sweetness. The speaker himself, however, had a ÒdeeperÓ understanding of the relationship; that it, like all living, blossoming things in nature, would ultimately wither and die.
Time is equally troublesome for Romeo and JulietÕs relationship. They meet just as JulietÕs parents are readying her to marry Paris. JulietÕs cousin challenges Romeo just after his wedding to Juliet. Romeo misses JulietÕs awakening from her potion-induced coma by minutes. The young lovers act rashly, without taking time to think over the consequences of their actions. ShakespeareÕs emphasis on time in Romeo and Juliet underscores the theme of fate in the play. The loversÕ choices are at odds with the timing of the universe around them, leading directly to the tragedy. CummingsÕ personification of the relentless forward thrust of time similarly makes it an actor in his narrative, inextricably linking the speaker and his lover to uncontrollable fate.
Sonnet VII repeats the earth and cosmic motifs to further develop the theme of reality versus fantasy.
VII.
O Thou to whom the musical white spring
offers her lily inextinguishable,
taught by thy tremulous grace bravely to fling
Implacable deathÕs mysteriously sable
robe from her redolent shoulders,
Thou from whose
feet reincarnate song suddenly leaping
flameflung, mounts, inimitably to lose
herself where the wet stars softly are keeping
their exquisite dreamsÑO Love! upon thy dim
shrine of intangible commemoration,
(from whose faint close as some grave languorous hymn
pledged to illimitable dissipation
unhurried clouds of incense fleetly roll)
i spill my bright incalculable soul.
(Tulips 136)
This poem, like Sonnet V, follows the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet. In six stanzas and two sentences, the speaker emotionally celebrates his place in the natural universe, using the motifs of flowers, stars, dreams, and perfume. The ÒThouÓ of the first line seems to be addressed again to Mother Nature, the supernatural force that controls the natural world and serves as the respected ruler of all living things. The sonnet is literally an ode to the beauty of the natural order. It is a system in whichÒmusical white spring,Ó takes Òher lily inextinguishableÓ from Òredolent shouldersÓ of the earth. The earth allows Òmusic,Ó meaning beauty and joy, or perhaps emotions, to be reborn with the renewal of life in springtime.
Metaphorically, this ÒThouÓ is the speakerÕs lover, and he addresses her once again using a pronoun from classical poetry. This is a cue that the speaker describes an idealized love; although their affair is over, his former lover assumes mythic importance. The offered lily is beauty, but also the loverÕs sexual availability, given to the speaker at the expense of her spiritual purity. The speakerÕs lover ignited his passion, but the pair were torn apart by the unreasonableness of their expectations; the passion got lost in lofty dreams.
CummingsÕ speakerÕs use of cosmic imagery here calls to mind Romeo and JulietÕs dialogue. As Juliet waits for RomeoÕs approach on their wedding night, she soliloquizes nervously about losing her virginity, then fantasizes about RomeoÕs body becoming stars after his death. CummingsÕ Òwet starsÓ are similar to JulietÕs view of Romeo after the consummation of their love. It is, however, the male speaker of the sonnet who makes this claim, and he acknowledges that his lover Òlose[s]Ó herself as she elevates him above earth and to the realm of heaven and dreams. She, too, had an idealized view of him. The speakerÕs lover, like Juliet, allowed herself to Òdie,Ó to become spiritually impure, for him, and so the speaker worships her Òdim shrine,Ó as Romeo did JulietÕs after JulietÕs physical death.
Even as the shrine is the memory of his lover, it is also the place where the speakerÕs hope is reborn, where Òsome brave languorous hymnÓ will eventually restore his Òincalculable soul.Ó CummingsÕ speaker is conscious of the possibilities of new love that come each spring. The soul has an infinite capacity for renewal , reflected in the inherent optimism of the passage of time in nature. Destruction gives way to new life. The lower-case ÒiÓ used to identify the speaker generalizes him into an everyman; his view applies to all humanity.
Sonnet IX, which looks the most conventional of all the sonnet of the series, seems to be the central poem of the narrative, stating outright the speakerÕs view of nature as it relates to human relationships.
IX.
this is the garden: colours come and go,
frail azures fluttering from nightÕs outer wing
strong silent greens serenely lingering,
absolute lights like baths of golden snow.
This is the garden: pursed lips do blow
upon cool flutes within wide glooms, and sing
(of harps celestial to the quivering string)
invisible faces hauntingly and slow.
This is the garden. Time shall surely reap
and on DeathÕs blade lie many a flower curled,
in other lands where other songs be sung;
yet stand They here enraptured, as among
the slow deep trees perpetual of sleep
some silver-fingered fountain steals the world.
The structure of Sonnet IX is that of the traditional Italian sonnet, beginning with an octave and ending with two tercets. There is a shift in mood between the two sections from active to passive, but the poem seems to illustrate one central thought, in contrast to the other poems, which seem to arise out of stream-of-consciousness. The lines themselves, which appear as two solid blocks on the page, concretely demonstrate the importance and indelibility of the speakerÕs perception. ÒThis is the gardenÓ serves as a refrain, beginning three of the four sentences comprising the poem. Cummings uses alliteration in such lines as Òfrail azures flutteringÓ and Òstrong silent greensÓ to emphasize a musical quality. Many of the same motifs appear again, such as celestial music, flowers, time, and trees. These conventions connect the poem stylistically to classic lyric poetry.
Beginning the first line with a lower-case Òthis,Ó when later in the poem the word is capitalized, seems to bring us into the scene in medias res, as if the previous poems lead into Sonnet IX. ÒThisÓ seems to be the world of human action, as the garden to which it is compared is characterized by descriptors that apply to animate life: Òcolours [people] come and go,Ó Òfrail azures fluttering,Ó Òstrong silent greens.Ó The garden microcosmically illustrates the cycle of birth and death that controls the natural world and its human subset. Thematically, the poem is parallel to Father LaurenceÕs soliloquy over his herbs. However, if we take CummingsÕ poem in context with the others in the series, the garden also symbolizes the speakerÕs view of romance.
The ÒcoloursÓ that Òcome and goÓ are the lovers that perennially enter and exit peopleÕs lives. The lovers may be Òfrail,Ó coming from ÒnightÕs outer wing,Ó a place that brings to mind the speakerÕs idealized vision of the heavenly bodies. The lovers may simply be Òstrong silent greens serenely lingering,Ó people who are more steadfast, practical, and Òearthy.Ó These lovers are Òabsolute,Ó in contrast to the ones the speaker sees as idealized. The speaker then seems to particularize his imagery to one lover, the one with whom he experienced the doomed affair of the other poems. Her Òpursed lipsÓ indicate an attempt to control emotion, as she metaphorically blew on Òcool flutes within wide gloom.Ó The speakerÕs lover wanted to make the relationship better, but failed because she was not dealing strictly with reality, singing of Òharps celestial to the quivering string.Ó The Òquivering stringÓ may be taken to be the speaker,Ó who, aware of the inevitability of the end of the love affair, would not accept his loverÕs pleas of redemption. In the last line of the octave, the speaker returns to defining the Ògarden,Ó the action of which includes the coming and going of Òinvisible,Ó or uncharacterized, faces that haunt him, like the Òhaunters of dreamsÓ from Sonnet I.
In the sestet, a typographical caesura separates the third repetition of ÒThis is the garden,Ó from ÒTimeÓ in its personified form. Time, as an active entity, is connected with ÒDeathÕs bladeÓ where lies Òmany a flower curled.Ó The flower may be taken to mean the emotion of love, relating back to Sonnet I, or the spurned lovers themselves. The speaker generalizes this claim to include all people Òin other lands where other songs be sung.Ó Even far away from his conception of love as a garden, people unaware of the speakerÕs poetry are affected in the same way by love. Lovers near and far are elevated to a collective ÒTheyÓ who are ÒenrapturedÓ among the stalwart trees that symbolize the perpetuity of the cycle and humanityÕs inability to change it. Cummings provides further evidence of mankindÕs rapture with love by calling it a Òsilver-fingered fountainÓ that Òsteals the world.Ó Love is enticing in its promise of beauty and riches, but it is as ephemeral as the streams of water that flow from a fountain.
The final poem in the series solidifies the speakerÕs optimism with a stalwart declaration of strength amid temporal nature.
XVIII.
a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think i too have known
autumn too long
(and what have you to say,
wind wind windÑdid you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
O crazy daddy
of death dance cruelly for us and start
the last leaf whirling in the final brain
of air!)Let us as we have seen see
doomÕs integrationÉÉ..a wind has blown the rain
away and the leaves and the sky and the
trees stand:
the trees stand. The trees,
suddenly wait against the moonÕs face.
(Tulips 147)
The sonnet follows the Shakespearean rhyme scheme, with a variation in the final two lines, which do not rhyme. This seems to suggest that the story does not come to a stop at the end of the sonnet series; instead, the poem is left open, in a circular fashion that mirrors the theme of cyclical nature. ÒThe trees standÓ appears three times, serving as the dominant image in the poem; this phrase, along with the word Òwind,Ó mark the contrast between natureÕs changeability and the speakerÕs determination
Wind in this poem represents the natural force that brought the speakerÕs love affair to an end. The force came in and took the good with the bad: the rain (complications), the sky (the Òheavens,Ó or the loversÕ unrealistic views of each other), and the leaves (their attempts to renew their love), leaving only the bare tree, representing the speakerÕs bare soul. The wind is associated with autumn, the inevitable demise of living things, including the doomed love affair.
The second stanza is a sort of prayer to the wind, as if the speaker is on intimate terms with nature. He asks the wind, a destructive force, if it has a ÒpetalÓ from Òdumb summer,Ó indicating that the lush time of year, when the speakerÕs passion is at its height, is a precursor to death. The lush petals of summer that exist as silent bystanders during the love affair ironically nourish the windÕs destructive force, leading the speaker to call the wind Òcrazy daddy of death.Ó While the speaker was enjoying the summer of his romance, his pleasures were the seeds of the romanceÕs demise, of ÒdoomÕs integration.Ó
CummingsÕ speaker acknowledges that the factors that led to the end of the romance were inevitable as part of the natural order that imbues organisms with both life and death. He echoes Friar Laurence with the petals that represent both beauty and devastation: the same plant may be used as both a healing medicine and a deadly poison, to decorate a wedding or a casket. The speaker, as a survivor of the metaphorical windstorm that ended his romance, stands as a living monument, one of many trees that Òwait against the moonÕs face.Ó CummingÕs speaker looks heavenward for spiritual strength as he waits for emotional renewal. For Romeo, the moon is a jealous woman who pales in comparison to Juliet, a perception that results from his heavenly, idealized view of her. The moon is certainly erotic for Juliet, who hastens its arrival so she may consummate her marriage to Romeo. According to critic Martin Heusser, Cummings, too, Òendows the moon with subtle erotic featuresÓ (56). If this is so, the last line of this final sonnet in the series shows the speaker poised for a physical renewal as well as an emotional healing.
All that remains of Romeo and Juliet at the end of ShakespeareÕs tragedy are the stone statues erected in their honor by their grieving parents, an enduring reminder of their Òstar-crossed loveÓ and a symbol for the peace between the warring families that their deaths enable. The ÒrainÓ that CummingsÕ speaker feels is, like the complications Romeo and Juliet endure as secret lovers, an inevitable part of his doomed romance. However, in contrast to ShakespeareÕs lovers, he is left a living monument, as Òthe leaves and the sky and the/ trees stand.Ó The tree that has Òknown autumn too longÓ has the ability to sprout new leaves, to find love again. The speaker has seen ÒdoomÕs integration before,Ó evidenced by the lengthened ellipses that lead to a repetition of Òa wind has blown the rain/ away.Ó With the passage of time, the cycle will repeat again from its beautiful beginning.
In the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealities,Ó one event in nature brings about another, often influencing human activity, in a perpetual cycle of cause-and-effect. The relationships between people work within this ecological structure. CummingsÕ lovers are destined to part because of situations in which they participate, but that they do not actively control. The moon inspires sexual desire, but also jealousy; this desire leads to complications in the relationship. The moon, whose movements and influence are out of the control of humans, leads CummingsÕ speakerÕs romance toward doom. The inevitable cycles of nature align it with fate. Each event in nature that defines the loversÕ relationship leads it toward its tragic conclusion.
Reading the ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ as one manÕs version of a tragedy allows the poems to achieve the level of drama. The audience watching Romeo and Juliet knows that the lovers will die and their idealized romance will end--the prologue makes this explicit. If the play is to achieve dramatic impact, the audience must watch the play in order to ascertain how Romeo and Juliet go from blissful lovers to suicides, not simply that they do. Most Shakespearean tragedies have one protagonist whose fatal flaw leads to his demise. Hamlet is plagued by indecision; Julius Caesar by his ambition. Romeo and Juliet does not have this element. Not only are there two main characters, but the young protagonists act out of desperation, not as a result of intrinsic personality flaws. The notion of fate is intrinsic to Romeo and Juliet. If we do not know the loversÕ ultimate fate to be determined from the beginning, there is little in the play that necessitates its tragic ending. The FriarÕs plan to save Romeo and JulietÕs love, after all, might have worked. However, it is the nature images that establish Romeo and Juliet as doomed lovers and the play as a tragedy. The process by which the loversÕ relationship falls apart forms the plot of the play. Romeo and Juliet are na•ve players who are not conscious of their places in the cycle of life and death, of love lost and renewed. They die because they cannot fathom the spring that comes after the winter.
CummingsÕ speaker is consciously part of this same cycle. He is a mature person who has learned from his experience, and, like natureÕs passage of the seasons, he will move forward and love again. Romeo and Juliet ends with the loversÕ parents bemoaning their part in the deaths of their children, hopeful for a better relationship between the families. CummingsÕ sonnets offer a similar hope: the sunset of one love makes way for the dawn of another. The plot of the sonnet series is the journey to this emotional destination. The speaker begins his narrative in a state of confusion; he is unable to definitively characterize his past relationship. He knows only that dreams of ill-fated love still haunt him, and that his love affair is now dead. CummingsÕ ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ attempt to piece together the speakerÕs memories using images from the natural world to make concrete what is otherwise Òunreal,Ó a romantic situation the speaker does not fully understand. It is clear, however, that the speaker will continue to strive for love. While the dominant image in the first sonnet of the series is the delicate rose, the poems end with the stalwart tree.
The ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ should be read and appreciated for the ways in which they showcase CummingsÕ rich poetic knowledge and technical expertise. Cummings imbues his sonnets with classical nature motifs in order to align himself with traditional poets, but he varies the traditional sonnet form in order to reflect his ambiguous view of romance. Cummings, in the manner of PowysÕ description of Shakespeare, Òneither reject[s] the delicate compensations, nor mitigate[s] the grotesque farceÓ of love. Cummings is a Ònatural man [who] accepts what is given.Ó While he is famous for his inventive manipulation of language, his background in literature forms the foundation of his poems. The ÒSonnetsÑUnrealitiesÓ are important early examples of CummingsÕ nature poetry.
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