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in Just / Buffalo Bill’s / anyone lived in a pretty how town

in Just / Buffalo Bill’s / anyone lived in a pretty how town. e. e. cummings Presented by Rebecca Vita Revised by Cecilia H. C. Liu . e. e. cummings. Edward Estlin Cummings born in Cambridge, Massachusetts artist, playwright and novelist

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in Just / Buffalo Bill’s / anyone lived in a pretty how town

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  1. in Just / Buffalo Bill’s /anyone lived in a pretty how town e. e. cummings Presented by Rebecca Vita Revised by Cecilia H. C. Liu

  2. e. e. cummings • Edward Estlin Cummings • born in Cambridge, Massachusetts • artist, playwright and novelist • Known for typographic innovation, Cummings controlled both the look and the content of his poems. • ViVa 1931 • No actual titles • Love poetry

  3. About the poem“somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond” • Love • Power • The speaker • Ann Barton • Imagery: Human anatomy and nature contradictory • E. E. Cummings married three times. His first marriage to Elaine Orr (who left her husband for him) lasted only 6 months. His second marriage, to Ann Barton was a stormy, passionate one lasting only a few years. He at last met Marion Morehouse, an actress, model, and photographer, whom he married and lived with for the remaining 30 years of his life.

  4. In Just • Celebrates the arrival of spring from a children’s point of view. • Grouped with poems called “Chansons Innocentes” →Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience.”

  5. Pattern • 3 regular stanzas: 3 quatrains + 2 refrains • Dwindled pattern • Marbles • Hopscotch • 4-1-4-1-4-1-4-1-4

  6. Symbol • Children → spring time • Pan: god of music and play; god of the goatherds and shepherds. • Christian conception: devil/shepherd.

  7. Long vowels: “lame balloonman,” “far and wee…” • Wide spacing and line-breaks: 1. dramatic pauses 2. distance: the space of far and wee (“far and wide” or “far and away”) eddiandbill / bettyandisbel: suggest a child’s running of words together breathlessly. • balloonMan: naïve qualification by the speaker.

  8. “Buffalo Bill’s” • Buffalo Bill: a famous wild west showman in America. • The word “defunct” instead of “dead.” (l. 2) • The speaker admires Buffalo Bill’s skill in shooting and his good looks. (ll. 6, 8) • “how do you like your blueeyed boy”(l. 10) a sarcasm. • The death cancels Buffalo Bill’s skill and erases his good looks. • A self-portrait of a disdainful speaker. • Be unaware of a logical flaw in his reasoning and the irony of his situation.

  9. anyone lived in a pretty how town • By using contrast between characters’ daily lives in “the pretty how town” (suggesting modern society), cummings satirizes the fight against individual by society. • Characters: (3 groups) * anyone, noone spiritual values * someones, everyones social values * children  between the individualists and the conformists

  10. Contrast between the two groups • the bell: melody-like vs. sounds only • time: seasons vs. days (clock) • live happily vs. live reluctantly • care vs. indifference • life vs. death • spiritual values vs. social values

  11. The speaker is also worried that the children might become conformistswhen they grow up. • Playful tone: anyone, noone, someones, everyones. • Thecontrastbetween those who prefer individual spiritual values and the self-interested who prefer earthen values.

  12. Works Cited • E.E. Cummings (1894-1962). The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Shorter 5th Edition. New York: Norton, 1999. 2112-20. • Picture sources: <http://www.burbankymca.org/images/jumprope-copy.jpg>. <http://www.exposingmyself.net/2005/bag-o-marbles/>. <http://www.geocities.com/ SoHo/8454/eecs.jpg>. <http://www.streetplay.com/photos/images/hopscotch.jpg>.

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