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julielai  +  179994 Sat, 07 Jan 06 03:49 PM

Here's the poem:

http://www.palace.net/~llama/poetry/oldage

I have to admit: I care for neither the punctuation nor the word splitting.  The (, &, and word-splits just make the poem "cutesy". I prefer "in just-": http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/cummings/InJust.htm

But I know next to nothing about poetry. 

Do others find the poem effective? 

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Mister Micawber  +  180609 Mon, 09 Jan 06 01:13 PM

I'm not a fan of e.e. cummings, Julie-- because I don't understand what he's getting at, usually.  About these two particular poems, my reaction is that in just-  may be more attractive because of its playful coined images (mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful), which old age sticks does not have.  What the latter does hold for me is the ultra-simple staccato of the innate antipathy between youth and age.

But, no, I can't match up the parentheses to their mates either-- perhaps there's an on-line exegesis somewhere....

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julielai  +  180923 Tue, 10 Jan 06 01:28 AM

Thanks.  Just a silly question: How would you read the poems to demonstrate the unusual spellings and spacing?

e.g.

"bettyandisbel", "eddieandbill" or "gr
owing old"?  Would you speed up or slow down?

Thanks!

Mister Micawber  +  181084 Tue, 10 Jan 06 02:17 PM

Not silly, certainly, but probably unanswerable in the absolute.  I'm sure that every reader would take his own tack.  Myself, I'd read the boys' names and the girls' names much as we'd say them anyway-- and that is probably what e.e. intended:  Eddie 'n' Bill.  As for gr/owing:  I'd guess that e.e. wanted us to stretch it out a bit, is all... over two lines at least.

Anonymous, 2 yr 49 days ago
The open ended parentheses leads us back to the beginning where youth just keeps on growing old...age sticks. It is a never ending cycle and a beautiful poem.
Anonymous, 1 yr 279 days ago
what is this poem really about
Anonymous, 1 yr 238 days ago
I find this to be one of cummings' best poems. It's all about the conflict between adults and/or authority who set up rules and young people who rebel. Notice that everything that "old age" says is IN parentheses (signifying their stifling control) and everything that "youth" says is OUTSIDE of parenthese (signifying freedom). Much if what "old age" says begins with a capital (signifying authority) and everything "youth" says is in lower case. The split words give cummings a double meaning. For example, breaking up "Mustn't" in the fourth stanza into Must/ n't signifies both those things adults say we MUST do and those things they say we MUSTN'T do. Better yet, the last two lines break up the phrase "growing old" into gr/owing old signifying that not only do young people eventually grow older, they also OWE something to their elders who have set boundaries to keep them safe, help them mature, etc. This is cumming's point--youth may rebel against the restrictions "put up" by their elders (who were once rebellious youths themselves remember) but they are who they are in part because of what their elders have taught them. And they too will grow older, only to set rules and restrictions for their own children someday. How do we know this? Notice that that the last word and the first word of the poem is "old." Just like the cycle of life, you can go from the bottom of the poem right back into the beginning of the poem to start the cycle all over again. And notice too that if you do this, the "old" of the youth at the end of the poem, which is outside of parentheses becomes the "old" of old age at the top of the poem which is in parentheses. The rebellious youth have grown up to establish restrictions of their own. This is truly a remarkably complex poem by cummings though on the surface it seems so simplistic.



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