somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully,
suddenly,as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closesand opens;
only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands


by e. e. cummings (1894-1962)

Class Activity

Analysis

You will be put in to small groups of 2-3. Each group is responsible for the interpretation of one of the five stanzas in the poem. Your task is to firstly paraprhase it then to summarize it.
A paraphrase is saying the same thing except using your own words wherever possible; it may be more or less the same length. A summary is much shorter containing very few examples or details and not unlike the paraphrase maintains the author's point of view.

Seminar

Your group will then present your findings to the class.

Answers to come

Further Analysis


For an ecocritical analysis using evolutionary psychology follow the link below:

Supernormal Stimuli as Essences