“Somewhere I Have Never Travelled” by E.E. Cummings is a poem of profound feelings of love the speaker has for a beloved woman. “Somewhere I have never travelled gladly beyond” (Cummings, 1). The speaker makes it clear that he has never experienced a love like her in his time. From his intensity of emotion he expresses throughout the poem, we realize this woman has transformed him into a better person in so many ways. Cummings persuades his readers that there is such thing as powerful attractiveness from one person to another and true love really does exist.
The language is sort of mysterious in the beginning of the poem as he ever so easily describes each detail about the woman that attracts her to him. “As when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending” (Cummings, 11-12). He speaks in a gentle voice of tranquility about this woman throughout the poem. “The power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries” (Cummings, 15-16). Although the words are not normally what we would use in our everyday language, I feel like they are very descriptive and magical.
After reading the first couple sentences in this poem, I found that Cummings used the word “close” repetitively, “frail gesture are things which enclose me” (Cummings, 3), “your slightest look easily will unclose me” (Cummings, 5), “though I have closed myself as fingers” (Cummings, 6), “or if your wish be to close me” (Cummings, 9), and “I do not know what it is about you that closes and opens” (Cummings, 17-18). I do not think the speaker is saying these things are literally enfolding in on him, but the feelings he has for the woman are so powerful that he feels enclosed by them.
In the last sentence of the last paragraph, Cummings describes the woman’s eyes, “I do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses and nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands” (Cummings 16-20). Usually when a poet refers to the eyes in a poem, he or she is writing about love. When a person is truly in love, they look into the eyes to show a sense of reassurance. This is the final promise to the other person that he or she really is in love.
The plot of the play is not what I expected after reading the title. After reading the title, I assumed that the words “somewhere” and “traveled” were implying that the speaker was going to depict the exciting journey he took in order to find the woman of his dreams. It is much more than that. Yes, he found true love, but he uses the poem to convey to the readers that the woman herself is much more than her “intense fragility” (Cummings, 14), and “the voice of her eyes being much deeper than all roses” (Cummings, 19). She has power over him because he fell for her so easily.
2 comments:
Great post, Sarah. E.E. Cummings poem defiantly shows he is head over heels in love with a certain female. I found his wording, as well, somewhat hard to understand at first--but that's poetry!
You have a deep thoughts for the last sentence. Amd i think your idea is right. I never thought about this and thank you for sharing you opinion
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