58 Song IX and O sweet spontaneous by e. e. cummings
ee cummings
In the two poems below, modernist poet e. e. cummings offers naturalistic thoughts about death.
In the first poem, Cummings describes the return of life to earth and through it, to a new life. He says this process will begin “when god lets my body be.” Does he mean to suggest that death and rebirth he describes is God’s plan? Why might he describe death as “let[ting his] body be”?
The poet’s beloved, we are told, is touched by the wings of the bird that grows from his body. Does he mean by this to suggest that his death has not separated them, that he is, in some sense, still alive? – Leon Kass
3
when god lets my body be
From each brave eye shall sprout a tree
fruit that dangles therefrom
the purpled world will dance upon
Between my lips which did sing
a rose shall beget the spring
that maidens whom passion wastes
will lay between their little breasts
My strong fingers beneath the snow
Into strenuous birds shall go
my love walking in the grass
their wings will touch with her face
and all the while shall my heart be
With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea
The second poem laments human attempts to understand the earth through philosophy, science, and religion. To all these seekers the poet declares that the earth is silent, but for its annual renewal of life in the spring. – Leon Kass
5
O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
beauty how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
thou answerest
them only with
spring)
Consider this:
- Why is death a “rhythmic” lover? Why is the earth his couch? How is spring an answer “true” to death?
- Do either of these naturalistic accounts of the cycle of life and death adequately address the fear of death, the loss of a loved one, or the desire for immortality? What does your answer imply for the meaning of any individual’s life?
