she being Brand . . .

During my first reading of this poem, I felt as if I was watching a sex scene from an R-rated movie that I was not supposed to be witnessing. My hand was on the channel button, I was afraid of a surprise parental visit, flop sweat with interest. Once I realized I was 21, not 12, there was more than just an automotive metaphor for sex to the poem I was reading. I began to appreciate the pacing, structure, and punctuation that E.E. Cummings creatively manipulated to make the poem a rhythmic being. It took about three readings to completely feel the stop and start effect his poem creates, but it was a sincere creative shocker.





The genius in E.E. Cummings she being Brand… is the metaphor relating the handling of a new a car to the first sexual encounter of a recent couple. The speaker, obviously male, gives the reader a rhythmic view of how he starts “her” engine and oils “the universal joint.” Cummings purposefully gives the reader an awkward sentence or line structure so that he or she can feel the pulse of the story being told. One of the most articulated phrases is “again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg.ing,” actually gives the reader a stop and start motion that can be felt by the clutch of a car or by the sexual encounter being referenced. The punctuation and the carefully chosen words perhaps create the awkwardness felt by a new couple, who are still unaware of each other’s desires. In the phrase “cranked her / up,slipped the / clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she / kicked what the hell),” shows the reconfiguration of a new couple. The speaker realizes what he is doing isn’t what the girl (car) wants, and he is forced to change his initial attempt and reconvene. Another golden nugget of Cummings’s poem is the wording of “Bothatonce,” where all three words, both at once, are said at the same time. This device has three actual parts, the automotive, the sexual, and the literary. Not only it is speaking of car parts expanding and contracting, but it references sexual behavior through a creative writing style. E.E. Cummings brings the reader through a rollercoaster ride of a sexual encounter, starting out slow, getting a rhythm, climaxing, and the “stand- / ;still).” The reader can feel the engines of the car, and he or she can apply them to a wholly different experience.

What is worthy of note was the fact that Cummings created this enormous metaphor without using all of the human senses. It is as if he is begging the reader to feel what he is feeling, but other senses, such as sight, smell, and hearing are all relevant to a new car and/or sexual experience. With the exception of taste, which can be argued more towards a sexual occurrence, there still could have been mention of the taste of the wind, or the smell of the new interior. Maybe, Cummings kept to one sense to unify his poem; yet, the other senses could have heightened the experience the reader has with the poem.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Personally, I gravitated to the formal style and the visual descriptions of the Ode on a Grecian Urn, written by John Keats. The word "Ode" in the title implies something of a lyric or musical quality, which indicates inspiration gained through a Muse. Being an art major, I can relate to Keats’s generalization that all things in art, poetry, or music are beautiful; yet, I found it comforting in his use of the word “cloy’d” in line 29. Just as candy can become too sweet, I enjoy the idea that a beautiful image can become over described, making it trite and unimaginative. I found the true beauty of this poem resides in its paradoxes, such as the unheard pipes. If no one is in the forest to hear a falling tree there is the question of it making sound, just like the music being made in the image on the vase can only be heard in one’s imagination.




While the idea of the muse is stereotypically a product of Ancient Greece, the writer of this poem has chosen an urn, but more importantly the images on this vase, as a inspiration for this poem. Firstly, Keats speaks on the fact that the Urn, in physical form, is beautiful, timeless, and has remained an “unravished bride of quietness.” Diverging from the vase itself, to what its imagery represents becomes the main focus of the poem. In statements such as “for ever young” in line 27, Keats seems to equate beauty with youth and love. Then, in fourth stanza, the speaker recognizes that the figures on the vase exist outside of time, and the actual streets from which they came are now silent. Finally, Keats ends with the urn itself actually existing outside of time, since in the fifth stanza he states that it will remain after this generation dies. This poem culminates in Keats’s quoted statement, “beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know,” in the last couplet of the last stanza. Although Keats makes the statement that “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” he also seems as if he is mocking this exclamation.

None of the deities or muses that Keats’s speaks of can ever truly find love if they are depicted in the stages leading up to it. Herein lies the paradox. If all things that are beautiful are truth, and truth beauty, then how can beings, without full knowledge of truth or love, be beautiful? The reader can assert their own interpretations and understandings of the importance of change, but if nothing can progress or change, and is only stagnant, is it beautiful? As an example, the speaker suggests that unheard melodies are sweeter than ones that actually one can hear. The reader may understand this to mean that the unheard music produced by the figures on the urn, seems much more beautiful than anything that is true to life. Yet, in a negative tone, which is felt by 29 and 30, the speaker states the musician producing this unheard melody is permanently tethered to his instrument under a tree “leaving [his] heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d.” It is possible that the speaker is unsure of beauty. Since this vase represents unattainable beauty, the speaker may just simply be acknowledging that. Overall, the urn teaches us that all things considered beautiful, can also be ugly, since there is no permanent truth.