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Humanity I Love You Literary Devices

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E.E. Cummings is a strange yet famous author whose poetry has a lot of interconnectivity. Cummings was born on October 14th, 1894. He started writing poems at the young age of 10, in 1904. Ever since then Cummings has written a variety of poetry, the majority, if not all, of which breaks standard rules of conventions in English Literature. Much of the time Cummings uses poetic devices and structure that directly relate to the main idea of the poem. In fact, a lot about the poems or their main ideas can be understood better by taking a look of the physical layout of the poem. Examining punctuation, capitalization, and even the very shape of the stanzas can all lead to a better understanding of Cummings’ work. One fantastic example of one of …show more content…

Not only does the use of this poetic device occur frequently throughout his works, it also is used for great amounts of success. The constant hammering in of a single idea can both block out less important details while bringing out the ones that really matter. The use of repetition also very heavily emphasizes any main ideas there are to be had whilst simultaneously making the reader think deeper about these desired ideas. An example of this in the poem Humanity I Love You is the phrase itself, Humanity i love you, but with one added word that makes all the difference. Throughout the poem, not only is the phrase Humanity i love you repeated, but the phrase “Humanity i love you because.” This seemingly minute change brings all the difference in the world as the reader understands more deeply that there is more reason behind this sarcastic loathing than they may have originally imagined by skimming the poem. The use of repetition combined with “because” makes the reader consider more thoroughly WHY he speaks this way of humanity and WHY these major general complaints are so important. The fact the addition of this single word can make so much difference is indicative of E.E. Cummings’ style of writing and how the desired effects of his poems can be changed and interpreted many different ways based off of something as simple as a word to bridge the gap between ideas. On many occasions throughout Cummings’ …show more content…

Cummings has a unique style of poetry that focuses on the little details regardings structure and poetic devices to all come together and create main ideas that aren’t apparent or easy to grasp on the first read of his works. His use of capitalization and punctuation are small details that give way to big ideas, and his iconic poetic strategies like repetition and symbolism allow the readers to use both the poetic devices in conjunction with the structure to create the huge desired effect of reflective main ideas. The poem Humanity I Love You is a great example of a Cummings’ work because it combines all of the aforementioned details with social commentary and deep reflection that makes the reader really think about what Cummings’ means and the meaning of his works as a whole. Cummings’ works are important because he was a pioneer of unique and interesting poetic strategies. His complete disregard for English structural rules combined with his deep and passionate social commentary has been an inspiration for so many people, and a pathway for many newer and interesting modern poets. E.E. Cummings is a hallmark of unique and fascinating poets, and should be remembered as

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