Sound and Typography of in Just
Upon looking at e. e. cummings's poem, "in Just-",perhaps, two features immediately become apparent: the use of white space between some words and lines, and the multiple use of a single word supporting an entire line. To a lesser degree, the poem's visual also features the boys' and girls' names joined together as though they were each one, and the capitalization of the "m" in "balloonMan" towards the poem's end. All these features contribute to how the poem will be read, and when the poem is read, the sound, furthered by alliteration, assumes an alternating rhythm of excitement and measured awareness. That is, an accelerated tempo that reflects the excited manner of child-like exuberance for springtime revelry, and the lull in tempo that is attributed to the measured awareness or ambivalent feelings felt towards the " goat-footed balloonMan." The poem's rapid and then measured tempo creates an artistic tension that coincides with the speaker's account of a remembered spring. By employing white space, alliteration, compressed conjunctions, and some unconventional capitalization, e. e. cummings creates a dream vision of a remembered springtime- revelry that reads with both excitement and a measured awareness.
This pleasant effect must be attributed to the speaker's springtime revelry who also must wish to return to these activities if not for the constant stressful reminder of "the queer/ old balloonman [whistling] / far and wee"(11 - 13). The capitalized "m" dictates that the poem be read with stressed emphasis on "Man" within the word "balloonMan"(21). In contrast, cummings uses alliteration to slow the poem's tempo, as well as communicate the speaker's springtime enjoyment. Bibliography e. Initially the refrain complements the speaker's excited springtime revelry; in fact, line five flows nicely with the previous line's slower tempo, and then acts with a slingshot effect to propel the poem's most rapidly read line "and eddieandbill come"(6) with the momentum of the conventional typeset "and wee"(5). Although all nine lines create an emphasis alone, two of those nine lines probably command greater significance. What makes cummings's poem better is the direction given to the reader, such as the odd capitalization to suggest an accented syllable, or the white space to imply a pause, better still, his use of compressed conjunctions to effect haste and emphatic tones, add the repetitive refrains for accent and syncopation and one could set this poem to music. Soundly reducing the poem's pace to a crawl, cummings has many readers whispering the final word "wee"(24). Another example of unconventional capitalization employed by cummings is in the poem's first line. The double-spaced indentation of "the" in line nineteen holds much suspense for the audience since "the" follows "and" a structural change from the poem's refrain of "when the world is. Important to note too, is that in the poem "Just-"(1) modifies "spring"(2)-hence the hyphenation. The refrain at this point in the poem begins to slow tempo considerably since white space and its required pause separate "and" and "wee"(13). The poem's conflicting tempos add tension to the speaker's springtime memory, but the slowing of the tempo through cummings's use of alliteration focuses the audience on the two emotional elements: springtime celebration and the ambivalence felt towards the ever-present "balloonMan"(21).
Common topics in this essay:
,
white space,
nine lines,
poem's tempo,
measured awareness,
poem read,
unconventional capitalization,
speaker's springtime,
compressed conjunctions,
springtime revelry,
communicate speaker's springtime,
world mud- /,
simulate white space,
white space spring,
space line just-,
space spring,
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Acceptance Essays
