Numerous poems Essay

Numerous poems tackle the theme of loneliness using invented or any of the variety of available poetic forms. Most often, the feeling is expressed through either a single and extended metaphor or through a number of interconnected imageries with the purpose of creating a tight and unified construction that would arouse the reader’s empathy towards the poem’s meaning. In poems like these, the focus is the metaphors used to put the theme across. The form is also important, but secondary to content. However, for other poets meaning can be conveyed equally by both content and form. For e. e. cumming, the form can even dictate the metaphor. His post-modernist poem â€Å"leaf falls on loneliness† illustrates how structure can be used to communicate the meaning of a poem even more that its metaphor, thus evoking varied and more vast experiences with the reading. The nine-line poem consists of one to five letters per line. Seven lines are made up of two letters each, one line has three letters, while the longest final line has five. The entire poem spells out the word â€Å"loneliness†. The word is interrupted, however, by a phrase written inside a parenthesis: â€Å"a leaf falls†. The interruption occurs after the first letter, cutting off the letter â€Å"l† from the rest of the word. The irregularity in the grouping of letters is not arbitrary. The form of the poem obviously seeks to approximate the fall of a leaf. One could imagine the leaf as it sways from side to side, then twirls in space looking like a narrow spinning band, until it eventually rests flat on the ground during the poem’s longest final line. The visual fall makes the reader understand the poem’s metaphor: loneliness, like a falling leaf, is a sinking feeling. The image of a falling leaf is a cliche but e. e. cummings makes his poem different not only by employing a unique structure scheme but also by putting both the metaphorical image and the theme stated plainly together in the poem. A greeting card or an amateur exposition would attempt to define the word â€Å"loneliness†. An inferior poet would only focus on the â€Å"falling leaf† metaphor and wax poetic about the possible meanings behind the image. Cummings put both together and in the process does not only call the reader’s attention to the connection of the words with the image but, because of the placement of the letters, raises other points of discussion. For instance, the detachment of the letter â€Å"l† from the word â€Å"loneliness† only means that to be lonely means to be detached from the rest of humanity as much as a falling leaf gets detached from the rest of the leaves in a branch. This is further emphasized with the parenthesis, another symbol of breaking-off one part from the whole where it came from. Still another interpretation for the interruption may be that the feeling of loneliness occurs when one’s life is interrupted by the sight of a falling leaf, which is a metaphor for many sad things in life. Also, the letter â€Å"l† in the first line, which reappears on the eighth line, may also be read as the number one, a solitary figure. A lonely person feels alone. Finally, the poem’s form and metaphors bring upon the reader’s mind other images of loneliness. The metaphor of the falling leaf recalls autumn with its falling leaves, people at the brink of death or snow on a bleak winter’s night falling on a desolate landscape. All these pictures are used in many poems expounding on the same theme and all these associations will be awakened within the reader because while the poem is sparse, it has the ability to involve the reader to deep thought. Meanwhile, the slimness of the poem evokes the briefness of life. At the same time, it could mean the fluid downward movement of life, after one has passed the prime of life, the individual slows down to old age until he dies, and nothing would remain eventually. At first glance, the disinterested reader may think that e. e. cummings has employed gimmickry with â€Å"leaf falls on loneliness. † Closer inspection and repeated readings would prove, however, that unlike most poems whose beauty rests on the metaphors used in the lines, the form of a poem can also be exploited to be the metaphor itself. It can elicit so many associations, making the reading more profound as when one tries to make meanings out of words in another poem. Cumming’s poem is a great example of how form can also dictate the beauty of a poem.