l(a -- e e cummings

Guest poem sent in by Pranesh Prakash , in yet
another take on the flight theme:

(Poem #1956) l(a l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness -- e e cummings

Comments:

This is a poem I immediately thought of when I saw the theme "flight".  It
is about the flight of a leaf as it is falling down from a tree.  When read
together without the line-breaks, it turns out to be

  l(a leaf falls)oneliness.

It links up the falling of a lone leaf (note the emphasis on "1" (the
numeral one) in the first line, as also the "one" in l"one"liness) to the
emotion of loneliness.

The most beautiful part of this poem is the way it is structured, which to
me seems to resemble the passage of a leaf through various points of time
from the half-horizontal "l(a" of the leaf on the tree, to the side-view of
"ll" when it is in mid-air to the final full-horizontal of "iness".

If you don't see that leaf falling, perhaps instead you see a large "L" in
the shape of the poem, or perhaps a large "1" (with a line underneath: think
of 1 in "Courier" instead of in "Arial".)  The imagery that Cummings manages
to evoke by saying so little is just beautiful.  And this is actually a poem
where the reason for abrupt and seemingly random line-breaks is clear
(though with different clarity to each person) after some thought, and goes
on to be really appreciated.  The poem is all the more beautiful for the way
the words are broken up.

Pranesh

[Links]

Biography:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

Here's an excellent essay on Cummings's use of typography and line breaks as
a poetic element:
  http://www.cyberessays.com/English/104.htm

And, since it appears to be a perennial misconception, an explanation of why
it is not "e. e. cummings":
  http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/caps.htm