We fall on our own...but we ALL fall

POEM: "l(a" by ee cummings


l(a

le
af
fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness


RESPONSE:

This poem has been described as the “most delicately beautiful literary construct that Cummings ever created” (Kennedy, Dreams 463). It consists of just 4 words that are split into 2 distinct phrases: “loneliness” and “a leaf falls.” We can look at how the falling of a leaf is a concrete act, while “loneliness” is an abstract concept.

The idea of a falling leaf suggests autumn (fall), the end of the growing season, the death of the year. The single leaf falling is a metaphor for both physical and spiritual isolation. (A metaphor a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily means one thing is applied to another thing in order to suggest a likeness between the two.) Many possibilities arise from this metaphor:
• Loneliness is like a falling leaf
• The feeling of loneliness is the feeling someone gets when he/she watches a single leaf falling
• Autumn as the autumn of one’s life (when we die)
• The falling leaf represents death and the loneliness of that experience

The form Cummings uses to organize his poem asks us to look at the printed page and recognize the poem as a shape, icon, or work of art. The poem thinly moves down the page, suggesting two notions: 1) The poem dribbles down the page, mimicking the slow, twisting descent of a falling leaf before it finally rests upon the “ground” (“iness”—the longest and last line). 2) The poem visually resembles the figure “1”; a number that symbolizes the idea of solitude, isolation, being alone

In E. E. Cummings book 95 Poems, “l(a” was the first poem to appear in this collection. It appeared opposite a blank page, impressing the main theme of loneliness upon the reader. The twenty-three characters of the poem (including the title) looked lost and overwhelmed by the white space, drawing the reader’s attention to the poem’s fragile construction.

Since the poem was written in Times New Roman font, the letter “l” appears exactly the same as the number “1”, thus serving as a visual metaphor for the theme of loneliness throughout our reading of the poem. Just as the theme of loneliness is represented in the many 1’s, we cannot help but notice the presence of multiple 1’s on the page (5 to be exact), suggesting “togetherness” and “oneness” at the same time.