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.

You Go = We Go

POEM:

“No Man Is An Island” by John Donne

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.


RESPONSE:

It was the custom during the times and culture in which John Donne lived (i.e., English Renaissance) for the Tenor Bell (A very loud and far reaching bell) to be tolled for a death. A deceased man was memorialized by the ringing of the "Taylors"—nine strokes of the bell, then a pause, before concluding the commemoration by a number of strokes equal to the man's age at the time of his death. A woman was similarly paid tribute except that her death was marked by seven (two fewer than that for a man) strokes, then the pause, followed by the number of strokes equal to her age at the time of her death. Upon hearing the bell, a messenger was sent to discover the name of the person that died—hence, "Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Donne's point was that the specific identity of the person who died was largely irrelevant. Donne viewed himself and (by implication and interpretation of the passage) all people as part of "mankind." Therefore, the death of anyone lessens mankind and affects everyone. Donne reinforces his view in the first part of the passage: As "no man is an island," everyone has an inherent obligation for empathy, benevolence, and compassion, wherever and whenever necessary and possible. To that same end, as part of mankind, Donne implies that everyone also has an inherent obligation to never cause the suffering or, worse, the "toll" of another person. To do so "diminishes" the person who, by such actions, causes an affront to mankind—and consequently to all people that are part of that mankind.