Wednesday, December 26, 2012

How is the poem "Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town" by E.E. Cummings an exploration/commentary of the human condition?

This poem describes two people, "anyone" and "noone," whose names help the reader to understand that, although specific people are discussed by the poet, these people could represent countless others—the protagonist could, indeed, be "anyone." The passage of time is shown in the poem through the references to the seasons ("spring summer autumn winter," "autumn winter spring summer"), while the behavior of the people in the town is the same in all weathers ("sun moon stars rain").
If "anyone" and "noone" are avatars for any two humans, then, the outlook of the poem on the way we exist in the world is rather bleak. While "anyone" and "noone" obviously care deeply for each other—"noone loved him more by more"—the "women and men" around them "cared for anyone not at all"; everything they "sowed" and "reaped" seemingly focused upon their own preoccupations. The suggestion is that the people in this town are too preoccupied with their own lives to consider the feelings of others.
The only people in the town who are exceptions to this rule are the children, who "guessed" at the love between anyone and noone, but this sort of emotional intelligence is lost as they get older ("down they forgot as up they grew"). Beyond the innocence of youth, we "forget to remember" other people and what is important to them.
The cycle of life, meeting and marrying another person, is not restricted to anyone and noone in this poem—"someones married their everyones," and we can assume that these people feel as strongly about each other as noone and anyone do: they "said their nevers they slept their dream." For each couple, their love is of monumental importance, but to others, they are simply people going through the ordinary motions of life ("sleep wake hope and then").
Cummings's colloquial diction when he notes "one day anyone died I guess" underscores the fact that, while "noone stopped to kiss his face," this event was unremarkable for those "busy folk" who then "buried them side by side." Noone and anyone, who lived and breathed for each other, have died, but life in the town continues as normal—the people "reaped their sowing and went their came"—because while "anyone's any was all" to noone, to everyone else, their lives had little impact. What seems deeply important to us and the people we love often does not touch others around us, who are focused on the cyclical progression of their own lives.

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