A Commentary on "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e.e. cummings

A COMMENTARY ON "ANYONE LIVED IN A PRETTY HOW TOWN" BY E.E. CUMMINGS

Fri. Feb. 20th, 2015

I felt this poem with a lot of pleasure a long time before I had any clear-cut thoughts about what it meant.  But if you love something, eventually you'll glom some thoughts onto it.  Here's what I've come up with.

1. (with up so floating many bells down) -- i.e. The other people in the town didn't notice how beautiful the church bells were when they rang, but anyone noticed it.

2. they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same -- i.e. They sowed their cynicism, they reaped what they sowed.

3. children guessed . . . that noone loved him more by more -- Possible reference to Emily Dickinson's poem "I'm nobody -- Who are you?  Are you nobody too?"

4. when by now and tree by leaf -- "When?" answered by "Now!", "Tree?" answered by "Leaf!"

5. she -- Same person as noone in the previous stanza.

6. they said their nevers they slept their dream -- Cf. Hamlet's soliloquy, "to sleep, perchance to dream."

7. busy folk buried them side by side -- i.e. After a funeral, the grownups who are still alive have to go back to work.

8. earth by april . . . if by yes -- Noone and anyone did a free association thing, and "Earth?" was answered by "April!" and "If?" was answered by "Yes!"

9. reaped their sowing and went their came -- The big gloomathon.  "Man tills the earth, and dies, and lies beneath" -- my inaccurate memory of Tennyson's poem "Tithonus."

10. anyone -- i.e. You can be this person, if you would like to be this person.

If I think of something obvious, I'll let you know!