Monday, February 9, 2009

Re: the boys I mean are not refined

I noticed everyone was diving deep into the interpretation of the poem, and some were revealing things I had not even considered. I decided to stop reading the blogs so I could write down what I think about the poem before the blogs changed my views on it. Well I tried so hard to like this poem, and I don't think I do. The poem seemed to be describing people especially men as animals; Animals that do not care about the valuable and pleasant things in life, and are ruled solely by their id. I did think it was Ironic like some people already commented on, that the author was calling the boys unrefined, while his language was anything but refined. I heard that E.E Cummings never capitalizes anything, but regardless of that, the fact that nothing was capitalized seemed to put everyone on the same level. It showed that even the author who writes about their folly is not above them.
I did get a sense of a soul while reading this poem. It is sort of like looking into the eyes a man eating lion, and seeing that sometimes he too feels the same things you do. I got this feeling when looking at the structure of the poem; the poem was like a song that at the end of the poem the boys danced to. Even though everyone in this poem, including the author, seem to have no self control, something about what they are doing is beautiful.
Lastly, "with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains", but these boys shake mountains with their dance alone. I am not sure if this is a real connection, but that line to me showed something almost superhuman. Maybe it is their raw spirit standing bare before the world, not caring about the airs the rest of the world puts on to make nothing into something, or maybe they are that strong, but the final line of the poem made me really wonder who were these "boys [who] I mean are not refined".

Think about: Why would E.E. Cummings use the phrase "not refined", instead of simply saying "unrefined"?

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