Does anyone know what this poem means? by e.e cummings?

i have this project due, i sorta have an idea on what this poem means but i want to see what other people think, please if you don't know the poet don't guess your just ruining it, search the history of the poet read it first and it'll give you a better understanding of the poet. iv'e read this poem about a million times over. you have to read between the lines. hope your a smarty =) thanks for trying to help, if you do that is.



in a middle of a room by E. E. Cummings

in a middle of a room

stands a suicide

sniffing a Paper rose

smiling to a self



"somewhere it is Spring and sometimes

people are in real:imagine

somewhere real flowers,but

I can't imagine real flowers for if I



could,they would somehow

not Be real"

(so he smiles

smiling)"but I will not



everywhere be real to

you in a moment"

The is blond

with small hands



"%26amp; everything is easier

than I had guessed everything would

be;even remembering the way who

looked at whom first,anyhow dancing



(a moon swims out of a cloud

a clock strikes midnight

a finger pulls a trigger

a bird flies into a mirror)

Does anyone know what this poem means? by e.e cummings?
Here's the thing, Cummings was very particular about how and why he used punctuation. It wasn't just because he was weird and wanted to be different. It wasn't just random. It was strategic. Just as his word choice is strategic. For example, when you look at "real:image" the words are placed together with a colon between them in order to more accurately show the juxtaposition of reality versus imagination. It wasn't just some quirky typo to be cute. Further, by only capitalizing some words and not others, he is drawing attention to them. One way to understand the poem is to look at those words and why the author would want to single them out.



Oh, and if someone puts in their source "BA" or "MA" or "BS" it means they actually had to study this at higher level than high school and just might know what they are talking about. What I gave you to look at below is a way to analyze poems. If you don't know how to use the tools, then just ask for someone to write your paper for you.







Let's look at the first bit:



in a middle of a room

stands a suicide

sniffing a Paper rose

smiling to a self



-Why would the author use "a" instead of "the"?

-What is the significance of Paper being the only capitalized letter

-Again, why "a" for self?



"somewhere it is Spring and sometimes

people are in real:imagine

somewhere real flowers,but

I can't imagine real flowers for if I



- Alliteration? Important?

-real:image...what would that signify?

-What is the purpose of "real"



could,they would somehow

not Be real"

(so he smiles

smiling)"but I will not



-Capitalized Be

-"he smiles smiling" why would he repeat the image?



everywhere be real to

you in a moment"

The is blond

with small hands



-Capital "T"

-Who is "The" or is "The" just a pronoun?

-everywhere and moment used together



"%26amp; everything is easier

than I had guessed everything would

be;even remembering the way who

looked at whom first,anyhow dancing"



-everything, everything

-guessed %26amp; remembering



(a moon swims out of a cloud

a clock strikes midnight

a finger pulls a trigger

a bird flies into a mirror)



-why the apostrophes?

-why the 4 "a" phrases



These are just some of the techniques you can use in any poem to dissect it.
Reply:Are you sure you have copied it line for line without any typos?



I'll do some looking to see if I can find it.