Comment 15 of 16, added on June 1st, 2006 at 10:45 AM.

I would divide the poem into two parts:
"Black against white sky" - part A
"Trees which from dropped leaf a goes whirling" - part B
Part A presents the reader with a conflict: black against white.
Part B depicts an image of a falling leaf.
At first I saw no connection between the two parts, but on second thought
the connection or relation between the two parts can be cause (part A) and
effect (part B).
One might compare the conflict between black and white as a racial
conflict, or a religious conflict, or as a social class's conflict, or any
other juxtaposing conflict. Thus, a conflict brings upon a result, in most
cases, a negative one. In the poem the result is a falling leaf. I got the
feeling of a negative result due to the technique used in the poem of
dropping the last letter of the word to the following line. This technique
conveys the feeling of something breaking, missing, falling apart and
leaving almost nothing, like a tree that looses all its leaves and is left
bare and vulnerable to the elements. Looking at part A as a racial conflict
the result might be a broken society, and divided apart. History would
prove the point that religious conflicts brought the result of chaos and
destruction upon society like the bare tree in the poem.
Despite the fact that the poem is short it enfolds within it more than a
few aspects. Looking at the poem, not even reading it first, you clearly
see that it is written in a unique form. I choose to emphasize this
feature. The poem is laid out in a form that illustrates its message – a
falling leaf.
There is a lot to learn and conclude from this poem. However I would expect
my student to think, wonder, and ask questions. They may come up with their
own thoughts and conclusions before I may share mine with them. One of the
things I learned from this short poem is that you don't necessarily need a
lot of words in order to achieve something or to convey a message: say a
little but do a lot!
Poetry is an art. Unlike a painter that works with a brush and paint, a
poet works with words. The poem "blac" is an outstanding example of this
statement. Cummings used an interesting form in the poem that intertwines
beautifully with its message. That is what I call the art of words.





Anna C. Adams from Israel

Comment 13 of 16, added on February 3rd, 2006 at 11:27 AM.

!blac
w(as

wo
n
de)
rfu

l,

Vanisabethssa from Bulgaria

Comment 11 of 16, added on December 31st, 2005 at 12:07 PM.

I really didn't understand what this poem meant but i do like the way the
poet layed it out. It is a very interesting poem.

Lauren from United States

Comment 9 of 16, added on October 18th, 2005 at 2:03 AM.

One of the most interesting things of the poem is that the article "a",
referred to the leaf, is placed after the noun to which it is referred, and
brought near the first two letters of "goes". This peculiar position
suggests the possibility of reading "ago", which shifts the time in an
indefinite past.

francesca

Comment 7 of 16, added on October 3rd, 2005 at 7:20 PM.

I believe that he is saying that blacks are against the white ways which is
like a subject that keeps going around for ever.

Na from United States