you being in love
will tell who softly asks in love,

am i separated from your body smile brain hands merely
to become the jumping puppets of a dream? oh i mean:
entirely having in my careful how
careful arms created this at length
inexcusable, this inexplicable pleasure-you go from several
persons: believe me that strangers arrive
when i have kissed you into a memory
slowly, oh seriously
-that since and if you disappear

solemnly
myselves
ask “life, the question how do i drink dream smile

and how do i prefer this face to another and
why do i weep eat sleep-what does the whole intend”
they wonder. oh and they cry “to be, being, that i am alive
this absurd fraction in its lowest terms
with everything cancelled
but shadows
-what does it all come down to? love? Love
if you like and i like,for the reason that i
hate people and lean out of this window is love,love
and the reason that i laugh and breathe is oh love and the reason
that i do not fall into this street is love.”

Analysis, meaning and summary of e.e. cummings's poem you being in love… (XII)

10 Comments

  1. Nina says:

    Wonderful! The chaos of love, the paradoxal meaning that love kills and give life to lovers…
    Reading it, I understand that more and more I need go on with my beloved man…
    Nina

  2. Nina says:

    Wonderful! The chaos of love, the paradoxal meaning that love kills and give life to lovers…
    Reading it, I understand that more and more I need go on with my beloved man…
    Nina

  3. Anita says:

    love is what kills you and keeps you alive.. paradox in itself, it is the meaning and the means..

  4. Jane says:

    I love this poem so much. I read it for the first time right at this moment, and I cannot agree with it more. I wish I had a love like this, and that my love was as true as this poem.

  5. Angelina Pitt says:

    This poem is grate becuase EE Cummings use of assonece, conssonence, and intrenal ryme skeem.

  6. ashley says:

    I love cummings, and when i read this particular poem i just smile. it’s just so good. Read it fast, with emphasis out loud

  7. k* says:

    i adore this poem, idealistic though it may be! i am amazed by his blatant acknowledgement that love is life, and that love is a paradox, and so is life. his examination of the whole idea of love is so utterly moving that though i don’t quite understand it all, i can feel! and i am deeply moved, and propelled to LOVE!

  8. Caralyn says:

    wow. i couldn’t agree more with this poem. i think my favorite part is the last 5 lines. i think they in particular are perfect at expressing the true nature of love. this poem says to me that love is a complicated thing, it can drive you crazy, yet it is what keeps you going in this chaotic world.

  9. Deirdre says:

    I think this poem demonstrates beautifully the blantant chaos of love; the intrinsic need we all have to feel loved and accepted.

    I think it also displays so well the conflict, the innate dichotomy of beastiality and sensuality, the icing sugar of love and the dank and insatiable depths of raw instinct.

    I see it touch also on the other dichotomy– that love would not be love without this sense of ferity, that it takes two contradicting parts to create a whole, which ultimately, touches on all human nature.

    This is the most beautiful poem I have ever read. It speaks to me in so many ways.

  10. Sally says:

    wow..it seems to me that this poem is telling us just how important love is to cummings that although many things in the world upset him, he is prepared to die for these reasons but wouldnt dream of it if it meant he could no longer feel the bliss that comes with the emotion of love..

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