as freedom is a breakfastfood
or truth can live with right and wrong
or molehills are from mountains made
-long enough and just so long
will being pay the rent of seem
and genius please the talentgang
and water most encourage flame

as hatracks into peachtrees grow
or hopes dance best on bald men’s hair
and every finger is a toe
and any courage is a fear
-long enough and just so long
will the impure think all things pure
and hornets wail by children stung

or as the seeing are the blind
and robins never welcome spring
nor flatfolk prove their world is round
nor dingsters die at break of dong
and common’s rare and millstones float
-long enough and just so long
tomorrow will not be too late

worms are the words but joy’s the voice
down shall go which and up come who
breasts will be breasts and thighs will be thighs
deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
-time is a tree (this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough

Analysis, meaning and summary of e.e. cummings's poem as freedom is a breakfastfood

10 Comments

  1. Richard says:

    In a nutshell, Cummings was saying three things:
    1. The world is mad at times, full of nonsense.
    2. Yet some things are consistent; like our time in it is short.
    3. Most importantly, love is vast and available to all.

  2. Jitendra Jit , S.C.S Auto College,puri says:

    This poem has a ravishing point of view about Modernism as well as it’s a kind of inspirational poem about time. Each and every line contains astute feelings..E.E Cummings is witty in literature.. That’s for sure…

  3. Rogan says:

    At one point I thought of this poem in my desire to criticize commercial usurpation of words like “freedom”: The lack of intellectual or moral integrity involved in phony creativity with the misuse of words. But that also involved recognizing my own foolishness in wanting to make words sacred. I love the way Cummings brings out contradictions in being and seeming and time with such a cleaver feel.
    I now think of the poem as a bow to the present. I love you now, in the present, whatever imagination and the future might bring. “just so long and long enough.”

  4. Sarah says:

    This is one of my favorite poems

  5. Soph says:

    Cummings is unarguably one of the most playful, inventive, original, idealistic poets to ever exist since the birth of poetry. Although some would say that in this particular piece, Cummings had simply expanded on the concept of loving hate and sweet sorrow. Where’s the originality? But I think that his style and ideology in themselves are beyond extraordinary. Cummings had only borrowed a sprinkle of Will’s oxymoron essence to put in this poetic recipe to create something truly and completely his own.

    I absolutely cannot get enough of this. Every single line is an aphrodisiac for me. ‘long enough and just so long will being pay the rent of seem’; ‘as hatracks into peachtrees grow’; ‘down shall go which and up come who’; ‘deeds cannot dream what dreams can do’…

    But ultimately,

    time is a tree
    this life one leaf
    but love is the sky
    and i am for you
    just so long
    and long enough

  6. BUbba says:

    This poem is sooooooooo cooooool
    i looooooove this poem its so greatly written and
    e.e. cummings is just the best poet in the whole big universe!

  7. Twig says:

    Just to give an honest opinion, this classic poem is a prime example of what the average human being is missing. Only after truly listening to what the poem is saying can there be understanding. Too many of our brothers and sisters have just become too lazy to take the time or energy to hear what is being said, to see the beauty hidden under the rocks.

  8. Domekia Wilson says:

    u Have a Lot to say i also have a gift

    Keep using it in many ways

    Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  9. Sophie says:

    i believe the word play in this poem is fantastic

  10. Jenny Nicelson says:

    Weird and crazy, but beautiful!

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