r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
who
a)s w(e loo)k
upnowgath
PPEGORHRASS
eringint(o-
aThe):l
eA
!p:
S a
(r
rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly
,grasshopper;
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
Analysis, meaning and summary of e.e. cummings's poem r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
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Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by e.e. cummings better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
this poem has got to be the hardest poem to understand.
anyone who had enough time to figure out what this poem meant is stupid
its is such a waste of time
thanks for whoever figured it out though now i can understand it
pizza is good. it makes me happy. with anchovies, and of course eggplant and chocolate sauce. Although, it gives me heart burn and hives. i like turtles too, they are nice to me. and i think that i should grow a moose antler on my ears. i have a goté and i like it. just like turtles. my mom says that i have to shave it off darn-i was hoping that i could join the circus, but now my dreams are crushed.
and i love earings, and turtles, and of course, pizza! i love you truely merggie
WOW-
My friend Patti O’Hagan and I stumbled across this poem after I reintroduced cummings to her. She absolutely hated cummings because she didn’t understand a word that he wrote, (keep in mind that we are high school seniors). The first one that I read to her with emotion was “She being brand” and Patti fell in love with it. We were flipping through a book at the library filled with e.e. cummings poetry and we fell upon r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r and couldn’t put it down. We studied it until we understood its play on words and I can not wait to teach this to my future students of English, (yes, I want to be an English teacher). Oh, it’s a lovely poem and I love it dearly. Did I mention that the poem was made into our class shirts? Oh, heavens yes! The front is quite immature: WE LIKE CUM! (ee cummings) and on the back it has the grasshopper poem with a picture of cummings as the background. I am so relieved that we are not the only ones absolutely, undoubtably in love with this poem.
Wow, what a poem. It really makes you think and wonder what Cummings was thinking when he wrote it. His poems are known for this kind of structure(or lack of). His poems contain a lot of parentheses and lack of correct grammer. Unfortunately, he is no longer alive, therefore we cannot ask him what he was thinking.:(
I think this was a challenging poem and might as well have been a riddle.
P.S.
I can never see the grasshopper in the poem’s shape.
This poem shows how playful cummings was. I don’t think having fun with poetry is a slap in the face to any poet, but rather a good way to get poets to take risks and be funny.
(I laughed aloud when I finished it.)
ps. so, how does one read this aloud? ; )
GRASSHOPPER WHO AS WE LOOK UP NOW GATHERING INOT A LEAP. THE GRASSHOPPER ARRIVING TO BECOME REARRANGINGLY GRASSHOPPER.
SORRY FOR SENDING TWICE, BUT I TRIED TO MAKE IT MORE READABLE USING HTML, I HOPE IT WORKED. To the editors of this site: I dont mind if you delete the other one, it contains the same stuff.
At first site, this poem may appear to be jumbled, confusing and pointless, but it actually makes perfect sense, merely in a different method. Cummings’s style is unconventional and complex, which has caused it to receive skeptical criticism. Poems are traditionally created to be construed through the ear, yet Cummings created this poem to be construed through the eye. It is a visual, rather than a verbal, type of imagery. The poem apparantly has no rhyme scheme, and no meter.
Imagery has typically been explicit verbal detail that causes the reader to get an understanding of the place described, and if it is done well, they should perceive actual images in their mind. Cummings’s imagery is somewhat reversed. His actual imagery had almost nothing to do with the words used. He used rearrangement of letters and word placement to create the the basic sense of a jumping grasshopper. It need not be a grasshopper, it can be any sentence that incorperates the same kind of movement. A grasshopper is merely a concrete object that he used to describe his subjective idea. The true genious of the work is that it appeals to all of the senses if understood correctly. It is somewhat like a computer program for your mind, as it affects your brain in such a way to create the same sense that is created by a jumping grasshopper.
This image is created by jumbled letters. Random letters and words are scrambled, and when your mind tries to rationalize it, your subconsious goes through possible combinations, moving the letters around like grasshoppers. This unconsious thought puts the effect of a grasshopper in the readers mind without them even noticing. Also, the placement of the letters and words (especially in the middle of the poem where they are scattered randomly) displays the letters in journey; showing the whole idea displayed by the poem, rather than just the beginning and the end.
The word “grasshopper” is a significant example of thisThe word appears four times in the poem (interestingly that it is spaced out almost exactly evenly), progressively becoming less scrambled each time until it reaches the unscrambled word “grasshopper.” It is a very similar method to the first one mentioned, but it is somewhat different; in that with this word, Cummings lays out the central idea and creates the main effect with it. The word could be stated the four times as it is, and it would still create the same effect.
Some people believe that the words were placed where they are to make the poem look like a grasshopper. It was probably not intentional by Cummings, because it seems like a farfetched rationalization; but if it was, it was not his priority to make it like so. I do agree that the poem should be viewed like a painting, but in a more figurative way. Rather than looking for actual “drawings” with the letters, or as seeing it as a sequence of words, one must see the poem as an illustrated event. In other words, the beginning and end of the poem do not address the beginning and the end of the action, it is the whole poem as a whole (similarly to a painting) that address any movement or action.
E E Cummings is truly a genious. One might think the poem to be merely raw talent, but it is actually a representation of his genious in a different method from other poets (similarly to how a song is different than a short story, Cummings’s style is different from that of normal poetry). To many people it may appear jumbled and pointless, but that is actually a different, and more visual type of imagery. Rather than creating a picture in your mind, it makes one imagine the effect of jumping grasshoppers. The letters jump around the poem as if they were grasshoppers in a container.
Poem in a readable format for those of you who are stupid, removing the significant effects described earlier, therefore appearing less genious to even intelligent people–but whatever: r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r, who, as we look up, now gath(PPEGORHRASS)ering into the leaps, arriving (gRrEaPsPhOs) to rearrangingly become–grasshopper.
P.S. I did not intentionally send my earlier comment twice, please forgive me. lol. I don’t mind if the editors delete it.
P.P.S. I might find some time to edit this, if I do, I will paste my ananlysis on this site.
P.P.P.S. This is how people think it looks like a grasshopper:
P.P.P.P.S. IF THERE ARE ANY GRAMMATICAL OR SPELLING ERRORS, PLEASE E-MAIL THEM TO ME!!!
At first site, this poem may appear to be jumbled, confusing and pointless, but it actually makes perfect sense, merely in a different method. Cummings’s style is unconventional and complex, which has caused it to receive skeptical criticism. Poems are traditionally created to be construed through the ear, yet Cummings created this poem to be construed through the eye. (Someone who made a comment just before me made a very similar statement, I thought it to be very intelligent so I made a similar statement) It is a visual, rather than a verbal, type of imagery. The poem apparantly has no rhyme scheme, and no meter.
Imagery has typically been explicit verbal detail that causes the reader to get an understanding of the place described, and if it is done well, they should perceive actual images in their mind. Cummings’s imagery is somewhat reversed. His actual imagery had almost nothing to do with the words used. He used rearrangement of letters and word placement to create the the basic sense of a jumping grasshopper. It need not be a grasshopper, it can be any sentence that incorperates the same kind of movement. A grasshopper is merely a concrete object that he used to describe his subjective idea. The true genious of the work is that it appeals to all of the senses if understood correctly. It is somewhat like a computer program for your mind, as it affects your brain in such a way to create the same sense that is created by a jumping grasshopper.
This image is created by jumbled letters. Random letters and words are scrambled, and when your mind tries to rationalize it, your subconsious goes through possible combinations, moving the letters around like grasshoppers. This unconsious thought puts the effect of a grasshopper in the readers mind without them even noticing. Also, the placement of the letters and words (especially in the middle of the poem where they are scattered randomly) displays the letters in journey; showing the whole idea displayed by the poem, rather than just the beginning and the end.
The word “grasshopper” is a significant example of thisThe word appears four times in the poem (interestingly that it is spaced out almost exactly evenly), progressively becoming less scrambled each time until it reaches the unscrambled word “grasshopper.” It is a very similar method to the first one mentioned, but it is somewhat different; in that with this word, Cummings lays out the central idea and creates the main effect with it. The word could be stated the four times as it is, and it would still create the same effect.
Some people believe that the words were placed where they are to make the poem look like a grasshopper. It was probably not intentional by Cummings, because it seems like a farfetched rationalization; but if it was, it was not his priority to make it like so. I do agree that the poem should be viewed like a painting, but in a more figurative way. Rather than looking for actual “drawings” with the letters, or as seeing it as a sequence of words, one must see the poem as an illustrated event. In other words, the beginning and end of the poem do not address the beginning and the end of the action, it is the whole poem as a whole (similarly to a painting) that address any movement or action.
E E Cummings is truly a genious. One might think the poem to be merely raw talent, but it is actually a representation of his genious in a different method from other poets (similarly to how a song is different than a short story, Cummings’s style is different from that of normal poetry). To many people it may appear jumbled and pointless, but that is actually a different, and more visual type of imagery. Rather than creating a picture in your mind, it makes one imagine the effect of jumping grasshoppers. The letters jump around the poem as if they were grasshoppers in a container.
Poem in a readable format for those of you who are stupid, removing the significant effects described earlier, therefore appearing less genious to even intelligent people–but whatever: r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r, who, as we look up, now gath(PPEGORHRASS)ering into the leaps, arriving (gRrEaPsPhOs) to rearrangingly become–grasshopper.
P.S. I did not intentionally send my earlier comment twice, please forgive me. lol
P.P.S. I might find some time to edit this, if I do, I will paste my ananlysis on this site.
P.P.P.S. Feel free to e-mail me with any sort of questions you may have.
E E Cummings is truly a genious. At first, I thought the poem to be merely raw talent, but I soon saw that he is actually representing his genious in a different method from other poets (like how a song is different than a short story, Cummings’s style is different from that of normal poetry). To many people it may appear jumbled and pointless, but thait is actually a different, and more visual type of imagery. Rather than creating a picture in your mind, it makes one imagine the effect of jumping grasshoppers. The letters jump around the poem as if they were grasshoppers in a container.
By the way, this is the poem with the effect removed is:
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r, who, as we look up, now gath(PPEGORHRASS)ering into the leaps, arriving (gRrEaPsPhOs) to rearrangingly become–grasshopper
though poems are traditionally addressed through the ear, cummings addresses the ear through the eye. this is evidenced by r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r, and should be appriciated for what it is. cummings was a literary genious and only those whom can not see beyond simple formatic and punctual adornments are not insightful enough to understand cummings work.
Why is the grasshopper named what it is? The grasshopper is not truly what it is until it leaps into the air. This poem deals with how things are defined. Until it jumps, the insect that cummings makes the subject of this poem is just a r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r – it is undefined in the sense of its name. The world comes together only when the definition is complete – hence why “grasshopper” only comes at the end. Want to read really crappy literature? Go for William Carlos Williams. cummings is an absolute genius, and this poem is amazing and filled with meaning.
I agree wit u tat this poem is not cool. But it’s true tat e.e. cumming is a great poet. it’s just tat u r stupid.
p.s only the smarts can read n understand this poem.
This poem is so no cool. I can’t see the grasshopper! I don’t understand. ee cummings is no a great poet. I could get the same poem out of a drunk guy at the local pub!
very interesting, wish this textual discharge into anything you want. just like he did some of you want SHIT some of you want to be enamoured. I want whatever he was on hahahahah [if that’s insulting in any way remember to wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills quicker, heh that’ll ease the pain]
The first time I read this poem, I thought that it was the worst peice of literature that I had ever read. Ten or twenty times later, and my opinion is the same. This is not a work of genius. This is a slap in the face to any poet who studied the English language and attemped to create anything beautiful with his words. It’s almost disgusting.
the sheer brilliancy of the words arranged (or rather disarranged) to form a poem that also forms itself into something that describes a very precise image of a grasshopper..whew..cummings is a genius in literary lunacy..artistic and very ingenius
this is the image of a grasshopper, rather, a bunch of them. they start out ruffled as something comes along and then slowly settle down to resume their original form which was clam and stable. OR it could be boiled down the the essence of one grasshopper, and this poem is merely a celebration of something so simple, yet he made it so complex. ee cummings is an interesting poet in this way. he writes in such simple language, but it can mean so much. ahh, how i love thee.
my English teacher claims that this poem is shaped like a grasshopper… it’s more linear here on the webpage but the original formation is scattered. still don’t see it though… i guess i just envision bugs differently than my teacher 🙂
I believe it read as such:
grasshopper, who, as we look, now upgathering into himself, leaps, arriving to become, rearrangingly, a grasshopper
cummings is my favorite poet. i made an hommage to him in my blog paulodtoledo.blog.uol.com.br
i wait you there!
ps: i am brazilian and my english is not so good.