somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
the first time i heard this beautiful poem was when i was listening to a captivating song(which actually one of my favorites>>the first time i love forever..
this poem is for the one i love deeply, for all that he is to me and for all our possibilities together. the magnitude of emotions expressed in this poem is the closest thing to describe in words what true and complete love is. if love is authentic power in our lives, so is surrender to it. we open and shut very beautifully each time… with love renewed, with hope lifted and with passions burned. to my little island in the sun..i love you completely..
i have read this poem about a hundred times and i will read it a thousand times before i die. ee cummings must be madly, hopelesly in love when he wrote this.
this one’s for you CV whom i love deeply, beyond words,beyond all my realities, beyond this plane of existence. i am forever yours. and the magnitude of this very conflicting yet very exulting realization is certainly joyfully celebrated in this particular poem.
I have adored this poem for many years, as perhaps cummings’s most tender love poem. Evocative in using the simplest of language to convey deep feeling, it is a rite of passage for me. I sought it out today as I have found myself in an unhappy leave, and like many great works of art it can offer a sense of connectedness to a larger world–a reminder that we are not alone in loving, in surrendering ourselves to strong feeling and thus to another.
When I first met this poem I thought of it as a beautiful revelation of love between lovers.
It now so much to me as a poem spoken to a child,my child.
The notion of being “opened” by small hands,speaks so profoundly of the mystery of motherhood and the vulnerability of that opening.
It speaks gently of the aching love you feel for your child together with the feeling that the child,in fact,controls you as the sun controls the opening and closing of a flower.
What a beautiful poem.
This poem is the most beautiful love poem that i have ever read. I was doing a report on e.e. cummings when i came across the poem. I didn’t understand his other work. But i love this poem it’s so sincere and so beautiful it’s just hard to explain what you feel when you read it.
does anyone know when cummings wrote / published this poem? it is truly lovely and expresses, i believe, what many women hope that the men they love will see in them.
This is the single most beautiful poem I have ever read!
this has to be one of the most beautifully worded poems ever written. it speaks of a love so strong and understanding that it hurts. the words are so delicate and fragile that it seems like reading the poem might break it. we all find a different meaning in e. e. cummings words, and we are all moved by how beautiful they are and the love that he speaks of.
I was in high school when I first came across this poem. It was a Senior English class, and we were going through a poetry lesson. My teacher was impressed I had already heard it and asked the class how to interpret it. Again, I was the only one with a raised hand and probably the only one who gave a damn and wasn’t nodding off. Anyways, from then on he called me the ‘poet lauriate’ and it was such an honor since he was an amazing teacher that is now retired.
this poem gives me goosebumps…
This poem is one of my great favourites and one that I frequently recite to my partner before sleeping. It contains stunningly gorgeous imagery and speaks of an enormously deep love of a woman on every possible level. Maybe his most autobiographical poem?
This is my favorite poem of all time! I read it to someone once and the person didn’t understand it. To me it’s like reading someone’s soul. So for now I keep this poem to myself, not to be confused by strangers or dirtied by persons. But someday I’m sure I’ll hear someone say thier soul to me and a match will be made. Only then will I share this again. I’m glad to see this treasure is enjoyed by others and isn’t just written to me. You know what I mean.
I met this poem through Susanne Abbuehl’s album “April” where some other e.e.cummings poems can be found. Surrender, admiration, protection, the paralysis of emotion. If I still had her I would whisper this one to her tonight.
This is my poem for my baby.My wife is three months pregnant.E. E. Cummings described the emotion i have now that soon i’ll be a father. The innocense and fragility is deep and sincere. My wife is due on May 2005 so my baby will definitely hear this soon.
This is one of the few pieces ever written that accurately portrays the kaleidoscope of emotions love brings. An emotion without words is here put into some of the most simple and beautiful ever commited to paper.
I address this poem to GOD, and sing it as a prayer.
E E Cummings just knows how to put those simple words together to put across a very deep and beautiful thought.
This poem is gorgeous. It is one of my favorites. Cummings is the man!! The speaker in this poem is a trip.