nobody loses all the time
E.E. Cummings
General Comments
This poem is stylistically interesting and demonstrates much of what is unique about the
writing of E.E. Cummings:
1) His playful and unusual sentence construction (syntax)
2) A lack of conventional punctuation and capital letters (except when writing
proper nouns). Where Cummings uses parentheses (brackets) it is done to draw
attention to the central idea, as opposed to add additional or extraneous
information
3) The visual elements inherent in his work. Cummings plays with space, shape and
form to create powerful visual impressions.
4) The irregular, and at times jarring, stanza breaks in the middle of an idea.
5) The apparently absurd ideas that are presented in a matter-of fact manner.
It is these challenges to conventional writing forms that make Cummings a distinctively
modernist writer. He clearly lives by Ezra Pound’s dictum to “make things new”. (Refer to
the webpage on modernism.)
The actual narrative is rather simple. The speaker’s uncle is a ne'er-do-well (someone
who is unsuccessful in life). Although he displays some musical talent and could have
followed a career as a cabaret-style musical performer, he decides to become a vegetable
farmer. He fails at this because chickens eat his vegetables. He also fails as a chicken
farmer because his chickens are eaten by skunks, which results in his becoming a skunk
farmer (an absurd notion since skunks are considered by farmers to be pests and are
repellent creatures.) When all his skunks catch cold and die (equally absurd, since
skunks are very resilient creatures and it is rare for any creature to die of a cold), his
uncle commits suicide by drowning himself (something of an overreaction to the death of
his skunks!) Ironically, the highlight of his life actually appears to be his death: he has a
magnificent funeral and his abundantly mourned by his family. His true success is only
achieved in death when his body is consumed by worms, and he thus becomes a
successful worm farmer. Clearly this poem is humorous is a dark and morbid way. This
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
1
, is known as black or dark comedy which is defined as “a comic style that makes light of
subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally
considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool to
provoke discomfort and serious thought as well as amusement in their audience”.
Stanza 1 and 2
1. i had an uncle named
2. Sol who was a born failure and
3. nearly everybody said he should have gone
4. into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could
5. sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
6. may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle
7. Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable
8. of all to use a highfalootin phrase
9. luxuries that is or to
10. wit farming and be
11. it needlessly
12. added
Personal Pronoun ‘i’: The use of the first person pronoun clearly establishes that the
speaker is supposedly narrating a story about his/her uncle.
Born failure: The notion of someone as a ‘born failure’ shows social judgment. Lines 3-5
also show the extent to which society depreciates the value of the arts, since Uncle Sol’s
singing talents do not exempt him from being considered a failure, and it is this very lack
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
2
E.E. Cummings
General Comments
This poem is stylistically interesting and demonstrates much of what is unique about the
writing of E.E. Cummings:
1) His playful and unusual sentence construction (syntax)
2) A lack of conventional punctuation and capital letters (except when writing
proper nouns). Where Cummings uses parentheses (brackets) it is done to draw
attention to the central idea, as opposed to add additional or extraneous
information
3) The visual elements inherent in his work. Cummings plays with space, shape and
form to create powerful visual impressions.
4) The irregular, and at times jarring, stanza breaks in the middle of an idea.
5) The apparently absurd ideas that are presented in a matter-of fact manner.
It is these challenges to conventional writing forms that make Cummings a distinctively
modernist writer. He clearly lives by Ezra Pound’s dictum to “make things new”. (Refer to
the webpage on modernism.)
The actual narrative is rather simple. The speaker’s uncle is a ne'er-do-well (someone
who is unsuccessful in life). Although he displays some musical talent and could have
followed a career as a cabaret-style musical performer, he decides to become a vegetable
farmer. He fails at this because chickens eat his vegetables. He also fails as a chicken
farmer because his chickens are eaten by skunks, which results in his becoming a skunk
farmer (an absurd notion since skunks are considered by farmers to be pests and are
repellent creatures.) When all his skunks catch cold and die (equally absurd, since
skunks are very resilient creatures and it is rare for any creature to die of a cold), his
uncle commits suicide by drowning himself (something of an overreaction to the death of
his skunks!) Ironically, the highlight of his life actually appears to be his death: he has a
magnificent funeral and his abundantly mourned by his family. His true success is only
achieved in death when his body is consumed by worms, and he thus becomes a
successful worm farmer. Clearly this poem is humorous is a dark and morbid way. This
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
1
, is known as black or dark comedy which is defined as “a comic style that makes light of
subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally
considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool to
provoke discomfort and serious thought as well as amusement in their audience”.
Stanza 1 and 2
1. i had an uncle named
2. Sol who was a born failure and
3. nearly everybody said he should have gone
4. into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could
5. sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
6. may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle
7. Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable
8. of all to use a highfalootin phrase
9. luxuries that is or to
10. wit farming and be
11. it needlessly
12. added
Personal Pronoun ‘i’: The use of the first person pronoun clearly establishes that the
speaker is supposedly narrating a story about his/her uncle.
Born failure: The notion of someone as a ‘born failure’ shows social judgment. Lines 3-5
also show the extent to which society depreciates the value of the arts, since Uncle Sol’s
singing talents do not exempt him from being considered a failure, and it is this very lack
Raphaela De Ascensão Study Notes
2
