‘ nobody loses all the time’ E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
i had an uncle named
Sol who was a born failure and
nearly everybody said he should have gone
into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could
sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle
Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable
of all to use a highfalootin phrase
luxuries that is or to
wit farming and be
it needlessly
added
my Uncle Sol’s farm
failed because the chickens
ate the vegetables so
my Uncle Sol had a
chicken farm till the
skunks ate the chickens when
my Uncle Sol
had a skunk farm but
the skunks caught cold and
died and so
my Uncle Sol imitated the
skunks in a subtle manner
, or by drowning himself in the watertank
but somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor
Victrola and records while he lived presented to
him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a
scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with
tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and
i remember we all cried like the Missouri
when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because
somebody pressed a button
(and down went
my Uncle
Sol
and started a worm farm)
Meaning
• Open to reader’s interpretation.
• Nobody loses because everyone dies?
• Comical hero?
• Satirises American dream suggesting that anyone can be successful.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Irony
• Sarcasm
• Dark Humour
Structure
• Complete irregularity: Enjambment, short lines – chaos of Sol’s life.
• Syntax: Irregular use of language: formal mixed with colloquial.
Tone/Mood
• Dark, macabre, sarcastic, hyperbolic, punitive.
i had an uncle named
Sol who was a born failure and
nearly everybody said he should have gone
into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could
sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle
Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable
of all to use a highfalootin phrase
luxuries that is or to
wit farming and be
it needlessly
added
my Uncle Sol’s farm
failed because the chickens
ate the vegetables so
my Uncle Sol had a
chicken farm till the
skunks ate the chickens when
my Uncle Sol
had a skunk farm but
the skunks caught cold and
died and so
my Uncle Sol imitated the
skunks in a subtle manner
, or by drowning himself in the watertank
but somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor
Victrola and records while he lived presented to
him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a
scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with
tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and
i remember we all cried like the Missouri
when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because
somebody pressed a button
(and down went
my Uncle
Sol
and started a worm farm)
Meaning
• Open to reader’s interpretation.
• Nobody loses because everyone dies?
• Comical hero?
• Satirises American dream suggesting that anyone can be successful.
Imagery/Figures of Speech/Diction
• Irony
• Sarcasm
• Dark Humour
Structure
• Complete irregularity: Enjambment, short lines – chaos of Sol’s life.
• Syntax: Irregular use of language: formal mixed with colloquial.
Tone/Mood
• Dark, macabre, sarcastic, hyperbolic, punitive.
