1a. What does the speaker say "your eyes" have?
2a. What will easily "unclose" the speaker, even if he has closed himself "as fingers"? To what is the closing of the speaker compared?
3a. What equals "the power of your intense fragility"? What does the speaker understand about "the voice of your eyes"?
4a. Identify the various things to which the speaker compares the person addressed.
5a. Considering the perspective of the speaker, how do you think the person addressed feels about him? What effect does the person being addressed have on the speaker? Give evidence to support your response.
1b. Where has the speaker never traveled? What does it mean for eyes to "have their silence"?
2b. In the metaphor "you open always petal by petal," to what does the speaker compare the subject of the poem? To what does he compare himself? What power does the subject of the poem hold over the speaker? If the subject closes the speaker, what happens to their relationship?
3b. What does the use of the word "countries" suggest about the nature of the subject's personality? Does this person have traditionally masculine or feminine attributes?
4b. Why is it paradoxical that the speaker refers to the "frail gestures," "intense fragility," and "small hands" of the beloved?
5b. If you were the speaker, how would you react to each of the following from the person addressed in this poem?
¥ a Valentine ¥ an invitation to a dance ¥ a broken date ¥ a rebuke
Syntax and Inversion. How are the words in the first two lines inverted? How would the first two lines read if Cummings had followed the usual order of words in a sentence, placing the subject first?
Repetition. What is the effect of the repetition of the words open and close?
1. Imagine that you are the person whom the speaker addresses in the poem. Write the speaker a letter expressing your feelings of love toward him.
2. Write a greeting card message for the person whom the speaker addresses in the poem. Expand on the metaphor of spring expressed in stanza 2.
3. Write a poem about a subject other than love, experimenting with syntax and punctuation.
Adding Modifiers. Rewrite the following sentences about E. E. Cummings's life, adding appropriate modifiers. Reread About the Author on page 535 to find your answers.
1. E. E. Cummings's father was a minister and a faculty member.
2. The poet spent time in a prison.
3. The Enormous Room is his account of the experience.
4. E. E. Cummings arranged letters, words, and phrases in ways that make an impact.
5. His works include volumes of poetry written in the 1920s and a book of poems published toward the end of the 1930s.
"In just-spring when the world is mud-luscious the little lame balloon man whistles far and wee and Eddie and Bill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloon man whistles far and wee and Betty and Isbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope, and it's spring and the goat-footed balloon man whistles far and wee."
