Analysis of the poem “next to of course god america i”

Edward Estlin Cummings was born in 1894 in the United States and grew up in a highly religious and well achieving family where his dad was a professor of Harvard University where Cummings later studied. It was not long before he became interested in the modern type of poetry. His poems became very iconic as he focused on very traditional values and subjects like god, love and patriotism, however some of his poems had satirical messages and they undermined the sort of things that his other poems were encouraging.

Cummings himself was a pacifist so during World War 1 he was a member of the ambulance corps. He was even arrested on suspicion of espionage because he was seen expressing views lacking German hatred.

He also began experimenting with punctuation and word form which appears in next to of course god america i as there are no capital letters or full stops until the last line.

In the poem next to of course god america i, Cummings portrays a very satirical tone as he seems to be ridiculing the idea of patriotism throughout the poem.

At the start of the poem the person talking presents a lot of positive statements about the country that you may expect to see in a regular patriotic speech of the sort. This connotes that the speaker is attempting to deliver a motivational speech that carries a lot of love for the country.

However Cummings changes the poem midflow and begins to sound sarcastic in what he is saying. For example he presents the idea that dying for your country is beautiful which may be considered when thought of out of context. The general tone of the poem begins to sound more sarcastic and uncertain during this second part of the poem.

The poem ends with the first line that contains punctuation. I think this signals the end of the fast pace speech performed. Another way that u know the speech was rushed is by the way he drinks a glass of water symbolising a potential sore throat when quick speech and sweat from his nerves. This nervousness shows that the speaker may not even believe what he is trying to say.