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22 pages 44 minutes read

E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1940

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Poem Analysis

Analysis: "anyone lived in a pretty how town"

There are two main ways to read this poem: The first is as a testament to love and the way it perseveres and builds, even in the face of indifference and monotony, and the second is as a poem about a place where love does not actually exist between anyone at all. The two readings are contradictory, but the language and ambiguity of the poem give credence to both.

Most readers view the poem from the first perspective, and this reading makes sense given Cummings’s approach to love in his other poetry. In this reading, anyone and noone are actual characters, a man and a woman who live in an unnamed town. The use of anyone and noone as character names allows for readers to see this story as universal and applicable to all. The name anyone specifically allows for this, but the name noone adds some complexity as well. In this positive reading of the poem, noone’s (and to an extent, anyone’s) name shows the personal nature of these characters’ love while adding a bit of irony to the poem. The character may be noone to the other townspeople (as demonstrated by the children who quickly lose interest in the love story [Lines 9-12]) and indeed noone to readers, but to anyone, noone is everything, and vice versa.

The speaker highlights this by essentially merging the two characters into one as their relationship grows, demonstrated by the line “she laughed his joy she cried his grief” (Line 14). This line is a perfect example of the way Cummings’s style incorporates meaning with nothing more than syntactic alterations. Not only do the words in the line show how noone becomes spiritually one with anyone, but also the pacing of the line forces the words to come together in a more rushed way. Cummings does this by omitting the conjunction “and” and by refusing to use punctuation to slow down the line. He does similar things in other poems, including his famous “in Just” (1920), when he slams together the names of children to show the way they both run fast and grow up fast.

Another place where Cummings’s style amplifies the romantic spirit of the poem comes later when anyone dies: “one day anyone died i guess / (and noone stooped to kiss his face) / busy folk buried them side by side” (Lines 25-27). Right after anyone dies, noone’s action of kissing his face is in parentheses, making it feel like a throwaway line, or one that does not have the same significance as the ones around it. And right after this line, the speaker says that the people buried “them”—both anyone and noone—without ever mentioning that noone had died. Again, the effect of this is to merge the two characters into one, showing the almost spiritual nature of their connection.

The couple’s romantic connection is contrasted by the monotony and uncaring nature of the town around them. The beginning of the poem makes note of this, claiming that “Women and men(both little and small) / cared for anyone not at all” (Lines 5-6). The speaker then compares the townspeople’s lives to the cycle of nature, saying “they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same / sun moon stars rain” (Lines 7-8). The pastoral imagery of sowing also calls to mind the aphorism “you reap what you sow,” meaning what you put into the world will be returned to you in kind. While this may seem harsh, the speaker isn’t necessarily condemning the townspeople; instead, he is commenting on the nature of life and society and the way that everyone has their own little world and romances that they live within, completely separate from everyone else.

In all places at all times, “someones married their everyones” (Line 17). There are no names in the poem because these stories are common across time and place, and in the poem, this universality becomes anonymity. Even if “anyone’s any was all to her” (Line 16), meaning that noone’s partner meant everything to her, this can be said of anyone. We all have our “anyone” or our “noone,” but the importance of those loves is something that is personal and private, even if it is everything to us. Time moves on, the world continues to spin, people are born, they marry, and they die, and this cycle goes on without end. Within this grand narrative of the universe, everyone exists within their own personal universe, and in many ways, those lives are completely detached from everyone else.

The above reading is a fairly positive and hopeful way of approaching the poem, but there are competing interpretations. Firstly, the speaker’s portrayal of the townspeople can certainly be seen as negative. For example, when anyone dies, the speaker seems to embody the perspective of a townsperson, saying, “one day anyone died i guess” (Line 25) The phrasing here feels dismissive, as if the speaker gives it little weight or consideration. Perhaps this is because the speaker is indifferent to anyone’s life, or perhaps the speaker views this as just a part of the natural cycle of life that the rest of the poem presents. Cummings does not make it clear either way. However, later in that stanza, the speaker does make clear how little of an impact the deaths of anyone and noone have on the people, saying that “busy folk” (Line 27) buried them and then went on with their lives. Again, is this a comment on the uncaring nature of society, or is it a way of showing how these things are part of life and not to be dwelt upon? Cummings leaves that up to the reader’s interpretation.

Finally, the most negative, pessimistic reading of the poem centers on the literal meaning of the names anyone and noone. From this perspective, it is possible to read the poem as a narrative about how, in this world, nobody loves anybody. If a reader takes this as the poem’s message, then the poem’s ultimate sentiment becomes incredibly bleak, as it means that while life is monotony, and while love breaks that monotony, nobody loves anyone in this town, so there is essentially no point to life. While this interpretation seems at odds with Cummings’s other poetry, it can be understood in the context of the world Cummings wrote in. This was a world wrecked by poverty, a world where war was raging, and a world where fascism and all its ugly hatreds threatened to overtake the world. Meanwhile, Cummings had grown up in an era of urbanization, modernization, and industrialization, where human dignity and life were constantly crushed under the boot of capitalistic greed. It is not too far a stretch to see the poem as an observation of this world where love is forgotten.

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