Yoo Jung Kim
Professor Mary Gareis
ENGL 1102
14 April 2014
Poetry Research Essay
Poetry possesses different arrangements depending on who writes it. Some poems may be written in free verse while others could be written in rhyme; the form of a poem is quite important since the form is important to how readers interpret a poem. In most forms of poetry, the meaning of the words is employed to decipher the overall meaning of the poem. However, due to E.E Cummings’ unique style of poetry, the poetic structure is what determines the meaning of the work unlike in that of other poets.
The poem “The Sky Was” is one of many of E.E. Cummings’ unusual pieces of poetry, and to most readers, it being shaped like a wisp and having parts of separated words in each stanza makes it seem completely nonsensical. Strangely, throughout the poem, some words are separated into halves and thirds to create the shape of a wisp. “The Sky Was” had been purposefully arranged to appear to be a wisp of smoke coming from a train within the poem:
“…a lo co mo tive s pout ing vi o lets” (14-21).
However, that is not all that the poem is unique for. The work “E. E. Cummings's Parentheses: Punctuation as Poetic Device” states that “…physical aspects as typeface, layout, and spelling, participate in the creation of meaning, and ‘provide additional information not directly available from the flow of speech’” (Levenston 63-65). One purpose of separating out words within this piece was to emphasize the carefree nature of looking at the clouds in the sky imagining what they appear to be. Separating out words can be utilized to make readers read in a slower and more relaxed pace and emphasize certain syllables. Syllables play important