2015-08-21
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Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 – 1962) commonly known as e.e. cummings, wrote attractive, innovative verse distinguished for its humor, grace, celebration of love and eroticism, and experimentation with punctuation and visual format on the page. A painter, he was the first American poet to recognize that poetry had become primarily a visual, not an oral, art; his poems used much unusual spacing and indentation, as well as dropping all use of capital letters.
Pity this busy monster, manunkind begins by first stating the main subject that is being analyzed, which is all of humanity. The first line states, “Pity this busy monster, manunkind”. In this sentence, the “busy monster” is actually all of humanity. The term itself would be humankind; however, the poet has created a new word to describe what man is and what are its intentions. Manunkind is a fabricated word, however it is written in such context that it becomes a word which describes how man is unkind. It is describing a humanity has come to be so fully exhausted and hectic, that it has turned into a collection of pathetic monstrosities. It is evident that the poet has a negative outlook toward what humanity has come to be. He is inferring that over a period of time man is progressed so far in every aspect of life, including technology, medicine, and thought that it has turned into a monster without stop.
pity this busy monster, manunkind,
not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)
plays with the bigness of his littleness
– electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born – pity poor flesh
and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know
a hopeless case if – listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go
This poem is an important look at humanity because of its central theme; man sets himself above all others, no matter the cost. When man does this, he is opening the path of indifference to ignoring the "little people" who then become disposable, thus a monster is born.
In the next line he states, “Progress is a comfortable disease…” In this line he is stating how humanity has only one will on this planet and it is survival and progression. Cummings puts these words into such context that it makes humanity seem as if the only thing that it is concerned with are its own advancement on this planet, such as an obsessed beast. Here he is stating the reason why mankind should not be pities for it is bringing these circumstances upon itself, therefore it does not deserve any sympathy.
In the next line Cummings states, “… your victim (death and life safely beyond)” This line is meant to be described as a barrier which man has faced countless times which both helps and yet restrains it from progression. This line implies that death is the one enemy which mankind has not completely ended. It is what causes us from progressing at an even faster rate. However without death there would be no life, so it is symbolic that something which slows down progression, at the same time it is the fuel behind it occurring at all. Death and life are kept at a certain balance, for they are the beginning and end of everything living. Progression might cause the line between the two to completely vanish, turning humanity into a truly horrific creature with no stop to what its single purpose on the Earth is.
In the next line Cummings states, “…plays with the bigness of his littleness.” Here Cummings is implying that humanity sees itself to be far more than it really is. This line describes how humanity has come to see itself as all powerful and superior in the entire universe. It sees itself to be the only means of existence for the entire universe. However, it is ignorant to the fact that it is only a tiny speck in the middle of endlessness.
When Cummings states, “lenses extend unwish through curving where when till unwish returns on its unself.” Here Cummings uses the lenses of telescopes or cameras where the lenses create a distorted view of what is actually being seen. Cummings is using lenses in metaphorical terms to describe humanity as a single giant organism which has distorted itself, such as what lenses do, causing it to look at itself in a vague way, unaware of its actual appearance. The lenses has disillusioned mankind into perceiving who they are and where they live to be something that does not exist. This statement makes the existence of humanity seem nonexistent, through the sue of the prefix “un” Cummings is creating a sense of everything that humanity desires or strives to gain or achieve was and is not actually there. Humanity perceives through a lenses thus creating a disillusioned means of existence.
When Cummings states, “A world of made is not a world of born-pity poor flesh and trees, poor stars and stones…” Here the poet is implying that the things which man has created are unnatural. Through the means of the natural resources of the planet, man has molded these natural resources into poor and pitiful inventions and technologies. At this point the tone of the poem begins to change, into a depressed and slightly angered voice. Cummings is implying that everything man has made is unnatural and therefore it is not “good.” He is stating how that ever since humanity has inhabited the planet, everything has become poorer and has declined in its
condition. Humanity is a poison which is distorting and destroying everything that is natural and therefore good. Thus implying that humanity is evil and it is what should be blamed and everything that has fallen under its “reign” should not be held responsible but pitied for its condition.
