Cummings’ poems are noted for their singular use of diction. Cummings’ “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town” is penned in iambic metre with rhyme and slant rhyme.
“Anyone” appears to be the protagonist of the poem. The attribution of a pronoun to address the protagonist points to his anonymity and lack of individuality. It may also stand as a generalization where the pronoun refers to anyone. Anyone was a person who was always buoyant and in jovial spirits. He remained unaffected by mechanical routines or the cycle of seasons. He sang his own songs.The poet puts forth a rhetorical question whether “he didn’t dance his did”?
Women and men both “big and small” did not care for Anyone. By the phrase “big and small”, the poet may indicate the size, stature or position of the people in question. The line:” they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same” implies that they reaped the benefits of their work.
On a figurative level, it may signify they reaped the reward of their good deeds and bad deeds respectively. They did this whether “sun moon stars rain.” The first part (sun moon) refers to the cycle of day and night. The second part alludes to the cycle of seasons whether it was rainy or not. The condition of it being rainy or not also points to the fact of whether it was a fertile or barren existence as people continued with their mechanical routine disregarding Anyone.
The story of Anyone had transformed into as legend as time passed. Some children guessed and some knew that he loved No one more and more as the days passed . And as some children climbed the ladder of time, these memories seem to be left behind. Just as ‘when’ is incomplete without ‘now’; and ‘tree’ is insignificant without ‘leaf’, she was incomplete without him. She multiplied his joys, and divided his sorrows. She was his bird when he was in snow; she was his ‘stir’ when he was ‘still’. That is, she was his guide and reason for moving on in life. Anyone’s ‘any’ was all to her; meaning Anyone’s neutral nature and universality was everything to her.
‘Someones’ married their ‘everyones’, implies that someone married somebody that was equivalent to ‘everyone’ to them. They laughed off their sorrows. They slept to wake and hope, for it was ‘hope’ that carried them on. As they came face-to-face with reality, they slept their dream, and their hope was set to rest. Now, they said “never” to such immaterial hopes.
Throughout the different seasons ‘stars rain sun moon’, the children forgot to remember the existence of anybody.This could be best explained through the metaphor of the snow that buried anything beneath it as soon as it arrived.The speaker wonders at the fact how children could afford to forget the tale of Anyone in spite of many bells floating down. These bells serve as a reminder. The image of the snow signifies ‘transitoriness’ as ‘ice’ does. Anyone died one day ,and Nonone stooped to kiss his face. The two were buried side by side. They were similar as there were “all by all” there. And the position of the two were “deep by deep”. Their dreams are embedded in their everlasting sleep. No one and Anyone were related to each other as earth was to April; where summer enriches the earth. There were linked as spirit kindles wish, and as ‘yes’ or fulfillment is to ‘if’.
Meanwhile both men and women, ding and dong, meaning people going either way, continued with their sowing and reaping. The ways of the world and routines (summer autumn winter spring) would never cease because of the death of two individuals. Women and men(both dong and ding) summer autumn winter spring reaped their sowing and “went their came sun moon stars rain”. The world is exclusively centered on the living beings, and not on the dead souls; and therefore the title “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town”. Louis Untermeyer remarks,”If Cummings is scarcely a revolutionary thinker, he is always a surprisingly creative craftsman…”
© Rukhaya MK 2012
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