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144 Unit 2 ■ Analyzing Comparisons and Representations

There’s a place where this poem dwells —
SUGGESTED RESPONSES 11 95 Ther e’ s a place wher e this poem d w ells — Guided Questions
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell
TO GUIDED QUESTIONS it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell 11. Explain the final
where we write an American lyric comparison and
11. Responses may vary. Gorman concludes we are just beginning to tell. how the metaphor
by reflecting on the presentation/reading of contributes to your
the poem in the current moment and the joy, understanding of
the poem.
hope, and prosperity that can be found in
embracing diversity.
PRACTICE TEXT
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
INTRODUCING THE TEXT
You may open the class by asking students to
reflect on a time in their lives when they had a she being Brand
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
completely brand-new experience: learning how
to ride a bike for the first time, jumping into a e.e. cummings
pool for the first time, building a piece of furniture
or creating work of art or craft in a new medium THE TEXT IN CONTEXT
for the first time. Ask students to reflect on the
stages of the experience and what emotions or Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Edward Estlin Cummings
sensations they felt as they had the experience. (1894–1962) began writing poems as a child. He received his BA
and MA from Harvard University, where he not only discovered
the work of avant-garde modernist writers like Ezra Pound and
Gertrude Stein but also visual artists such as the French post-
IDEAS IN THE TEXT impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Cummings’s first collection Bettmann/Getty Images
Experience of poems, Tulips and Chimneys, appeared in 1923. While many
poems in the book followed conventional forms, others intro-
Movement
duced readers to Cummings’s idiosyncratic language, eccentric punctuation, and playful
Excitement
experiments with grammar. His more experimental 1926 collection is 5 included the fol-
Sensation
lowing poem, which creates an elaborate extended comparison.
Realization
Maturation
® SKILLS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
AP
PRACTICE Explaining the Function of Comparisons
TRM Graphic Organizer: Explaining the Function
of Comparisons
As you read the following poem by e.e. cummings, use the graphic organizer to
record details from the poem of the comparison in the poem. Explain the signifi-
cance of each aspect of the traits being compared.
Analyzing Metaphorical Comparisons
Considerations
• Which two objects are being compared in a particular metaphor?
• What are the particular traits and characteristics being compared?
• What is significant about the selection of the objects being compared?

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CRITICAL APPROACHES
Freudian
Literary critic Dr. Lewis H. Miller Jr. argues that
cummings’s metaphorical text is just one of many
suggestive poems in the history of literature. He
writes that the puns of the text enhance the
poem’s wit “by engaging the underside of English
Renaissance literature. The verb ‘come’ is
obvious enough; less obvious are Elizabethan
references to sexual physiology, anatomy, and
performance in ‘oil,’ ‘nudge,’ ‘gear,’ ‘juice,’ ‘ride,’
‘nice,’ and, finally, ‘gardens’—a favorite of . . .
Shakespeare whose sonnet 16’s ‘maiden
gardens,’ alludes to virgin pudenda.”

144 Unit 2 Analyzing Comparisons and Representations

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