Tuesday, May 3, 2011

9. By: E. E. Cummings

there are so many tictoc 
clocks everywhere telling people 
what toctic time it is for 
tictic instance five toc minutes toc 
past six tic  
Spring is not regulated and does 
not get out of order nor do 
its hands a little jerking move 
over numbers slowly     
we do not 
wind it up it has no weights 
springs wheels inside of 
its slender self no indeed dear 
nothing of the kind.  
(So,when kiss Spring comes 
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss 
lips because tic clocks toc don't make 
a toctic difference 
to kisskiss you and to  
kiss me)
Reaction: Having already read a poem by this brilliant author, I wasn't as confused as I might have been. I was slightly surprised however, at how simple the poem was after a second glance
Meaning: The title "9" refers to the 9 'tics/tocs' and 'kisses' that go on during the poem. Cummings suggests that the clocks that are continuously telling people what time it is, that they are late or early, or if they are running out of time or have plenty of time to spare. He feels like he should be aloud freedom; the clocks do not seem to give him that. In the summer, however, the clocks don't matter because it is a season for (mostly) careless fun. He could really care less about the clocks and their tictoc ways then.
Technique: Free Verse

3 comments:

  1. ^ I agree, I'm not sure the title analysis is quite correct.

    I also think you are missing, maybe, a deeper meaning, here. I don't understand this one fully, but maybe the ambiguity is intentional.

    Noticing the sexual theme in the end, I jumped back to 'hands a little jerking move ... over slowly' - I'll let you draw that connection yourself. I again, then, read into 'wind it up (foreplay, maybe?) ... inside of its slender self.

    Taking in the theme of the rest of the poem, in the distraction of time and the nature of spring (and the 'love' that comes along with it) to be unconcerned with time, the last line sounds like a request to me 'kiss me', and the tics and tocs interjected in the middle of that last set of parentheses (which are quite tense considering the reader will be looking for that last paren) which lead me to the conclusion that Cummings' lover in the poem comes off as distracted to him, and now the poem seems to be him explaining to her to forget time and be in the moment with him.

    So the overall sense I get in this poem is that of Cummings talking to a distracted lover who doesn't seem to be too into the love-making - although I still feel that I've maybe missed something more that I could have gotten out of weights, springs, wheels.

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    1. I forgot to finish a thought. I said the ambiguity may be intentional in the poem, and that is, to underscore maybe the sense that Cummings is unsure of the underlying feelings of his distracted lover. There is the sense that the state of the relationship is ambiguous on the part of his lover, while the overall attitude of Cummings seems to be obviously very into the moment and trying to bring his lover into it with him.

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