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Kelsey-Jo

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  • on maggie and milly and molly and may by e e cummings, on January 20

    "as small as a world and as large as alone"

    I think, in the context of the poem, that this is just an efficient description of the stone. The world is very impersonal; it is impossible to encompass a true enough understanding of every aspect of the world for it to hold great importance, as a whole, inside one's heart. To feel alone, however, is all-consuming. When loneliness is felt, it is suffocating; there is no vacancy when loneliness checks in. To me, this description of what May finds at the beach taken in correspondence with the final line, "For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
    it’s always ourselves we find in the sea " insinuates that the aspect of herself she found represented in this stone is her emotional spectrum. To her, material things--even the entire world!--are a grain of sand in comparison to the slightest whim of the heart.

    This is just my reading of the line, though. And, I'm no expert, to be sure!!

    Kelsey-Jo

  • on maggie and milly and molly and may by e e cummings, on August 5, 2006
    I agree with the last post. I've been obsessed with the words "as small as a world and as large as alone" for well over a week now. They hold so much truth it gives me shivers. When you think of the world it is a cold and distant thing, highly impersonal, and it really isn't that big of a part of your daily concentration. But when you feel loneliness you don't just feel it, it consumes you. Your loneliness is something only you can truly understand and when you feel it it seems like the biggest and highest hurdle you could have ever imagined, and it is.

    I also love the bit from line two in parentheses. It fits into the ideal of dual meaning that Peacedreamer touched on. "To play one day" describes the carefree sunny day of a few young girls, but as soon as I read it my first time through this piece it also reminded me of life as it is often referred to as a game. We all go to the beach to play that game... and to find ourselves. Quite a seemingly insignificant, yet enormously important little half of a line, if you ask me. That's just my opinion, though. I'm young and naive and know little of poetry. My love for it, however, probably exceeds a vast majority of those older, wiser, and more well-versed.

    Happy reading and even happier writing,

    Kelsey

  • on My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, on June 20, 2005
    I've always wanted to go to Australia and this poem just strengthens that. Oh, it's so gorgeous! I wish we got to learn poems like this in America. Perhaps if I take World Literature... hmm... a thought.

  • on A Moment Of Happiness by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, on January 17, 2005
    This is so beautiful! Wow, wake up call. I definately need to read more oldpoetry. I'll definately read more of Rumi's works!! I'll bookmark this one to start with.

    The imagery was gorgeous. The flowing water, garden, birds, crescents. My absolute favorite was the line about heaven's parrots cracking sugar. It takes a genius to come up with this stuff! I'm very impressed!!!

    Kelso~