maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
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sea search
From guest Barbara McMichael (contact)
I first read this poem 50 years ago when I was in my teens and though I knew the author, remembering the last couplet only, I could never re-locate the poem. Coming late (protesting all the way) to the 21st century, I thought only this morning to use the internet. What a delight the poem is still to the aged me as it was to the young me. Thanks! -
One of the Best
From guest Johnny (contact)
This is one of the best poems ever! A little better than "There will come soft rains" and just under "Fire and Ice". LOVE IT!!!! -
Love this
This is such a great poem.... "as small as a world and as large as alone." awesome! -
From guest Mat (contact)
I think this poem may be alluding to suicide. Yes its happy on the exterior, but how else do you "[not] remember all your troubles" and if you find yourself at sea you must have been lost there. Perhaps Maggie and Milly and May died in the ocea... -
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For guest Mat
There's a world of difference between finding yourself "at sea" and, as in this case, finding things "in the sea".
This appears to be little more than a poem for a child about beachcoming and what's to be found on the shore and strand. A conch to sing in your ear, a stranded starfish, a scuttling crab and an interestingly shaped or coloured pebble. I believe Cummings is saying These prosaic things are transformed by "you and me" into whatever conceptions we take to the shore with us.
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This was probably written between 1954 when "Poems 1923-1954" was published, and 1958 when 95 Poems was published. This was the last collection of new poems published during Cummings's lifetime.
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This is one of my all time favourite poems. Thank you for posting it
Mariana
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Thank you for posting this as old poem of the day on 4/17/09. I will now want to read more of this legend's work.
Jim -
...I love how most of the comments are direct to the poet, even though he's no longer with us.
It makes me giggle, in a sad way.
In any even, I think this really show how "out of the box" Cummings was. The pinctuation seems random at times, but it adds to the dysfunctional situation he's trying to portray - we find ourselves in the simplest of things.
Very thought provoking. -
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how
From guest bianca Barrientos (contact)
what do u mean about that they "always ourselves we find in the sea" by the way i really love this poem!!!!! -
From guest Ariana MARTINO (contact)
Not only is this poem about the beach, its about growing up. Whatever these children find at the beach is what they become later on, hence the last line: they found their true self. Maggie becomes a sweet young lady. Molly becomes a "horrible thing." May becomeds somewhat of a quiet peaceful loner. -
To guest Kelli
For me this is cummings' way of saying that different people encounter the same situation in different ways. They interact differently and retain different memories. Whatever we take into the situation decides what we get out of it. -
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SONG
From guest Merlisa Ann R. (contact)
You should make it into a song. So that people can remeber it by heart, and sing it. I would sing it every day, to remind myself the meaning of the poem, and how big of a part it takes place on this earth. -
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Maggie and Milly and Molly and may
From guest KATIE (contact)
I LOVE THE POEM IT IS JUST LIKE MY LIFE AND MY 3 OTHER FRIENDS!!!! -
pronoun needed
From guest Nos (contact)
I need a pronoun expressing the idea that in the short statements lies the most wisdom. because that's exactly what I feel about this poem. It shines all the brightest because of it's small length. -
thankyou!
From guest Lydia (contact)
i am creating a dance on this for my AS level! your insights have been alot of help to enable me to see different perceptions of this poem. thankyou so much. its a beautiful poem dont you agree :) x x x -
ee cummings
From guest diane (contact)
ee never fails to delight...have not read him for a while...thanks for the prompt -
From guest Tay (contact)
sometimes trees are just trees. i'm sure there's some meaning in there, but really, ee's the only one that'll ever really know what it is. -
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this is so me
From guest Maggie O'mally (contact)
My name is maggie and I can totally connect to this poem. His work really reaches into my soul and connects with my heart. -
Symbolism
From guest Akane (contact)
Well, I suppose that I am not exactly an expert on this by any means. But, if you look at the last part of his poem "it's always ourselves we find in the sea," perhaps it refers to the fact that what each person found reflects what they are like on a deeper level. Maggie found a shell, a simple thing really that helped her to lose all of her troubles. So maybe we can assume that Maggie is a bit simplistic and finds pleasure in the simple things of life. And then the starfish that Milly finds... The fact that he describes it as a hand and says that it is STRANDED might stand for the fact that Milly is caring and helpful, always ready to lend a helping hand. And so on... I am not claiming to be an expert on such matters. In fact, I guess that I might as far from English expert as there is. But I've had several discussions on this before. -
what analyses would we pick up?
"maggie and milly and molly and may" does have a qualitativeness of children in the diminutive names but as Oliver saw there is to be found brakes and reverse feelings at the beach and we hide in those tides like a 3D parentheses.
I know, today, marching towards a faucet, the shower door was grabbed like I was ready to reset the clock. But this is more open than just efficiently having time to relax like manually washing dishes and myself but "(to play one day)" comes like an unnatural end of the sentence in interjected routine of ordinariness being aired out.But so fully is the boldly, not casually given any moment but a time that made dawn different with what to go towards...not wastefully scheduled. All 4 went or they each had their vignette in almost a villanelle of repeating a reference out of a villa respectively, none and neither just in the village.
The physical savors are very specific as the vast recreation was sat at the mile of minutia that replaced qualms for enjoyment. maggie had the audible delight of a whispered feel of a home's acoustics :
"and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and"which ironically maybe couldn't be acquired with her own want until out with a momento.
milly befriending a found organism had the must in the resemblance to a hand, thus the compelling fill in the blank for her. Possibly a change from busy manos never able to be with her man or hope for a child with the work-driven name of herself being taking seriously until this lazy dog day. And if a girl yet, she may be stressed anyway from not being the girl that can have affection with freedom to stroll with an embrace instead of just tickle and leave.
molly was unique with a lark over locomotion in the water like kinetic laughter is empatically needed to feel beloved, fit.
may's story wasn't in the scene but like snuck in the pocket for a keepsake not for kicking about but neither on display because it was of personal dimension with syness around a "stone" but with nodes by which to find a "world" all at once or "alone" finally recognizedby some size of appreciation soley involved, it seems.
Hence the items aren't souvenirs but saving parts of us through prosthesis or personality hope to sharpen, I took thus far. -
From guest Oliver (contact)
i think the first stanza where the words in parentheses (to play one day) mean that maggie, milly, molly, and may are not children because the perentheses is like side infomation so first they just went down to the beach like all ages do but they couldnt help to play at the beach becuase they were consumed by the magical world of the beach -
From guest Oliver (contact)
i think the sentence "as small as a world and as large as alone" reflects to the beach where they can lose themselves and hide from everyday life for exmaple school, paying taxes etc. but as soon as we come to the beach we can have fun and forget about our troubles. When the author writes "as small as a world and as large as alone" i think it means that you have taken something from the beach for example a shell which represents the beach but thats just one thing out of the many things you can find on the beach, and beacuse the beach is its own world its as small as a world (becuase its just one thing) but as large as a world becuase it represents the magical world of the beach -
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"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
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From guest Jacob (contact)
I think what needs to be said has mostly been said by the previous comments. However one think i think that could be taken literal. The last line "it’s always ourselves we find in the sea" I think this could be taken as someone veiwing themselves in the relfetcion of the water and this is important because yes we do see our selves in mirrors and other objects but how often do we see our selves pictured in nature? Maybe this the only way we can truly find ourselves and thats with nature, how we began -
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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 -
To me the lines "as small as a world and as large as alone" are probably the best fragment of poetry I've ever read. I don't read much poetry, but I've read this particular poem many times because it's so beautiful. The author's intent might just have been to put what he was feeling on paper; it doesn't always have a hidden meaning.
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Not sure what the problem is you are having with this but my reading of it is that it is a light and delightful piece that contains a great deal of depth. One the surface its a descriptive piece about four girl children who go to the beath and enjoy themselves, doing what children always do on beaches, finding shells and sea-creatures and collecting stones.
Then there is the other and deeper level, the original sense is that these girls are children playing, but they are also reflecting the adult world. Maggie lost herself in the beauty of her shell's song - hasn't everyone put a sea-shell to their ear and been entranced by the 'music' they hear? milly and molly experience friendship and fear and may finds a stone that encompasses her world small and lonely.
The last couplet sums up the whole, whatever happens when we go to the sea we find ourselves, as these girls did, maggie hearing beauty, milly helping where there is need, molly experiencing her fear and may her loneliness.
Does this make any more sense of it for you? -
could someone please tell me what the point is and author's intention of maggy, milly, molly and may?? PLEASE????
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