Poem Analysis 1: [in-Just] by E.E. Cummings

in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles          far          and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and             wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
         the
                  goat-footed
balloonMan          whistles
far
and

wee

This beautifully written poem shows us an image of a lovely Spring day through a child's eyes. Since Spring is finally here, everyone is out and about and this is something that the speaker admires very much. Throughout the poem, he/she clearly displays many images of all he/she is witnessing, using a sense of imagery in every line. Though the poem is very short and simple, a developing image is created when reading through the narration of the young boy/girl. One aspect of the poem that really held onto my attention was the way in which the speaker spoke to us listeners. The format of the poem does just so; constructing a use of tone and shifts from the beginning until the end. Spaces are used when E.E. Cummings decides to slow down a readers. To develop a more fast pace for the reader, Cummings positions words together. Not only does this affect the ways in which a reader reads the poem, it affects the speaker himself/herself. The use of vocabulary and words in the poem that the speaker uses displays an image of his/her youth and impacts an overarching theme of youth. Spring is for the youth and the youth is for the Spring. In this idea, children are developing humans as the lose their innocence as they grow older and older. Physically a child grows and mentally they do as well. The structure of this poem indicates a child's mental youth and as they grow until adults, we can then notice a change.