Wednesday 11 May 2011

Can you explan the poem "Nobody loses all the time" by e. e. cummings?

"Nobody
Loses All the Time," by e.e. cummings, is--on a superficial level--the tale of the author's
Uncle Sol.

Sol is a perennial loser.  He starts off as a vegetable farmer,
but his chickens ate all the vegetables.  So, he became a chicken farmer, "till the skunks
ate the chickens."  Sol then became a skunk farmer "but the skunks caught cold and
died."

Sol finally gives up, "drowning himself in the
watertank."  He now becomes something of  pathetic joke.  This man who was always a loser
is presented

  upon the auspicious occasion of his decease
a scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with tall boys in black gloves and flowers and
everything.

In the end, even Sol manages to make
something of himself:

somebody pressed a button


 (and down went

 my Uncle Sol

and started a worm
farm)

Perhaps Uncle Sol can be viewed as a sort
of existentialist hero; that is, a man who may not win life's battles, but finds a certain
dignity in striving to live.  In Sol's case, he finally achieves dignity in his death, when he
is feted with an elaborate funeral and finally accomplishes something worthy by becoming food
for worms.

Check out the link below for some other thoughts about this
poem. 

 

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