Loneliness

l (a

l e
a f
f a
l l
s )

one
l
iness

I have learned from our book English Communication Arts and Skills IV that poem is a thought or a feeling expressed in rhythmic and colorful language. Every poem has its own distinctions. And for me the poem above is very unique. At first glance, it seems like a very nonsense poem but take a look at it several times. Did you see what is behind that poem?

In taking the meaning of a poem, you have to know the background of the author. We must give consideration to all the events that he had experiences. I have researched that E. E. Cummings lived during World War I. He might be affected with it and he might have tragic experiences during the war.

The structure of a poem also greatly affects its meaning. When you look at the typographical structure of the poem, you can see a phrase “a leaf falls” inserted in the word loneliness. And I think the meaning of the poem lies there. E. E. Cummings wanted to express a feeling of solitude. But why did he compared the falling of the leaf to loneliness?

A leaf falls when its color is yellowish brown. And when this happens, the leaf departed from the branch of the tree. The leaf is already away from the tree that gives nutrients to the leaf. The leaf is nearing to die because it has no more connection with the tree.

For me, the falling of the leaf implies death. Let us take the tree as a family and all the leaves as the members of the family. When one leaf falls to the ground, the other members would definitely be sad. In our life, it is very hard to accept the inevitable truth that all of us will die eventually. We cannot understand if one of our loved ones will be taken away from us. Though it is difficult, we must because that is life. And accepting the truth takes a long time. It is a process.
When there is a wound, let it heal through time. Do not inflict it with different cure because the only cure is time. Wait for the right timing to come. And during that process, loneliness is what we feel.
Another meaning that I can get from the poem is abandonment. When someone leaves you behind, you will really feel depressed. There are times that you keep on thinking of the person and you do not want to eat. There are also times that you cannot sleep because you are thinking of the person, if he is ok or not. It is hard because you will miss the person. When you want to call him, you do not know how to communicate with him. It is very hard to be left behind. In times of grief, you have no one to lean on. You are all alone.

Well those are my interpretations. We might have different interpretations because of our experiences. Try to look for other meanings and you will see that a short poem like this has so much emotion yet to be discovered.