NEB Grade: 11 (English) 2.4 who are you, little i ? by e. e. cummings Part-2

 NEB Grade: 11 (English) 2.4 who are you, little i ? by e. e. cummings Part-2

Before Reading

Answer these questions. :

a. Have you ever looked out through a window and taken pleasure in what you saw? If so, what did you look at?

Whenever I am free, or feel solitude in vacant days, I stand by my window, looking out through it which provides pleasures to me a lot.

 I live on the second floor of my own building in a village my room faced towards the garden. So my window overlooks the garden and natural beauty. Naturally it is full many sorts of birds and other cattle moving here and there and singing sweet songs. Passerby sitting there and others having conversations sitting under the trees.

            (The scene of a typical village  and surrounding garden.)

b. Which beautiful scenes do you think would make you want to look out through the window ?

 Well, this depends on which mood and place  I am at the time. But, mostly I enjoy natural scenes such as green trees, birds singing, clear blue sky river flowing snowy Himalayas and other animals,  the scenario of sunrise and sunset.

 c. Do you write pronoun 'I' capital or small in writing ?

Yes, I always write the pronoun 'I' in capital in the sense it refers to an individual. If it is written in small in writing, people will think it to be a typographical error.

 

 

Summary: "who are you, little i?"

•    In this very little poem ‘ who are you, little I ?’,  the speaker stands near his window one evening, watching sunset outside. Suddenly he goes back to his past, in his childhood days. He recalls how in his childhood days, he used to enjoy such beautiful natural scenes.  

•     This short poem is related to nature and its effect on the nature . It is quite short which includes only 8 lines. The main theme of this poem is non- ultimate  freshness of beautiful nature and its positive effect on the nature .

•     The poet describes a little boy, his location, and his act of looking and feeling about the beautiful nature. He presents his experience of his childhood which is closely connected  with nature. He present himself as a little boy ( i ) of 5 years who keeps on peering  beautiful golden sunset of November .

•     At the last three lines poet enjoys the beautiful nature a lot. He feels wonderful transmission of day into night in a very beautiful ways . He gets closely connected with nature to see the beautiful way of turning  golden colors of the sunset  of November into black color of night  time. Nature and its effect always have a vital role in every -ones life. Nature provides us ecstasy and inspiration. Nature always creates deep feeling of intimacy with us. Here the speaker  shows his deep devotion , respect , and intimacy with the nature .

•      The poem  can be divided into two parts:

•    In the first part, we find the speaker's state of mind recalling the past pleasing moments of his childhood. He is in a nostalgic mood here. It deals with the childhood memory.

•      In the second part, there comes a transition to both in his mood theme. Now he is in a doleful (wistful/sad) mood. This part describes his liberation from his mood. It deals with responsibility, maturity and gradual passage of life.

•   The speaker looking out through window at the end of the day and seeks the difference between the child life and adult life.

Understanding the text :

Answer the following questions

a.   Who can be the speaker of this poem ?

    Mostly poets use a literary figure as the 'Speaker‘ in the poem who voices the  words. Here in this poem,  the speaker is an adult person who recalls his childhood who perhaps the poet himself.

 b.  What is "little i" doing ?

    The "little i" is looking out a window at the end of the day enjoying the beautiful scene of sunset and recalling his childhood moments. 

c.  What can be the relationship between the "little i" and the speaker of the poem ?

    The "little i" is the childhood of the speaker himself who has now become a grown-up.  Thus, we can say that the "little i" is the child version of the speaker.

d.  What is the speaker remembering from his childhood days in the poem ?

    The speaker is remembering how he used to enjoy natural scenes like sunset. he used to get pleasure from such sights. 

e.  What attitude does the speaker seem to have toward the child in the poem ?The speaker seems to have a positive, nostalgic and recalling attitude towards the child. He feels a youthful presence in himself still now, who inspires him now to look out and enjoy the nature outside as his childhood days. 

•      Reference to the context 

a.   Why do you think Cummings has placed a semicolon between the words window and at ?

     I think the poet has placed the semicolon (;) between the two words: window; at to provide a break in the long sentence  and to have a pause in flowing which provides more stress in the sentence  more then a comma and makes strong sentence structure.

b.  If the speaker is the child grown up, why does he ask, "who are you" ?

    Obviously, the speaker is a grown up child still he puts the question – “who are you?” may be to recall the wonderment  or joyful moments of his youthful days. Or may be, it is his incredulity that there is still a youthful presence in himself enjoying the nature. 

c. In this poem, an adult reflects on the childhood experience. Based on that, what  might be the theme of the lines: "(and feeling: that if day / has to become night /this is a beautiful way)" ?

   In this poem, an adult reflects on the childhood experience. Based on that, the theme of the lines: "(and feeling: that if day / has to become night /this is a beautiful way)“ is death.- It is  really heart-touchy way to describe an unwelcomed transition from the joyful youth to the end of life or death.

d.  What is the rhyme scheme used in the poem ?

    Rhyme scheme is the pattern of sounds that repeat at the end of a line or stanza. The rhyme scheme of this poem is :             AB AB             CD ED

e.  Explain the pun in "little i" that is related to what he is doing ?

     Pun is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. 

    It is the writing style of the poet to uncapitalize the first person pronoun ‘i'. By adding 'little' in 'little i' he expresses the boy to be very little or the childhood of the speaker which means: a small child and lower importance of self.

f.  How does Cumming's use of lower case letters affect your understanding of the poem? Explain. 

    I  think it was, for him, just a signature. It broke with convention and signaled this was something new.     

    Cummings's use of lowercase letters affect my understanding of the poem. The use of lowercase letters in his poem have different literal meanings beyond their forms. Though it is taken as the  incorrect in writing English grammatical form and it has created a lot of difficulties for me to grasp the actual  or literal meaning of the poem.

 

Reference beyond the text

a.  How does nature inspire the speaker in "who are you, little i"? Explain.

Nature inspires the speaker a lot in "who are you, little I“ by going back to his youthhood and enjoying such a beautiful natural scene. The beauty of nature has made him recall his beautiful childhood experience. He finds himself as a little boy of five or six years old in his childhood. He keeps on peering at the beautiful golden sunset and feels for the beautiful way of the transition of the day into the night. He had almost forgotten it in the long pressure of adulthood.

b. Recall a childhood moment when you felt closely connected with nature. Describe the time and place as well as the feelings and thoughts about it.

The most interesting moment in my childhood life was the day when I  visited the poplar field of my  village with my parents as I was 10 years old. It was the when we used to live in the village. I experienced a fine rainbow in the sky. It was the time of my monsoon vacation. I got amazed to find the most beautiful rainbow in the sky in the morning time. I kept on watching it by sitting under a tree for a long time. I felt lucky to get the chance to see it.  The river was flowing in its own way. The birds were making sweet songs cukhoooo ! cuckhoooo! I took bath in side of the river and practiised swimming and played with water as well. That  beautiful scene of the rainbow, bathing in the river,  and listening the sweet songs of the birds like black birds are still fresh in my life. I want to see the time and again in my life.

 

c. Interpret the poem in any way you like.

This little poem ‘who are you, little I ?’  is a nostalgic poem depicted in the form of a dramatic monologue where the poet addresses his own childhood. Watching sunset through his window one evening, the speaker suddenly goes in flashback when in his childhood when he enjoyed natural surrounding a lot. 

He asks his "little i" who he is having suspect but no doubt, the 'little i' is his childhood version (his childhood). It shows that although the worries of his childhood have kept suppressed his childhood pleasures, it is still there in some corner of his heart.

As he starts talking about the "feeling", till the end, he talks about death. Here the main point is that the speaker welcomes the advent of death in relief better than the sufferings of life. Here we find an unwelcome transition (change) from pleasing childhood to approaching death. By putting "i" with "little" he deemphasizes (minimizes the importance of) the self and promotes time.

 

                 (All Images Credit: Google Images)

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