pity this busy monster, manunkind

Edward Estlin Cummings 1894 (Cambridge, Massachusetts) – 1962 (Madison, New Hampshire)



pity this busy monster, manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
--- electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
                          A world of made
is not a world of born --- pity poor flesh

and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if --- listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go
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Submitted by ddunne21 on May 31, 2016

Modified on May 03, 2023

28 sec read
1,201

Quick analysis:

Scheme A BA BAACXAC XD E DE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 566
Words 93
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 1, 2, 7, 2, 1, 2

Edward Estlin Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings, known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e e cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays. He is often regarded as one of the most important American poets of the 20th century. Cummings is associated with modernist free-form poetry. Much of his work has idiosyncratic syntax and uses lower case spellings for poetic expression. more…

All Edward Estlin Cummings poems | Edward Estlin Cummings Books

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    "pity this busy monster, manunkind" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/44807/pity-this-busy-monster,-manunkind>.

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