Poetry Essay

Read the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet uses language to describe the scene and to convey mood and meaning.

 Spring is like a perhaps hand
 E. E. Cummings, 1894 - 1962
Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully Spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there)and without breaking anything.

Language: suggests the idea and it becomes an accepted idea throughout the poem
Scene: a shop window, along with the changing weather
Mood: methodical, communist like, people need something to control them
Meaning: routine, need something to tell them, new beginning, fresh start

The poet uses language in a convincing way. Suggesting that spring is a gentle but necessary push to society. Through imagery in the poem, a picture is painted with words, mainly the hand which switches things around. The author creates a vision of the hand moving swiftly but carefully as the new season is dictated by it. The hand introduces new things. The hand and spring has a kind of control over people.

 The people outside the window are described as watching intently. As the hand moves moves one object into view and another one out, people can sense change in the air. A window is mentioned, which brings the idea of a shop window, one once decorated with cool tone colors now being changed into bright ones.