little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”
Christmas Poem
from spiralling ecstatically this
proud nowhere of earth’s most prodigious night
blossoms a newborn babe:around him,eyes
— gifted with ever keener appetite
than mere unmiracle can quite appease —
humbly in their imagined bodies kneel
(over time space doom dream while floats the whole
perhapsless mystery of paradise)
mind without soul may blast some universe
to might have been,and stop ten thousand stars
but not one heartbeat of this child;nor shall
even prevail a million questionings
against the silence of his mother’s smile
— whose only secret all creation sings
e. e. Cummings (1894-1962) was an American poet and, like Robert Frost, one of the most-read American poets of the 20th century. He also worked as a painter, essayist and playwright (his most popular play is Santa Claus: A Morality). Cummings’ poems are also perhaps some of the most immediately recognizable to readers; except for some early material, most of his work is defined by idiosyncratic syntax and lower-case spellings for even proper nouns. An early proponent of modernist poetry, Cummings wrote in traditional forms (such as the sonnet “Christmas Poem”) and in free verse (“little tree”), but always with the typographical eccentricities that in part defined his style as wholly unique.
little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”
Christmas Poem
from spiralling ecstatically this
proud nowhere of earth’s most prodigious night
blossoms a newborn babe:around him,eyes
— gifted with ever keener appetite
than mere unmiracle can quite appease —
humbly in their imagined bodies kneel
(over time space doom dream while floats the whole
perhapsless mystery of paradise)
mind without soul may blast some universe
to might have been,and stop ten thousand stars
but not one heartbeat of this child;nor shall
even prevail a million questionings
against the silence of his mother’s smile
— whose only secret all creation sings
e. e. Cummings (1894-1962) was an American poet and, like Robert Frost, one of the most-read American poets of the 20th century. He also worked as a painter, essayist and playwright (his most popular play is Santa Claus: A Morality). Cummings’ poems are also perhaps some of the most immediately recognizable to readers; except for some early material, most of his work is defined by idiosyncratic syntax and lower-case spellings for even proper nouns. An early proponent of modernist poetry, Cummings wrote in traditional forms (such as the sonnet “Christmas Poem”) and in free verse (“little tree”), but always with the typographical eccentricities that in part defined his style as wholly unique.
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