e. e. cummings and President Wilson

On June 6, 2014 an article by Sydney Lea was published by The New Hampshire Valley News. I am going to dedicate this post to that article. The article was titled How World War I Altered American Life and Letters. I am going to discuss the first part of the article. Mr. Lea says that he was attending a P.E.N (an organization that is against censorship and advocates for literary-political prisoners) meeting in early May, whose theme was “The Great War and Modern Literature.” The reason for that particular theme was that this year marks the 100^th anniversary of WWI. As an American representative he was asked to say a few words about the pertaining topic. He does this by discussing a pre war speech that was given by President Woodrow Wilson, and American poet e.e. cummings’s poetic response to it. Wilson’s speech tells America that America’s involvement in the war can and will only benefit America. e.e. cummings wrote a poem making fun of the speech, setting its rhythm to the beat of My Country ‘Tis of Thee. I will not repeat the poem here due to its length, but to sum it up cummings writes that the president was encouraging young men who did not know any better to rush to their deaths. He also says that the president did not mean what he said. He ends his poem with “He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water.” This is to say that the president did not mean what he said. The president did not actually drink a glass of water; this was merely cummings’s way of portraying the president’s ill conviction.   

e. e. cummings