Mud-lucious and Puddle-wonderful

E.E. Cummings

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

The first time I read this poem, I awkwardly stumbled through it since I was trying to read it according to its irregular format and spacing. I did not like the poem at first, because of this initial annoyance. But as I read it more, I figured out that I actually understood it better when I read it quickly and altogether, without many pauses between lines. Cummings did this intentionally, to show the hasty life of a child where everything is there, but it is all blurred together by the rush of events and the captivity of the moment. I grew to like the poem because of its carefree, unique quality and the picture it painted in my mind. It made me reminisce to my childhood when I would jump in puddles and get all muddy. This memory made me happy, and I now greatly admire E.E. Cummings and his ability to describe the blissful, rapid life of a child.

Cummings wrote this poem from the perspective of a child, describing the world as children see it: a mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful world. The poem has a highly erratic format, with random line breaks spacing. This is how life seems as a child, haphazard and confusing, with everything all jumbled up and happening at once. It is very difficult, sometimes impossible, for children to understand the world, just like the format of this poem makes it difficult to understand. They see the world as a big playground for them to fool around on. The format of this poem reminds me of a playground, with different sized bars and poles and various structures for children to play on. Children lead simple lives, with the boys playing marbles and pretending to be pirates and the girls playing hop-scotch and jump-rope. Even children notice the distinction between genders, and the boys tend to play stereotypically boyish games while the girls join together to play stereotypically girly games. The boys unite with each other and the girls unite with each other, which is shown by the combining of the two boy names eddie and bill and combining the two girl names betty and isabel.

These are not capitalized, which shows that children do not know, and do not care about, the strict rules of language. Also, they only see life as what it is in that particular moment, which is expressed by the phrase “in-Just spring.” The children in this poem do not see anything beyond spring, and they do not care what lies in the future; all they care about is what is currently happening. They are unafraid to be different and listen when the balloonman calls them with his whistle, eager to see what he wants. Cummings is recreating the world from the point of view of children, and I also think that Cummings wants the reader to remember something from his or her childhood that was enjoyable. This would lead them to realize that being a child was a wonderful, happy experience and motivate them to adopt some of the qualities they used to possess as children, such as individuality, eccentricity, and vivacity. Cummings is encouraging his readers to be more like children, untroubled by what others think and focused on enjoying life while it is still available. He alludes to this by describing the loss of childhood when the children come to the balloonman and the speed of the poem is decreased by adding more line breaks and longer spaces. Also, the balloonman whistles at the end, but the children do not come.This change signifies the loss of the energy and enthusiasm of childhood, which is sad, and makes readers want it to come back. Cummings may be persuading the readers that it can return, if they embrace some qualities of children and live life to the fullest while they still can. He encourages readers to be different and resist conformity, concepts which he has fully embraced, as demonstrated by the intentionally unique formatting of his poem. He has gone against the grain and exploited his freedom of expression, and invites readers to do the same.