somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

E. E. Cummings, 1894 - 1962

 

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near 

 

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose 

 

or if your wish be to close me,i and

my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending; 

 

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility:whose texture

compels me with the colour of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing 

 

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens;only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

 

 

 

 

JOURNAL

Have you ever looked deeply into the eyes of someone else?  What did you see?  How did your feelings for the person affect what you saw at that moment?  Write about the experience in your journal.

 

1.             What does the speaker say Òyour eyesÓ have?

 

 

2.             What will easily ÒuncloseÓ the speaker, even if he has closed himself like fingers?

 

 

3.             What equals Òthe power of your intense fragilityÓ?

 

 

4.             What does the speaker understand about Òthe voice of your eyesÓ?

 

 

5.             Where has the speaker not traveled?  What is gladly beyond any experience?  What does it mean for eyes to Òhave their silenceÓ?  Is there a part of the self that others usually do not reach?

 

 

 

6.             In the metaphor Òyou open always petal by petal,Ó to what does the speaker compare the person addressed in the poem?  To what does he compare himself?  What does it usually mean when people speak of Òopening upÓ to others?

 

 

 

 

7.             What ÒcompelsÓ the speaker Òwith the colour of its countriesÓ?  What does the use of the word ÒcountriesÓ suggest about the vast, unexplored nature of the other personÕs personality?

 

 

 

 

8.             What effect does rain have on roses?  What effect does the person being addressed have on the speaker?  What small gesture on the part of that person affect the speaker deeply?

 

 

 

 

9.             Think of the various things to which the speaker compares the person begin addressed:  Spring opening a rose, snow descending and causing a rose to close and the small hands of the rain.  Then think of the description of the personÕs frail gestures, slightest look, and intense fragility.  What power does the person being addressed have over the speaker?  What is ironic or paradoxical about this power?

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.         What things mentioned in the poem are mysterious, not fully understandable or known and thus Òbeyond experienceÓ?