In E. E. Cummings’ poem, [l(a)], Cummings chooses to inflict an emotion in the reader. In his poem of nine lines, yet only four words, he does an exceptional job. The physical structure actually resembles what the words are saying.
The whole poem tells us that the speaker is lonely and is watching a leaf fall from a tree. The loneliness that the speaker is feeling is what has drawn him to nature, trying to find anything to satisfy his loneliness with companionship. The speaker looks around him and watches a leaf fall from a tree.
Many people would say that this poem represents that the reader’s lonliness was only worsened by watching this one leaf fall, but I disagree. I believe that Cummings was trying to tell us that looking at nature can bring us out of our loneliness, perhaps even help us realize that we are not the only thing in the world that matters. When a person is lonely, we can find companionship in our neighborhoods or even in our pets. But when a leaf falls from a tree, drifting alone on the wind, it is separated forever from it’s home, it’s life.
When we are separated from others we do not wither and die as leaves do, but can live and end our loneliness later. But the leaf that fell, it will die alone on the ground without a chance for survival. We can be strong in loneliness and by realizing that there are other things worse off than ourselves often helps us be even stronger.
Cummings, E. E.“[l(a)]”. The Norton Introduction To Literature. 10th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 1035-1036. Print
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