Be Yourself
November 3, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized
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you shall above all things...
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you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
that you should ever think,may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
EE Cummings
I stumbled across
this poem one day and found it very intriguing. I had to read it a couple of
times to get more and more understanding of the poem & still I'm not
sure I fully understand it- input would be much appreciated. What I do
think about this poem is that Cummings is trying to write encourage ably; to
teach a life lesson of being oneself is
the best that you can be. I think that it's so very true. The best thing in
life is to simply be yourself and be all that you can be. Cummings is right in
saying that "you shall above all things be glad and young/For if you're young,
whatever life you wear/it will become you; and if you are glad / whatever's
living will yourself become." because if you really want to be something,
it's yours for the taking and your environment will be what you learn and how
you come to be. I think it is very true and very meaningful; it teaches a great
lesson and I would love input from anyone that has a take on the poem. It makes
me think about who I want to be & who I really am. I think it’s very
inspiring and it made me want to read more of his poetry.
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poetryinacan said,
November 3, 2008 @ 9:03 am
I do believe that youth is wasted on the young. We do have the time to really mold ourselves into who we want to be. Cummings is warning the youth not to waste this valuable time. The professor did say, quoting Abraham Lincoln, “whatever you are, be a good one”. Man, Cummings sure does have a weird way of writing. Everything is all mixed up and the sentences are incredibly long. Do you know what he means by girlboys and boygirls?
poetryprof said,
November 4, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
yes, I love that Lincoln quote
bluediamond19 said,
November 6, 2008 @ 11:52 am
I believe that the best thing in life is to just be yourself because that IS good enough. ‘Go after what you want’ is another theme I got from reading this poem. I agree that I had to read it more than once because of the way he writes, but then when I finally got it, I came to find it has such a strong, compelling meaning to it. Don’t waste time, be yourself and live life!