my sweet old etcetera... (X) Analysis

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers

etcetera wristers etcetera, my

mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
   cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

.: :.

Just because I have seen many people who are either too "proper" or too inexperienced with regards to poetry or "etc" make the mistake of interpreting this poem without sexual connotations, I will offer my view on:
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
Cummings was quite young when he was sent to the trenches. He had hormones. And being separated from society also meant being separated from members of the opposite sex, namely the girl he refers to when he writes "your". Presumably as he falls asleep, or lays awake thinking of his family, his thoughts drift towards this beautiful girl, her smile her knees and (in place of the Etcetera, which was given a rare capital letter to emphasis the importance of this to him)breasts/other sexual aspects of a women. The poem is beautifully rendered to expose the common thoughts of the youth during war. He was not thinking say "Oh what a travesty of life is this war, how it seems to undermine the morality of humanity" and so on and so forth. He rather gets to the nitty gritty about the youth, by realistically portraying himself as a regular soldier, not a profound poet - as a hormone driven lad sent into a war he cares little for.
This I believe is the just of the bottom half of this poem. Its loose and flirty, suggesting unplanned thought processes. From relatives to lovers, furthering the idea of the speaker being close to sleep, or daydreaming to inadvertently forget the horrors of the war.

| Posted on 2009-10-25 | by a guest