gardening

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness

- e.e. cummings

this is one of my favourite concrete poems. a lot of people don’t really understand concrete poetry but I think an explanation of this one in particular will demonstrate the amount of care, precision, and difficulty of writing them. a concrete poem cannot be read aloud because its meaning is intertwined with how the words are pysically written on the page. in this poem by cummings, the idea of loneliness is captured perfectly by the image of a single leaf falling. the position of the letters on the page actually looks like a falling leaf that falls and settles on the ground in the last line. the loneliness of this single leaf is further emphasised by the lines ‘one’ and ‘l’ (as in I, myself, the individual) within the gargantuan white space that surrounds the bare bones of the poem as a whole - the empty world that surrounds oneself. it is so simple yet so outstandingly elaborate in how it communicates its content through its form. genius.