since feeling is first Literary Elements

Unnamed and ungendered, the speaker uses the second-person voice to express their deep love for the addressee of the poem (the “lady”).

Free verse (unrhymed, unmetered)

“the syntax of things”: While these “things” may in fact be actual sentences, they may also refer to objects, emotions, and experiences that do not literally bear syntactical features. In such cases, “syntax” is a metaphor for order, patterns, logic, and sense-making.

“kisses are a better fate”: In this metaphor, the physical act of kissing is compared to the abstract idea of destiny. The kiss is equated to a way of living.

“life’s not a paragraph”: This metaphor expresses how life is unlike a specific linguistic element. The statement that “life’s not a paragraph” may mean several things: it may be an expression of life’s brevity (in that it is shorter than a paragraph, and perhaps more like a sentence or a phrase), or, conversely, it may refer to life’s continuation (in that it is longer than a paragraph, like an essay or a book). It may also emphasize the lack of an explainable order or structure in actual human life, as opposed to the paragraph’s artificiality as a linguistic construct.

“death i think is no parenthesis”: Death is unlike a parenthesis perhaps in the sense that it is an integral part of the human experience, rather than an appendage or afterthought. Parenthetical statements are easy to skip or read through—death is not.

“feeling is first”: alliteration of the “f”
“the best gesture of my brain is less”: assonance of the short “e”
“eyelids’ flutter”: consonance of the “l”
“laugh, leaning”: alliteration of the “l”
“laugh, leaning back”: assonance of the short “a”
“paragraph”/”parenthesis”: (though not an instance of alliteration/assonance per se) similar multisyllabic Latinate words beginning with the “p” sound

The greatest irony of this poem is that, despite the speaker’s rejection of “syntax,” Cummings the poet writes using perfectly orchestrated and calculated syntactical structures. Cummings uses elements such as enjambment, repetition, parallelism, and juxtaposition, all of which depend on syntactical constructs. This irony certainly is a problem to think about while studying this poem.

Modernist poetry

Unspecified, abstract

Assertive, affectionate, philosophical

Pure, emotional, intuitive love vs. Cerebral, verbose, inauthentic love

There is a competition between different forms of love—love that is genuine and intuitive (the kind of love championed by the speaker) and love that is experienced or expressed in words only (the kind condemned by the speaker).

While the poem features a series of ideas rather than building up a certain narrative, its most intense moment is perhaps the final one-liner stanza, in which the speaker mentions death. In the context of a love poem, the statement that death ”is no parenthesis,” and that it is thus an integral part of the human experience, seems quite dark and startling. This stanza also shocks us with its brevity, force, and bluntness.

Because there is no clear linear narrative in this poem, there is no instance of foreshadowing per se. The early appearance of the word “syntax,” however, does prepare us for mentions of the “paragraph” and the “parenthesis” in the final two lines.

“death i think is no parenthesis”: Death certainly is no parenthesis—it is not something that can be avoided or ignored like a parenthetical statement. The speaker, however, understates this ominous presence of death, and undermines their own assertiveness, by inserting the hesitant phrase “i think.”

The mention of “parenthesis” may be a nod to other Cummings poems that are heavily dependent upon brackets, parentheses, and other such elements of punctuation. (See Cummings’s “i carry your heart(i carry it in” for an example.)

“my blood” “my brain” “your eyelids’” “my arms”: Elements of the human anatomy are used as synecdoche referring to the speaker and the “lady.” Each body part referred to here has its own set of associations. The word “blood” here may be associated with the speaker’s temperament, vitality, honor, and inherent nature. The “brain” stands for the speaker’s reason, logic, cognition, and consciousness. The flutter of the “eyelids” may stand for the lady’s gaze and intuitive expressions of affection. The “leaning back in [the speaker’s] arms” is a physical expression of reliance and acceptance.

“my blood approves”: The speaker’s blood is personified as an entity that is capable of perceiving, recognizing, and consciously approving something.

“i swear by all flowers”: In this hyperbolic expression, the speaker’s pledge to the lady extends over “all the flowers” in the universe. The speaker exaggerates their love as something that encompasses basically all of nature.