difference between conception, what one sees, and perception, what one knows he is seeing (Mar 105). The first line, 'swi(' shows that the object the poet sees is moving so rapdly that before he completely utters his first word, he must describe the object, and that it is passing before another object - the sun. His use of only primary descriptives, such as speed, direction, color, and shape indicates that he is trying to describe the bird as quickly as possible. The way he speaks, in terse syllables that lack syntactical relationship to each other, imitate one who tries to speak before he knows exactly what he wants to say; it is another indication of how quickly the object is moving (106). "a-motion-upo-nmotio-n/Less?", the 6th line, is signifying that although the poet knows that both the objects are moving, one's motion causes the other to seem still (106). The 'd,' at the end of the poem is showing that after the poet has finally named the object he saw, he immediately loses interest and stops, as writing more to further organize his thoughts would be superfluous (106). The contrasting words in this poem are very important. 'against' contrasts with 'across', and signifies a halt. It seems that the poet wants to stop the object in order to describe it. But a stopping of motion would contradict 'swi/ftly', so Cummings decided to refer to the speed average of the two, 'Swi/mming' (106). swi( contains less symbolism than the other poems being analyzed, but it is similar in that the syntax adds greatly to the poem. Cummings' peculiar method of using syntax to convey hidden meaning is extremely effective. The reader does not simply read and forget Cummings' ideas; instead, he must figure out the hidden meaning himself. In doing this, he feels contentment, and thus retains the poem's idea for a more extended period of time. Cummings' ideogram poems are puzzles waiting to be solved. Works Cited Friedman, Norman. E. E. Cummings: A Colle...
