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Transcript of I Thank You God

The poem "I Thank You God" by E.E. Cummings expresses gratitude to God for the beauty of nature during spring and the speaker's spiritual rebirth. The speaker thanks God for the "leaping greenly spirits of trees" and "blue true dream of sky". The poem also reflects on the speaker awakening to life through experiencing nature, paralleling their rebirth with the "sun's birthday" and "birthday of life". Cummings uses literary devices like capitalization differences and enjambment to emphasize themes of rebirth, thankfulness to God, and experiencing nature.

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108 views2 pages

Transcript of I Thank You God

The poem "I Thank You God" by E.E. Cummings expresses gratitude to God for the beauty of nature during spring and the speaker's spiritual rebirth. The speaker thanks God for the "leaping greenly spirits of trees" and "blue true dream of sky". The poem also reflects on the speaker awakening to life through experiencing nature, paralleling their rebirth with the "sun's birthday" and "birthday of life". Cummings uses literary devices like capitalization differences and enjambment to emphasize themes of rebirth, thankfulness to God, and experiencing nature.

Uploaded by

Mitchel Bibar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Transcript of "I Thank You God" - E.E.

Cummings
"I Thank You God"

Written by Edward Estlin Cummings i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,


and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing


breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and


now the eyes of my eyes are opened) Speaker The Speaker
Recognizes and is contemplating the beauty of nature.
Shows deep piety in thanking and praising a higher power.
Can relate to the "rebirth" that is occuring in nature. 
Is awestruck at the infinite world and contemplates his own secludedness in nature (which
shows aspects of romanticism and modernism). Audience/Subject Audience/Subject

Much of the poem seems to be a monologue/prayer towards God.


"i thank You God for most this amazing day..." (Line 1)
The speaker isn't only thanking God for the gift of nature and the infinite world.
Much of the poem is a personal reflection on the speaker's inner feelings. And, even more
importantly, the poem is thankful prayer for the speaker's own rebirth (which is the main
idea/theme of the writing). Main Idea Main Idea

The speaker continues speaks of (and thanks God for) the gift of nature and spring changes. 
In reality, the speaker seems to be not only speaking of natural beauty but also of the spiritual
"rebirth" that he is experiencing.
The poet speaks of how the "ears" of his ears and the "eyes" of his eyes are finally
"awakening" and "opening". Now, in this time, the speaker is experiencing some kind of
epiphany and spiritual awakening.
The speakers own awakening is paralelled with the "sun's birthday", "the birthday of life",
and the "leaping greenly spirits of trees". Poetic Devices Poetic Devices Cummings makes
extensive use of several literary techniques
in order to successfully illustrate the main themes of rebirth,
thankfulness towards God, and nature. Within the first line of the poem, Cummings uses
difference in capitalization to show the power and magnitude of "God" versus the smallness
and insignificantness of "i" [the speaker].
Cummings continues to support the aformentioned theme by using parallel structure in the
fourth line. The poet describes God's creation as "natural", "infinite", and "yes". In the fifth
line, Cumming makes a crucial statement (using parantheses to show that the thought is an
aside) when he says "i who have died am alive again today". This statement, full of religous
overtone, sets up the theme of spiritual rebirth within the poem. Cummings use of relative
diction also supports his theme of rebirth. He uses words such as "leaping", "greenly",
"alive", "birth", "awake", and "breathing" to illustrate the rebirth of nature and his own
personal spirituality. The poet also continually uses many syntactical techniques in order to
emphasize the main themes. Cummings makes extensive use of enjambment in order to place
emphasis on happenings such as the "sun's birthday" and the "trube blue dream of sky."
E.E. alternates between using polysyndeton and asyndeton in order to place emphasis on the
idea of awakening senses. E.E. Cummings In Pop Culture Although "I Thank You God" is
one of E.E. Cummings most renowned transcendentalist poems, it has not been heavily
referenced to in contemporary or "pop" culture. The only notable reference to the poem that
has surfaced in the past decade or so is a song arranged by the extremely talented musical
composer Eric Whitacre. Whitacre has had several Grammy Nominations and he is most
famous for his work with The London Symphony Orchestra. In 1999, Whitacre took E.E.
Cummings famous "I Thank You God" and set it to music. What resulted, has been a highly
popular musical piece that has been regarded as one of Whitacre's bests. Connections To
Henry David Thoreau Although E.E. Cummings is regarded as a "modernist" poet of the
early to mif 20th century, it is evident from his writings that he was most influenced by the
work of 19th century transcendentalists. E.E. Cummings, like the transcendentalists, not only
often contemplated nature, but more importantly contemplated how human experience could
be connected and paralleled to nature. Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist poet, also
often wrote of how one's life could be more easily understood through experiencing God's
creation. In one of Thoreau's most renowned essays/poems, "Walden", he speaks of how he
has found himself in nature; how he has fully spiritually awakened within the experience of
observing God's creation. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front
only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when
I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is
so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live
deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout
all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and
reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and
genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know
it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." Although
there is less emphasis placed on a higher power (as in Cummings' poem), Thoreau's
"Walden" still exemplifies the theme of "rebirth", "awakening", and self realization that is so
heavily harked on in "I Thank You God". There is no doubt that E.E. Cummings was a
transcendentalist at heart and there is no doubt that both of these men truly appreciated the
beauty and significance of the natural world. Fin

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