any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
- e.e. cummings
I have always loved cummings' love poems. Part of it is the inherited love that I got from my parents, who read a cummings poem at their wedding. Most of it, however, is the unconventional language that somehow provides the most incredible images and the most beautiful feelings. This poem is one of my favorites, because of the image of the beautifully fragile woman who has the power of the universe over the man who loves her. But it's not a malevolent power; it's the power to make him as lovely as a flower, the power to make him open and close. He loves her more than all the world: "nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals / the power of your intense fragility." And the last stanza makes my heart ache. "only something in me understands / the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses." I'm usually pretty good at expressing how I feel about art, but this poem makes me feel so intensely that I don't have words for it. It's the kind of feeling that is expressed in music and dance, and the ability that cummings has to capture this in words is unparalleled.
Olivia, this was such a beautiful blog post. I have never read this poem before, but I understand why you love it so much. I feel like somebody who is truly in love could read this poem and completely relate to it because it describes love in a way that normal conversation can't. This is a perfect example of poetry that makes your heart melt and stirs deep emotions. I really enjpyed reading your post!
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