Thursday, 29 May 2003 - 4:32 PM CDT

This is a wierd one! Okay, so here goes:
1. What does it mean to be anyone?
In this poem what I got was that "anyone" was a man who lived in a pretty town, spring, autumn, blah, blah, blah! In the poem it is a specific man cummings speaks of, but he keeps the descriptions general, so that it could apply to anyone in the world. It also has the effect of making him seem like he wasn't significant to "anyone": "women and men cared for anyone not at all". He was just another in the population of poeple in the town.
2. "Noone", i guess, is the same thing as anyone. She wasn't anyone special to anyone else. She was just as insignificant as "anyone" was. It has the same effect as "anyone" does. She isn't anything special to anyone, thus being "noone".
3.BUT THEN! Love strikes and "anyones and noones" become "someones and everyones" to the other person. Everyone seems to be "anyone" since "none" loves him, and he is her all, he becomes "everyone" to her. She cares for him and seems to love him, thus beign her "everyone". This has the effect of making it feel that she no longer needs anyone (else) because she has someone, and this someone is her "everyone". Would i be stretching it too far if I were to say he completes her. (oh so very Jerry Maguire!)
4. As for the someone. Its the same case as above. "Noone" is alone. "Noone" gets "anyone" and she becomes "someone" She is not "none" anymore she is "someone" because he actually cares about her. We can see this when one of them dies and they become "anyone" and "noone" again. They are incomplete without each other.

Thursday, 29 May 2003 - 11:35 PM CDT

1. What does it mean to be ?anyone??
Anyone seems to be any persons in the general public. ?Any? sort of means infinity which means it is anyone out there in the world. It is any person whether you know them personally or don?t know them.

2. What does it mean to be ?no one??
No one means that no people exist. ?One? means that there is one person out there, but with no one, no people exist.

3. What does it mean to be an ?everybody??
Everybody seems to be many people in abundant numbers whether you know them or not. All people should be in a group and there should be no people alone because it is just one. It needs to involve many people.

4. What does it mean to be ?someone??
Someone seems to be more personalized but you still do not know who it is. It is still very broad and not specific enough but it is more specific that anyone and everybody.

Friday, 30 May 2003 - 12:08 AM CDT

What does it mean to be...
"Anyone": Well, to me anyone can be any person that exists, or possibly any single being in this galaxy. One defines a singular existence.

"No one": No one is kinda the same as anyone, meaning that every single being is being displaced from this category.

"Someone": Someone leaves options open. It includes all the beings and such, but not all.

"Everybody": Basically, this one is described as every being that has a body. This is different, also. The previous ones included one and this one we see the word "body".

Friday, 30 May 2003 - 7:09 AM CDT

What does it mean to be "anyone?"
Anyone is any person, just anybody. It?s like it really does not matter who and what kind of a person it is as long as it?s somebody. As long as it?s a person there is no significance to any characteristic to this person. It does not involve uniqueness or being special or anything like it just puts a person in a very general category, the same as everybody else.

What does it mean to be "no one?"
To me personally it means being like a nobody, nobody important anyways. ?No one? is not worth mentioning and in order not to waste time we just this term to describe the person. There is no point on going into details on this person. ?No one? could also literally mean that the person does not exist.

What does it mean to be an "everybody?"
Everybody means every person. All people are put into the same exact category and there is not distinguishing between them at all. Everybody does not make one person stand out over the other.

What does it mean to be "someone?"
Someone is more specific that anyone. It?s actually a particular person who stands behind this term and this person is usually specific and has specific characteristics. It?s a bit more personal even though the information behind the word is not revealed. It definitely proves of a solid existence of a person, we just do not get to find out who.

Friday, 30 May 2003 - 12:02 PM CDT

okay, here goes. i'm going to write a free response to [anyone lived in a pretty how town]. first off i notice the bell theme. i think of marriage, christmas, religion and those sorts of things when i think of bells. also, right after the bells are mentioned the four seasons are mentioned. i gues the bells can associate with change. marriage and christmas are relative to change. they bring great change into a person's life. christmas brings change because it about the birth of christ, so there is the change. there is a lot of opposites presented in the poem; "women and men", "little and small", "dong and ding". although these things are opposite they complement eachother. women and men definitely complement eachother in marriage, little and small complement eachother by creating a balance, and ding and dong just complenent eachother; no question about it. the anyone, someone, noone and everyone is just really annoying, but i like it. strange i know, but at the same time it is intriguing. i've been trying ot figure out the poem for a while and the "...ones" keep on confusing me. i finally got the "someones married their everyones"! the someones are specifically referring about those people and they married their everyones, which is less specific so they are called their everyones. aah, i can't explain it well, but it makes sense to me in my head. well, not that shows this writing not to be so helpful. ...just kidding ms. spachman

Monday, 2 June 2003 - 10:55 AM CDT

i had already read this poem and i was just stupified...i had absolutely no clue what was going on!! after i somewhat got it, it made me so happy, i could have cried...ok not really, but you guys understand...well i think that this poem tells about how society can be segregated and about how people go about their lives not caring about others...it says about how noone was not cared for and it was nice how they got married but then when they die and time passes and still no one cares!! it's a depressing poem to me...

Monday, 2 June 2003 - 2:05 PM CDT

FREE WRITE
I feel like i don't understand this one..so i think i should just write a free response to help develope my understanding of this poem.So here goes..here are the first things i noticed and am baffled by..cummings does not identify the people specifically..."anyone"..."someones", etc. He repeats pairs..like women and men..sun and moon..joy and sorrows..so here he is developing the idea of pairs. We know that one of the persons dies amd the other one soon dies and that they are buried next to each other. He is further developing this idea of pairs. So does one not live without the other? I feel like he is saying a person needs to have someone there along his side. What I don't understand is why he keeps repeating that children never learn. Where exactly does that fit in all this? We can see that he shows how time passes with the cycles: "autumn, winter, summer, spring..and the tolling of the bells. I like how the bells not only mark time, but milestones in someones life. I also noticed that "anyone" becomes "someone" and "none becomes "everyone". To me this means that they kind of complete each other. They are each other's everyone and someone. One last question...what is up with the whole ding and dong thing? I don't get it..!

Monday, 2 June 2003 - 8:42 PM CDT

Free Write
I really like the sound of this poem. I think this is my favorite e.e. cummings poem yet. It sounds like a song. It also reminds me of a Dr. Seuss story or something. Anyways, well, there is a lot of juxtaposition of things in this poem, from ?women and men? ?stars rain sun moon? ?both little and small? and the list goes on. There is also a lot of repetition. Both of these things are techniques that cummings used to get his point across. What is his point? Well, I?m not quite sure yet? I do however, understand the poem (it is easier if you replace anyone and noone with names), but even the anyones and noones is significant because I think that he used these worlds to add a universal effect to his poem, and allow us to see how it can apply to everyone. Cummings is definitely clever in the way he writes. Oh, and I like his rhyming in this poem too. Anyways, well, this poem is kind of sweet and sad at the same time. It kind of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet?.I don?t quite know why though. Anyways, so I guess he is trying to condemn a life spent on the run because we don?t really get to capture and fully live life. Summer, autumn , winter and spring go by and we do not slow down even for a minute to thoroughly enjoy our lives and our surroundings. If we live our lives like that we are going to miss out in many things that we might later go to regret, which is why I thing cummings says how ?children are apt to forget to remember? they don?t do it purposely but they still forget. Cummings just wants us to be happy I guess?. Okay I don?t know what I?m saying anymore. I kind of know what I want to say but I can?t seem to put it into words. I hate when that happens?.Anyways, my time is almost up but this free-write wasn?t so bad?.I don?t think I really accomplished much by it but hey I?m done so it is just dandy!

Monday, 2 June 2003 - 10:19 PM CDT

anyone lived in a pretty how town has a real cool beat. ms. spachman you're a genius. this poem shows you how sometimes in life people are not liked and actually neglected, even after they are dead. take "anyone" for instance; he lives in a so called "pretty" how town, people go about their lives as if it's all ordinary no big deal. Out of all the folks in this town, "anyone" meets "nonone" and they happen to feel each others' void and loneliness. They marry... as time passes they die and noone actually seems to notice their nonexistence anymore. this is really sad. e.e. cummings uses a lot of comparison and contrast in describing certain things; like women and men and "anyone" and "noone." The use of "anyone" and "noone" is interesting because as we've discussed before it, these words are insignificant to "what it means to be someone" or "what it means to be an everybody." This is why e.e cummings notes in the 5th stanza that the "someones marry they everyones" and their happy. This is different from "anyone and noone." how ironic. there's a lot more stuff going on in this poem like we discussed in class but i think the main thing to notice is that people are ignored at times and we should make an effort to at least recognize someone outside our circle of friends and family.
yall dig?

Monday, 2 June 2003 - 10:26 PM CDT

Free Write:
While reading this poem, I realized it was hard to comprehend most of it because no names were involved. Pronouns were used to try to confuse us a little and make the poem more interesting. I like the rhythm that Ms. Spachman gave this poem. I seriously was reading it over and over again to that same beat. It all ties in together and then makes the entire poem more interesting. The thing that made me understand this poem a little bit better is when we had the class discussion and someone mentioned that ?no one? is the woman (a.k.a. she). Basically it deals with the death of a person (a.k.a. anyone) which sort of shows that this death could literally be anyone around us. There are people who die and no one even bother to go to their funerals. It seems that this is a prime example of this happening. I think that the repeating of the seasons and the weather shows that this happens anytime to anyone year round.