An Analysis on “next to of Course God America I” by E. E. Cummings

Frederick Jackson

COM 1102

Week 6 Questions “February”

1. First Response. How do your own associations with February compare with the speaker’s?

I can’t relate to the brutal cold of winter when it comes to Georgia. Nor, do I relate to any cats what so ever. The winter it doesn’t last long but the cold that you experience is a bone chilling wet cold. You want to stay home with your spouse or significant other, but it usually doesn’t get cold enough to stop you from having to go to work or school.  

1. Explain how the poem is organized around an extended metaphor that defines winter as a “Time to eat fat/ and watch hockey” (lines 1-2).

I believe it means it’s too cold to leave your home during that time of year, So in order to make it through the harsh winter the speaker is craving French fries as a fatty food so he feel like will not starve to death if he can just get some of them. But when you can’t leave your home the best thing you can do is to sit at home and hockey, or just be lazy.

1. Explain the paradox in “it’s love that does us in” (line 19).

Man is not like animals, we do not devour our offspring. We protect our offspring from the outside world. Whereas animals such as the shark or alligator will eat their own if they become hungry enough. Another way of looking at it is the way a person is in an all out search for love or his soul mate, but can never find that person. He can’t find his love, so it’s a futile search or quest for love, which is an endless circle.

1. What theme(s) do you find in the poem? How is the cat central to them?

The story is very similar to the relationship between couples.

The cat is just like a child it wants companionship, to be played with and fed. The cat is also an adult so it marks its territory. The cat and the owner needs one another and the cat is the constant that that doesn’t change. It is also the story about the love