This document contains a full analysis of the prescribed Matric IEB poem: Nobody Loses All the Time by e.e. Cummings. The poem has been broken down and analysed line by line to ensure it is fully understood by the reader and it includes points on the structure and techniques in the poem.
Nobody loses all the time
e. e. Cummings
By Adrian MacKenzie
nobody loses all the time → Statement = truth understood at the end
i had an uncle named
Sol who was a born failure and → defined by his failure; no one expects anything of him
nearly everybody said he should have gone
into vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could → passion to entertain – should have pursued it
sing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which
may or may not account for the fact that my Uncle
Sol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable → no sense of formal contemplation
of all to use a highfalootin phrase → conversational aspect – poet speaks to us (spoke like he was superior to others)
luxuries that is or to
with farming and be
it needlessly
added → single word emphasises his compounding failures (they’re adding up)
my Uncle Sol’s farm → Failure 1 (Enjambment amplifies his failures, they’re continuously compounding)
failed because the chickens
ate the vegetables so
my Uncle Sol had a → Failure 2 (with each failure he approaches it differently)
chicken farm till the
skunks ate the chickens when
my Uncle Sol → Failure 3
had a skunk farm but → sense of futility but manages to make a way around it (litany of failure)
the skunks caught cold and
died and so → loses everything, nothing left
my Uncle Sol imitated the
skunks in a subtle manner → possible link to the ‘American Dream’ and its failures
or by drowning himself in the watertank → impact of his accumulated failures (committed suicide)
but somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor → Someone who understood Sol held a lavish funeral for him
Victrola and records while he lived presented to → passionate about music
him upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a → favourable time to succeed, links to end where he succeeds
scruptious not to mention splendiferous funeral with → Colloquial (no expense is spared, splendid event)
tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and
i remember we all cried like the Missouri → Simile + hyperbole = amplifies the sense of loss
when my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because
somebody pressed a button
(and down went → Parenthesis shows additional information about Sol finally achieving his success
my Uncle → being mourned showed that he was significant & successful despite his failures finally
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