External Form Poem 3- l(a by e.e. cummings

l(a  le  af  fa  ll   s)  one  l  iness

I chose this poem, because I understood it the least out of all in that chapter. For starters, I thought that the parentheses said "ale affalls" and the word on the ouside was supposed to be 'one illness" somehow. Go figure. I am not ashamed to admit that I googled the poem.

What it really said is loneliness, and inside that word (a leaf falls). The best connection I can think of between the two phrases, is that when a leaf falls, it is separated from it's "community", meaning its support and source of its nourishment, and it's all alone.

Another thing I thought of is a man thinking about his own loneliness, and that thought is interrupted for a moment by his observation of a leaf falling. In that case, I would think of fall (the season), which is kind of the transition state from the relationships of summer, to the loneliness of winter. (with spring being the season of falling in love).

The external form of the poem is supposed to look like loneliness and a leaf falling, i suppose. The entire poem is very thin and vertical, like the number one, or a single person. Individually, the stanzas look like a leaf falling. The first stanza, the leaf is horizontal on the tree, the next five stanzas are a little smaller, which is the leaf falling is steady progression, then it's horizontal again, then vertical, and finally rests on the ground, who's stanza is the longest.