ZESA S.

MINO, 26 years old and is living in

Dulla St., San Isidro, Tomas Oppus, Southern
Leyte, is a graduate of Bachelor of Science in
Secondary Education specializing English.
She graduated in Southern Leyte State
University – Tomas Oppus where she took and
finished her Master of Arts in Education Major
in English degree. Currently, she is pursuing
Doctor of Philosophy in English with
specialization in Language in the University of
San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu City, Philippines.

Presently, she is teaching in Sogod National High School, Sogod,

Southern Leyte as a Senior High School Teacher III. She is handling
English related subjects in the Senior High School department of the
said school both in Grades 11 and 12. She was able to publish
several research papers both in the National & International arena.
Her interests includes linguistics, language acquisition and literature.

www.zesasmino.com
Zesa S. Mino
 NOTES

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 INDEX
C T

Linguistic
Cummings, E.E Transference of meaning

D
Dialectal deviation
Deviations in
G
Grammatical deviation
Graphological deviation Poems of E. E
H
Historical deviation
Cummings
Honest deception

I
I shall imagine life

L
L(a
Leech, G. N.
Lexical deviation
Love is more thicker than forget

P
Phonological deviation

S
Semantic deviation
Semantic oddity

R
Register deviation
32 1
 Oxymoron, and Paradox have semantic absurdity that
contains self-conflicting information.
Register Deviation - The particular use of language in a
certain profession.
Transference of Meaning - it is classified into four tropes
of figurative language: Synecdoche, Metonymy, Metaphor,
and Simile.

Also by Zesa S. Mino

The Evolution of English

The Bilingual Brain

2 31
 GLOSSARY

Dialectal Deviation - Refers to the borrowing of features of socially or

regionally defined dialects.
Grammatical Deviation - The deviation which constitutes the rule
breaking of grammar. DEDICATION
Graphological Deviation - A deviation relatively minor and superficial
part of style, concerning such matters as spelling, capitalization,
hyphenation, italization and paragraphing.
Historical Deviation - The use language in a particular period which
are no longer used in standard language to enhance the aesthetic or
musical value of the literary work.
Honest Deception - it is classified into three tropes" Hyperbole "the
figure of over-statement", Litotes "The figure of understatement", and
Irony. The three are connected in the sense that they all misrepresent
the truth.
Lexical Deviation - The invention of new word is one of the more
for all I love!
obvious way in which a writer exceeds the normal use of the language.
Phonological Deviation - The deviation in sound or pronunciation -zasm-
which is done deliberately in regard to preserving the rhyme.
Semantic Deviation - Tropes foregrounded irregularities of content.
Semantic Oddity - it means semantic peculiarity or strangeness of
expressions. There are five types of semantic oddity. Pleonasm,
periphrasis, and tautology have semantic inanity and superfluity, and

30 3
 2. LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET

Love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fall

It's most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

Love is more always than to win

less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
It is the deviation in literature and poetry less littler than forgive
that allows us to see the ordinary world It's most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
we live in from unfamiliar and revealing than all the sky which only
(Jacob Montgomery, 1992) is higher than the sky

3. I SHALL IMAGINE LIFE

i shall imagine life

is not worth dying if
(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain

but though mankind persuades

itself that every weed's
a rose roses(you feel
certain)will only smile

4 29
 In 1952, his alma mater, Harvard University awarded Cummings
an honorary seat as a guest professor. The Charles Eliot Norton
Lectures he gave in 1952 and 1955 were later collected as i: six
Table of Contents
nonlectures. Cummings spent the last decade of his life traveling,
fulfilling speaking engagements, and spending time at his summer
Dedication 3
home, Joy Farm, in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. He died of a stroke on
Table of Contents 5
September 3, 1962, at the age of 67 in North Conway, New Hampshire
Preface 6
at the Memorial Hospital. His cremated remains were buried in Lot 748
Chapter I. Linguistic Deviations of Geoffrey Leech 7
Althaeas Path, in Section 6, Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in
Boston. In 1969, his third wife, model and photographer Marion Background of Geoffrey Leech 7
Morehouse Cummings, died and was buried in an adjoining plot. Eight Kinds of Linguistic Deviations 8
Cummings's papers are held at the Houghton Library at Harvard Chapter II. Linguistic Deviations in Poems of E. E Cummings 14
University and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at
Background of E.E Cummings 14
Austin.
Selected Poems of E. E Cummings 15
APPENDIX B Analysis of E.E Cummings Poems Using 16
THE SELECTED POEMS OF E.E. CUMMINGS Conclusion 22
1. L(a
l(a Bibliography 25
le Appendix 26
af
fa Glossary 30
ll Index 32
s)
one About the Author 34
l
iness

28

5

The conception of this material stemmed up from the
author’s desire to provide comprehensive yet simplified
discussion of linguistic deviation; thereby achieving fast pacing
of content delivery and content absorption. The author assumes
that E. E Cummings poems needs to be idealized into normal
utterances to fully understand the message of the poetry.
This monograph deals with the process of identifying
linguistic deviations present in a poem using the selected poems
of Edward Estlin Cummings. The instrument used to determine
the linguistic deviations where the 8 Kinds of Linguistic
Deviations by Leech (1969). The deviations are the following;
(1) Phonological Deviation, (2) Graphological Deviation, (3)
Lexical Deviation,(4) Grammatical Deviation, (5) Semantic
Deviation, (6) Dialectical Deviation, (7) Register Deviation and
(8) Historical Deviation.
The selected poems of E.E. Cummings’ are L(a, Love Is
More Thicker Than Forget and I Shall Imagine Life. English
teachers as well as English students can use this monograph as
reference in studying about the kinds of deviations particularly
in the process of determining the presence of deviations in
certain poems. Definitions and descriptions for each type of
deviation are laid down in this monograph with examples for
each kind of deviation.
With this material, the author positively believes that at the
completion of reading this monograph, readers can have a clear
and vivid understanding on what linguistic deviation is all about,
how to identify them and readers can appreciate the importance
of linguistic deviations in poems for form and content purposes.
6 27
Cummings was married briefly twice; his longest
relationship was outside marriage. Cummings's first marriage, to
Elaine Orr, began as a love affair in 1918 while she was married
to Scofield Thayer, one of Cummings's friends from Harvard.
During this time he wrote a good deal of his erotic poetry.
After divorcing Thayer, Elaine married Cummings on
March 19, 1924. However, they separated after two months and
divorced less than nine months later. Elaine left Cummings for a
wealthy Irish banker, moved to Ireland, and took Nancy with her.
Under the terms of the divorce Cummings was granted custody
of Nancy for three months each year, but Elaine refused to abide
by the agreement. Cummings did not see his daughter again until
1946. Nancy later married Joseph Willard Roosevelt, second son
of Kermit Roosevelt and Belle Wyatt Willard. Cummings married
his second wife Anne Minnerly Barton on May 1, 1929, and they
separated three years later in 1932. That same year, Anne
obtained a Mexican divorce; it was not officially recognized in the
United States until August 1934.
The year Cummings and Anne separated, he met Marion
Morehouse, a fashion model and photographer. Although it is not
clear whether the two were ever formally married, Morehouse
lived with Cummings in a common-law marriage until his death in
1962. She died on May 18, 1969, while living at 4 Patchin Place,
Greenwich Village, New York City, where Cummings had resided
since September 8, 1924.
 APPENDICES CHAPTER I
Linguistic Deviations of Geoffrey Leech
APPENDIX A
Edward Estlin Cummings’ Biography Background of Geoffrey Leech

Geoffrey Neil Leech was a specialist in English language

and linguistics. He was the author, co-author and editor of over
Edward Estlin Cummings was an American
30 books and over 120 published papers. His main academic
poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. interests were English grammar, corpus linguistics, stylistics,
He was born to Robert Cummings and pragmatics and semantics.
Whelma Haswell Clarke, who were Unitarian. Leech was born in Gloucester, England on January 16,1936.
He exhibited transcendental leanings his He was educated at Tewkesbury Grammar School,
Gloucestershire, and at University College London (UCL),
entire life. His body of work encompasses
where he was awarded a BA (1959) and PhD (1968). He began
approximately 2,900 poems, two his teaching career at UCL, where he was influenced by
autobiographical novels, four plays and Randolph Quirk and Michael Halliday as senior colleagues. He
several essays, as well as numerous drawings spent 1964-65 as a Harkness Fellow at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA. In 1969 Leech moved
and paintings. He is remembered as an eminent voice of 20th century to Lancaster University, UK, where he was Professor of English
English literature. Linguistics from 1974 to 2001.

In 2002 he became Emeritus Professor in the Department of

Cummings wanted to be a poet from childhood and wrote
poetry daily aged eight to 22, exploring assorted forms. He went to
Harvard and developed an interest in modern poetry which ignored
conventional grammar and syntax, aiming for a dynamic use of
language. Upon graduating, he worked for a book dealer.
26
Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University. He was
a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of UCL and
of Lancaster University, a Member of the Academia Europaea
and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and an
honorary doctor of three universities, most recently of Charles
University, Prague (2012). He died in Lancaster, England on
August 19, 2014.There has been something like a revolution in
the relation between linguistic and literary studies, in part
through 7
the mediation of the anthropological “structuralists”.
Numerous critics have turned to the work of professional
linguists and equipped themselves with a far sharper knowledge of BIBLIOGRAPHY
language. At the same time and again in part through the same
mediating influences, linguists have come to take a far more
sophisticated interest in literature. Where the goal was once little more
than the assembly of linguistic “facts” that might be used by literary
Clark, H. C. (1977). Psychology and language: an
critics, we now find linguists confidently making critical analyses that
introduction to psycholinguistic. New York: Harcourt Brace
contribute directly to literary interpretation and evaluation.
Jovanovich.
In this revolution, Geoffrey Leech has played a leading part –
testified by a book entitled “A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry”. Brook, G. L. (1977). A history of the English
Geoffrey Leech is an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and English language. London: London University Press.
Language in Lancaster University. Small wonder that in 2005, the book Leech, G. (1969). A Linguistic Guide to English
was awarded the 25th Anniversary Prize by the Poetics and Linguistics
Poetry. London: Longman.
Association. A great deal has been written in the field of stylistics in the
past 25 years, not least by Leech and the scholars worldwide that they Short, M. (1996). Exploring the language of poems,
have inspired. plays and prose. London: Longman.

Leech’s Eight Kinds of Linguistic Deviations Trudgill, P. (2000). Sociolinguistics: an introduction

to language and society. London:Penguin Books.
This section deals with the eight types of linguistic deviations
Wegner, R. (1965). The Life & Poetry of E. E
based on Leech's classification. The author used Leech Classification Cummings. Harcourt: Brace World
on Linguistic Deviation because this is the only detailed and intensive
classification on linguistic deviations used in interpreting poems. The
first type of deviation is the Phonological Deviation. Since most of
literature is written, there would be a relatively little scope for
phonological deviation (Short 9). It is not surprising that phonological
deviation in English poetry is of limited edition because patterns of
phonology are even more on the surface than those of syntactic
surface.
According to (Leech 27), it is the deviation in sound or
pronunciation which is done deliberately in regard to preserving the
rhyme, as when the noun wind (wɪnd) is pronounced like the verb wind
(waɪnd). Leech (27) considers the phonological deviation as
irregularities of pronunciation. The implicit sound pattern can always be
8 25
language of multisensory and multimedia processing. He makes
orthography and page design sculpt the spontaneous experience he
wants to convey. He stands out because his bold demolition of
traditional poetic forms did not lead to disintegration of meaning or self-
absorbed formalism.
24
made explicit in reading aloud. To a large extent, this implicit
phonology is determined by choices of words and structures at
the syntactic level, where it can be regarded as an important
ingredient of stylistic value (Leech & Short 22).
(Trudgill 8), stresses "grammatical deviation from
standard English is associated with phonetic and phonological
differences, although this is not indicated on the printed page,
that is to say , there are social-class dialects as well as
social-class accents.”
The second type of linguistic deviation is the
Graphological Deviation. (Leech and Short 92), claim that
graphological deviation is a relatively minor and superficial part
of style, concerning such matters as spelling, capitalization,
hyphenation, italization and paragraphing. Such matters are to
great extent determined conventionally by syntax and become
noticeably expressing only when a writer makes a
graphological choice which is to some degree marked or
unconventional, such as a deliberate misspelling.
There is a kind of graphological deviation which needs
to have no counterpart in speech. The typographical stanza is
a unit which is not parallel in non-poetic varieties of English; it
is independent of and capable of interacting with the standard
units of punctuation (Leech 69). This interaction is a special
communicative resource of poetry. E. E Cummings is well
known for his use of other type of orthographic deviation
discarding of capital letters and punctuations where convention
calls for them, jumbling words, eccentric use of parentheses,
etc. For Cummings capitalization, spacing and punctuations
become expressive devices, not symbols to be used according
to typography costume. Graphological convention is still
evolving as can be seen in the various ways that people
currently express emphasis using capital, spacing and special
symbols. Sometimes, capitalization of varying sizes is used for
emphasis, irony, satire, and other literary purpose.
9
 Another type of linguistic deviation is the Lexical Deviation.
The most obvious example of lexical deviation is those where writers
make up words which did not previously exist. This is called neologism
(Leech 69). Neologism or the invention of new word is one of the more
obvious way in which a writer exceeds the normal use of the language.
(Leech 69) calls "new word Nonce-Formations if they are made up for
the nonce, i.e., for a single occasion only". The English rules of word
formation permits prefixation of "fore" to a verb, in order to convey the
meaning beforehand as in foresee, foreknow, foretell and forewarn.
However, the rule is in fact limited to a small group of items,
such as in "Waste Land" T.S Eliot overgeneralizes the use of this prefix
and he introduces a new word that is not usual in English language
which is foresuffered in the following line:
"And I Tiresias have foresuffered all"
This strikes us as a novelty and as a surprising extension of the
expressive possibilities of the language. Another way in which writers
can produce foregrounding through lexical deviation, is by the use of
affixation which is the addition of prefix or suffix to a word in the
language, as well as by compounding, i.e., the joining together of two
or more items in order to make a single compound one. As in the
following example form Hopkins's in "The Wreck of the Deutschland",
both compounding and affixation are used to similar effect: "The
widowmaking unchilding unfathering deeps". The noticeable use of
the prefix "un" with the words in which would not be preceded with in
Standard English unchilding and unfathering.
Furthermore, lexical deviation might be made also by the slip of
the tongue or speech error in which one may deviate from the intended
utterance to form a new word. Some of these tongue slips are called
malapropism. The term refers to the misuse of words which comes
from the name of Mrs. Malaprop a character in "The Rivals" play, she
would say reprehend for apprehend, and derangement for
arrangement. It is a technique used by writers and poets to form new
words (Clark, 102).
10
graphic and semantic independence, turning them into individual
syntactic values which would be hard to single out if words were
tightly bound in grammatical constructions. Cummings achieved
the effect in dissolving bonds between the words and even letters
and playing them out as single notes carrying their own color and
rhythm.
Cummings' work often does not proceed in accordance
with the conventional combinatorial rules that generate typical
English sentences. In addition, a number of Cummings' poems
feature, in part or in whole, intentional misspellings, and several
incorporate phonetic spellings intended to represent particular
dialects. Non-deviant language in both everyday communication
and within poetry, and suggests a reason as to why this might
be.
The deviations proved much more positive and productive
for E. E. Cummings were his formal innovations. These
innovations involved radical rethinking of all poetic material like
words, their connections to other words, and their placement on
the page as semantic devices. Cummings treated a word as a
unit of meaning as well as a design piece. The visual aspects of
the word expressed through its graphics and placement on a
page are not extraneous to meaning, but an essential part of it.
E. E. Cummings is an artist as well as a poet who blurs the line
between the two forms of art. He experimented with poetic form
and language to create a distinct personal style. He has been
known for his unusual way of lines distribution and outstanding
writing skills. He resorted to various unique syntactic structures
in many of his poems to create his unique "eccentric typography".
Many of them do not only involve graphological or punctuation
innovations, but also syntactic ones. He rebels against traditional
poetic form and style and he invents a new
23
complaining about their life, the life they have is not worth dying for, or
not worth living for.
6. Dialectical Deviation – There is no dialectical deviation present in
the poem.
7. Register Deviation – There is no register deviation present in the
poem.
8. Historical Deviation – There is no historical deviation present in the
poem.
Conclusion
The analysis of the selected poems show how we can use
stylistics to uphold an interpretation of a poem, and how it can also
highlight elements of a poem that one might otherwise miss. It also
enables the readers to speculate with more certainty on precisely why
E. E. Cummings chooses to use such seemingly odd stylistic
techniques. Deviant punctuation is linked to the foregrounding of
dynamic verbs, explaining why the reader perceives so much movement
in the poem. He experimented with the ellipsis, distortion, fragmentation,
and a grammatical juxtaposition that make some of his poetry difficult.
He dismembered words into syllables and syllables into letters,
and though his fragmentation activated rhymes and puns, the reasons
for it were also typographical--the look of the poem on the page.
Cummings is also a tireless word-maker. He created words by merging
several stems into compounds, by moving the words between
grammatical categories. A noun becomes a verb, an adjective becomes
a noun, and by turning an abstract concept into countable nouns.
He also practiced the loosening of logical and linguistic ties
between words in the lines and stanzas. Loosening of syntactic ties and
the use of associative logic in such poetry grant words more stylistic,
22
The exchanging of reprehend for apprehend and
derangement for arrangement may come as a result of the
speaker's incomplete phonetic representations of the words
they were thinking of and so they selected the first word that
sounded right.
Grammatical Deviation is the fourth type of
linguistic deviation. The number of grammatical rules in
English language is substantial, and therefore the
foregrounding possibilities via grammatical deviation is also
substantial (Short 43). To distinguish between the many
different types of grammatical deviation, it is as well to
start with the line traditionally drawn between
morphology the grammar of the word, and syntax the
grammar of how words pattern within sentences (Leech 51).
The existence of differences in language between
social classes can be illustrated by the following
sentences (Trudgill 35):
Speaker (1) Speaker (2)
I done it yesterday. I did it yesterday.
Any native speaker of English language would be
able to speculate that speaker(1) was of a different social
class than speaker(2), as the difference in grammar
between the two speeches indicate that speaker(1) is from
a lower social class. Grammatical deviation is
expressed also by a poet or a writer when using the
double negation, the double comparative, and the double
superlative.
Alike, writers or poets deviate from grammatical rules
by making a comparative or superlative adjectives to create
a more emphatic sense and to promote an aesthetic sense
of piece through the combination and addition two ways of
11
expressing comparison, the addition of suffixes and the use of the I SHALL IMAGINE LIFE
separate words "more" and "most", Thus Shakespeare, for example,
combines unkindest and most unkind in the following: "This was the i shall imagine life
is not worth dying if
most unkindest cut of all ".
(and when)roses complain
Meanwhile, Semantic Deviation according to (Leech 31), “It is their beauties are in vain
reasonable to translate semantic deviation mentally into 'non-sense' or
'absurdity'”. Semantic deviation deals with what (Leech 73), calls as but though mankind persuades
"Tropes foregrounded irregularities of content". He states that they are itself that every weed's
classified into three sections. First, is the Semantic Oddity which a rose roses(you feel
means semantic peculiarity or strangeness of expressions. There are certain)will only smile
five types of semantic oddity. Pleonasm, periphrasis, and tautology
Literary Analysis:
have semantic inanity and superfluity, and Oxymoron, and Paradox 1. Phonological Deviation – In the poem, Cummings
have semantic absurdity that contains self-conflicting information uses the rhythmic pattern AABB evident in each
(Leech 73). line. Example, in stanza number 1;
The second classification is the Transference of Meaning. i shall imagine life
According to Leech's classification, transference of meaning is is not worth dying if
classified into four tropes of figurative language: Synecdoche, (and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain
Metonymy, Metaphor, and Simile (Leech 73).

The last classification is Honest Deception. According to
(Leech 74), the term honest deception is classified into three tropes"
Hyperbole "the figure of over-statement", Litotes "The figure of
understatement", and Irony. The three are connected in the sense that
they all misrepresent the truth.
The sixth type of linguistic deviation is Dialectal Deviation.
According to (Leech 75), he uses the term dialectism for dialectal
deviation; Dialectism refers to the "borrowing of features of socially or
regionally defined dialects". It occurs when the writer uses words or
structures which are from a dialect different from that of standard
language. However dialectism is commonly employed by story tellers
and humourists, as in Spenser's "The Shepheardes Calender". In this
type of deviation he uses words like Heydeguyes (a type of dance),
Rontes (young bullocks), and weaned (a newly weaned kid or lamb) as
12
2. Graphological Deviation – There are only 2
stanzas in the poem both consisting of 4 lines in
stanza number 1, line 3 the words “and when “are
enclosed with the open and close parenthesis,
same as with stanza number 2 lines 4 & 5, the
words “you feel certain” are enclosed also with the
open and close parenthesis, to bring a great
emphasis to these words.
3. Lexical Deviation – There are no new words
present in the poem.
4. Grammatical Deviation – In the poem, two same
words are used in the same line. Evident in stanza
number 2, line 3.
5. Semantic Deviation – The poem uses the symbol
“rose” to represent beauty which further means the
beauty of life. That if roses complains that their
beauties are vain, so is life, if people keep on
21
standard rules of the language. Another deviation from the norm is
Cumming’s use of adverbs of time like: seldom, always, never into
the main slot in the adjective phrase frame. And we know that
adjectives describe qualities, whereas adverbs describe
circumstances, examples in the poem involve phrases like: more
seldom, less always…etc.
5. Semantic Deviation – Another deviation from the norm is done
by Cummings in the aspect of semantics. One of the semantic
devices or techniques he uses in the poem is 'tautology' which
means saying the same thing twice. This is usually embodied in
everyday phrases like “war is war”, “If she goes, she goes”.
Cumming’s examples in the poem are “the sea is deeper than the
sea”, “the sky is …higher than the sky”. Cummings used two
opposing words such as thicker and thinner (lines 1 & 2) and the
words seldom and frequent (lines 3 & 4). It is observed throughout
the poem that although 'love', as a human emotion, is involuntary,
it is better not to be deeply involved in for its unreliability and
instability.
6. Dialectical Deviation – There is no dialectical deviation present
in the poem.
7. Register Deviation – There is no register deviation observed in
the poem.
8. Historical Deviation – There is no historical deviation present in
the poem.
20
such use evokes a flavor of rustic naivety in keeping with the
sentiments of pastoral.
Register Deviation is the seventh type of linguistic
deviation. Each profession has its particular uses of language,
which is known as a register. Literature as a literary profession
has its own particular use of words. But modern writers have
freed themselves from the constraints of poetic language. In
order to convey their message they often use one or more sorts
of registers. In prose writing, register borrowing is usually
accompanied by register mixing (Leech 82).
The last type of linguistic deviation is the Historical
Deviation. In this kind of deviation writers are not restricted to
the language of their own particular period they use archaic
words or structures which are no longer used in standard
language to enhance the aesthetic or musical value of the
literary work (Leech 82). Leech calls historical deviation
archaism and he defines it as "the survival of the past into the
language of present time" (Leech 83).
It is worth mentioning that linguistic deviation is not
merely found in poetic language but also in non-poetic one.
Although, Leech examines only the language of poetry, it seem
that his method can be applied to the language of English
prose as he admits the need of the categories Prosaic Poetry
or Prosaic Prose. Since the linguistic deviations of poetry is
more imaginative, concentrated, complex, and powerful than
that of ordinary prose, it is very difficult, sometimes impossible.
Nevertheless, it is necessary for the reader of poetry to
pay a close attention to the linguistic deviation matters, for
these marks the authorship of a poem. To find the style of a
certain poem, the instances of linguistic deviation should be
investigated.
13

Chapter II
Linguistic Deviations in Poems
of E. E Cummings
Background of E.E Cummings
E.E. Cummings was a 20th
century poet and novelist known for his
innovations in style and structure. E.E.
Cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings)
was born in 1894 in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He was a fine artist,
playwright and novelist and poet. He
earned both his B.A. and M.A. degree
from Harvard University. Cummings then
went to serve in World War I overseas as a volunteer for the
ambulance corps. He adopted a cubist style in his artwork. He
considered himself a painter as well as a poet, spending much of the
day painting and much of the night writing. Cummings particularly
admired the art work of Pablo Picasso. He uses the poetic term “free
verse” in his poetry. He has disregard for capital letters. He does not
observe the traditional rules and regulations of writing. As far as
Cummings is concerned, his poems can be categorized into three
types satirical poems, love poems, and poems on natures and
animals. He has his own way of presenting thoughts by words
scattering, word splitting, line breaking, unnecessary punctuation and
capitalization. He claims that all these techniques helped in conveying
the real essence of his poems.
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2. Graphological Deviation – In the lines of the poem, it is
very noticeable that no punctuation marks are seen. The first
and second stanzas are composed of 4 lines while the last
stanza was composed of 8 lines. The poem certainly bears
many of the familiar stylistic imprints of its author, notable
among which, is the conspicuous spelling and orthography
resulting from the removal of standard punctuation devices
such as commas, full stops and capital letters. Thus, lack of
full stops, commas, and lack of the use of capital letters in
sentence initial positions all refer to a deviation from the
norms of English punctuation marks, which play a vital role in
text organization.
3. Lexical Deviation –The poem contains a number of
invented words, neologisms, such as the adjectives “sunly”
and “moonly”, as well as the verb “unbe” which suggest a
kind of reversal in sense from “being” to “not being”.
4. Grammatical Deviation – We can observe that in spite of
their one-syllable status, adjectives like ‘thick’ and ‘thin’
receive both the inflectional morpheme and the separate
intensifier (“more thicker”). Moreover, superlative forms of
other one-syllable adjectives like “mad” and “sane” do not
receive the inflectional morpheme (as in “maddest” or
“sanest”) but are instead fronted, more unusually, by
separate words: “most mad” and “most sane”. A further
variation emerges where markers of both positive and inferior
relations are mixed together in the same adjective phrase.
Conventionally, in comparative constructions, the
comparative adjective normally compares entities that are
compatible at least in some features, e.g. ‘blood is thicker
than water’. Whereas Cummings, in ‘love is thicker than
forget’, compares the incomparable: “love” which denotes
one of human emotions is compared to a verb “forget” which
expresses a mental process. The writer constantly
‘reduplicates’ the grammatical rules for comparative and
superlative gradation; and all with deviations from the
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6. Dialectical Deviation – There is no dialectical deviation
present in the poem. Selected Poems of E. E Cummings
7. Register Deviation – There is no register deviation L(a
present in the poem.
l(a
8. Historical Deviation – There is no historical deviation le
present in the poem. af
fa
ll
LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET
s)
one
Love is more thicker than forget
l
more thinner than recall
iness
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fall

It's most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
Love is more always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
It's most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
Literary Analysis:
1. Phonological Deviation – There is a
deviation in the pronunciation of the word
“forgive” to rhyme with “alive”.
Love is more always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
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LOVE IS MORE THICKER THAN FORGET
Love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fall
It's most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
Love is more always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
It's most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
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 3. I SHALL IMAGINE LIFE consonants, both indicating, perhaps, the twisting motion of
the leaf as it falls. The parentheses aid this twisting
i shall imagine life movement, showing first, descent one way, then another.
is not worth dying if The downward movement is enhanced by lines 5 ("ll") and 8
(and when)roses complain ("l"), which can be seen as visually enacting the journey.
their beauties are in vain
3. Lexical Deviation – The poem which consists of just
but though mankind persuades four words, splits into two distinct phrases- "loneliness,"
itself that every weed's and "a leaf falls"-the poem has generated a wide range
a rose roses(you feel of critical analysis. These words in the poem are
certain)will only smile chopped; like the word “leaf” is chopped into
le
Analysis of Cummings’ Poems Using Leech’s af
This is evident in lines 3 and 4, another word is,
Linguistic Deviations
“falls” which is chopped into
L(a fa
ll
l(a s)
le Another word is, “loneliness” where the letter “L” is
af placed at the first line in the stanza while the –oneliness is
fa chunked into
ll one
s) l
one iness
l This is evident in lines 7, 8 and 9.
iness
4. Grammatical Deviation – There is no grammatical
Literary Analysis: deviation present in the poem.
1. Phonological Deviation – In the poem, Cummings
uses the sound of “/ɛl/”. 5. Semantic Deviation – The theme of the poem which
is loneliness is equated to a fallen leaf and this is quite
2. Graphological Deviation – Cummings used an example of a metaphor under transference of
unconventional punctuation like the open and close meaning. The falling of a leaf is a concrete act, whilst
parenthesis, word displacement, and unusual the word "loneliness" is an abstract concept. The single
arrangement lines, words, and even individual letters leaf falling is a metaphor for both physical and spiritual
to produce visual typographical forms. We see that the isolation. Thus, "Loneliness is like a falling leaf".
poem is organized into stanzas of alternating lines of Metaphorically, then, the poem enacts the vastness of
1-3-1-3-1, whilst the first four lines alternate vowels / space and the smallness of man within that space.
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