Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- If spring represents when the speaker feels opened emotionally by his love, and winter is when he feels closed, then what might summer and fall represent?
- If somebody asked you to compare this poem to the work of transcendentalist poets like Emerson or Thoreau, what would you say? No shrugging or "I dunno"s allowed.
- So, most folks (us included) tend to think of this as a love poem between the speaker and his lover. But what if it's not? Can you imagine another possible object of affection that the poem could be directed toward? A newborn child? Poetry, itself? Pick one of your own and explain how it could lead to new interpretations of the piece.
- We get a clear picture of how the speaker feels about his love in this poem, but we wonder how she feels about him. Write a poem (or a letter or an email) where she addresses him and tells him how she feels. For you brave budding poets: why not try your hand at some of Cummings's avant garde techniques while you're at it?
- If the speaker was asked to define love, what to you think he would say? If he were asked to define what it is not, what would he say? What lines in the poem make you think so?