In Search of the Delight in the Present
Part 1: Finding my Own Delights: Inspired by Ross Gay’s “Book of Delights”
One particular delight that resonates with me is rain: the way it falls, collects, creates a ripple effect. The way that the rain requires that we wear our favorite rain boots (that we don’t regularly) have the opportunity to wear. Or pull out our umbrellas, or just find delight and joy in jumping in the puddles that grow around me.
As English majors, we are trained to analyze texts with precision and depth, but we can also be inspired by our environments and translate these small delights into text. In this delight, the minute details serve as a lens through which we can explore empathy, understanding, and the shared joy of things out of our control, like the weather.
This delight encourages me to interact in new ways with my surroundings and to recognize old things as being delightful, rather than inhibiting or tiring. Finding delights, such as the rain drops in a puddle of water help me to foster a richer engagement with the world around me.
Part 2
[Podcast Intro]
Host: Welcome to a special episode of our literary journey, inspired by the immersive style of Poetry Unbound. Today, we’ll be unraveling the enigmatic beauty of E.E. Cummings‘ poem, “somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond.”
[Analysis]
Host: First we dive into the first lines of the poem, where Cummings takes us into uncharted emotional territory with the words, “somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond.” The juxtaposition of the unknown and the embrace of it sets the tone for a poetic exploration of love’s transformative power.
In his poem, we see the deliberate manipulation of language through his use of all lower case words. The absence of capitalization could be understood as unconventional, statement-making. The spacing could also be understood as unconventional. The unconventional spacing emerge as a testament to the poem’s experimental nature, which can be understood as being synonymous with the unpredictability of the journey of love, the topic in the poem.
Cummings crafts a vivid and intimate image. The mention of “your most frail gesture” and “my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly” creates a delicate dance between vulnerability and the awe-inspiring nature of love. The poet captures the essence of surrender, as if the heart willingly travels to uncharted realms, embracing the unknown with open arms.
There seems to be an almost paradoxical tension. For example, between “nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands” evokes a sense of tenderness and fragility, revealing the profound impact of love on the poet’s perception of the world. In this way, the poem intertwines and juxtaposes a sense of vulnerability and strength.
[Closing]
Host: In the spirit of Poetry Unbound, we hope this exploration of E.E. Cummings’ “somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond” has allowed you to delve into the intricate tapestry of emotions that poetry can weave. Remember, literature has the power to transport us to unexplored realms, and in its verses, we often discover the nuances of our own emotional landscapes.
Thank you for joining us on this poetic excursion.
[End of Podcast]
I noted, Hannah, that your images of rain puddles in a pothole kind of demand that the viewer work hard to find a way to delight in them. Your delight, to imitate Gay’s, would need to meander a bit more, to ponder a few different features of your subject (and be connected to a recent day, or today for that matter). Or else, like his short delights, it would need to have a kind of “turn” at the end that the reader is left to ponder. I don’t quite see that here. Here and in the podcast transcript, you could push things a bit further to really “lean in” to the emotive and personal style of both Gay and Ó Tuama. (The intro to the poetry analysis is particularly formal and abrupt, compared to Poetry Unbound.) You point toward some particularly rich areas of emotional potency in the poem in your last 2 paragraphs of that section (before the conclusion); I’d really like to see some more of that, delving in further.