3 April 2005: Today, a poem ( I guess it is) by E. E. Cummings:
applaws)
"fell
ow
sit
isn'ts"
(a paw s
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I'm using it as one of my specimens in a presentation I'm compiling on Cummings's burstnorm devices, most of them invented or perfected by him. It's awful silly but Very Funny. Good illustration of degrees of infraverbality, too. First, a misspelling of "applause" meant to indicate contempt for what's misspelled. It's an illiterate/crude applause. More of the same with "'fell/ ow/ sit/ isn'ts,'" but also the wonderfoul punnz on a fall, an exclamation and the results (no sitting). This pun also works as a metaphor for the kind of people in the audience, and the politician speaking to them. At the end, another misspelling of "applause," but this one deleting two letters of the previous misspelling to make a sort of visual rhyme, but--more important--to suggest the animal level of the crowd. Note, too, however, the change of "a paw" to "paw s." This, for me, suggests a herd reacting as one being--which then dissolves into the many.
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