cummings is mocking patriotic rhetoric. cummings mashes
cliches that you would typically hear from politicians in speeches or traditionally, at
fourth of july celebrations. this is a satire on a nationalistic or narrow-minded
patriot who "did not stop to think" about their words or actions (war - slaughter). by
mashing these cliches together, cummings illustrates the parrot-like or brain-washed way
these speeches are strung together and that the quick fire string of patriotic cliches
ultimately shows 'talking without thinking.' this is kind of prescient considering we
now live in an era of media sound bites.
cummings is also
mocking the narrow-minded idea that whoever challenges these concepts or the speaker is
un-american. if the line "then shall the voice of liberty be mute?" is also sarcastic.
the line follows the description of "happy heroes" "rushing to the slaughter" - patriots
who are willing to die for their country. if they die, and they are the ones who fight
for liberty, their voices, the voices of liberty will be mute (dead). but this is a
satire of those who would rush to war simply in the name of patriotism; or more
directly, the politicians who send soldiers to war. the voice of liberty may in fact be
those who stop and question patriotic rhetoric and question the rush to war. so, maybe
it is their voices which are muted by the shouting patriot with his mishmash of
cliches.
Word inversion and disordered grammar were part of
cummings' style. in this poem, they satirically resemble the cliched phrasing/structure
of political speech.
This poem has echoes of Dulce et
Decorum Est.
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