Being

Being - meaning Summary

Childhood Interrupted by Illness

Cummings presents a terse, unsettling portrait of a twelve-year-old with gonorrhea. The poem contrasts childhood and premature exposure to adult disease, using paradoxical images like "Oldeyed child" and "ambitious weeness of boots" to suggest shrinking innocence and awkward attempts at authority. The fragmentary lines compress embarrassment, bodily reality, and mortality into a brief, jarring moment that forces the reader to confront lost innocence and the body's betrayal.