E. E. Cummings

The Bigness of Cannon

The Bigness of Cannon - meaning Summary

Fragile Voices of War

Cummings contrasts the ostentatious scale of artillery with quieter, more insidious forms of death and loss. He finds danger disguised in fragile things—poppies, silent fists, and the vivid but noiseless figures of boys and girls seen at Roupy between barrages. The poem emphasizes how violence and mortality can be hidden in gentleness and silence, making human presence and vulnerability more powerful than the cannon’s spectacle.

Read Complete Analyses

the bigness of cannon is skilful, but i have seen death’s clever enormous voice which hides in a fragility of poppies…. i say that sometimes on these long talkative animals are laid fists of huger silence. I have seen all the silence full of vivid noiseless boys at Roupy i have seen between barrages, the night utter ripe unspeaking girls.

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