E. E. Cummings

The Boys I Mean Are Not Refined

The Boys I Mean Are Not Refined - meaning Summary

Celebrating Unruly Male Impulse

The poem celebrates and provokes with a portrait of rough, unrefined young men who reject social polish and embrace blunt bodily impulse. The speaker admires their contempt for luck, wit, art and decorum, and describes their raw sexuality, violence and physical exuberance. Its repeated chorus frames them as vital, disruptive figures who act on instinct rather than refinement, offering a bruising, defiant image of youth.

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the boys i mean are not refined they go with girls who buck and bite they do not give a fuck for luck they hump them thirteen times a night one hangs a hat upon her tit one carves a cross on her behind they do not give a shit for wit the boys i mean are not refined they come with girls who bite and buck who cannot read and cannot write who laugh like they would fall apart and masturbate with dynamite the boys i mean are not refined they cannot chat of that and this they do not give a fart for art they kill like you would take a piss they speak whatever's on their mind they do whatever's in their pants the boys i mean are not refined they shake the mountains when they dance

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