Buy Me an Ounce and I'll Sell You a Pound
Buy Me an Ounce and I'll Sell You a Pound - meaning Summary
Paradox as Playful Exchange
Cummings’ short poem stages quick, playful exchanges that collapse oppositions—measure and value, giving and taking, self and other—into intimate paradoxes. Fragmented commands, names and parenthetical interjections interrupt declarative lines, creating a teasing, musical conversation that treats language as a game. The repeated reversals ("mine is yours / yours is mine") underline mutuality and the instability of meaning, while the jaunty rhythm keeps the tone light despite puzzling aphorisms.
Read Complete Analysesbuy me an ounce and i'll sell you a pound. Turn gert (spin! helen)the slimmer the finger the thicker the thumb(it's whirl, girls) round and round early to better is wiser for worse. Give liz (take! tommy)we order a steak and they send us a pie(it's try, boys) mine is yours ask me the name of the moon in the man. Up sam (down! alice)a hole in the ocean will never be missed(it's in, girls) yours is mine either was deafer than neither was dumb. Skip fred (jump! neddy)but under the wonder is over the why(it's now, boys) here we come
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