Poem Analysis - My Love Is Building A Building

Introduction: A Precarious Fortress of Love

E.E. Cummings' "my love is building a building" presents a complex and unconventional view of love as both a construction and a confinement. The poem's tone oscillates between admiration and anxiety, suggesting a love that is simultaneously protective and potentially suffocating. The language is playful yet serious, creating a sense of both wonder and impending doom. Cummings masterfully uses paradoxical imagery to convey the fragile strength of this emotional edifice, building a layered meditation on the nature of love and mortality.

The Paradoxical Nature of Love's Protection

One of the main themes in this poem is the paradoxical nature of love. Cummings describes the love as both "frail slippery house" and "strong fragile house," highlighting its inherent contradictions. It is a "skilful uncouth prison, a precise clumsy prison," suggesting that the very act of protecting a loved one can also inadvertently imprison them. This theme is further developed through the image of the building itself, which is both a source of shelter and a potential cage. The poem suggests that love, in its attempt to safeguard, can become restrictive, raising questions about the balance between protection and freedom within a relationship.

Mortality's Shadow: A Race Against Time

The theme of mortality is interwoven throughout the poem, adding a layer of urgency and melancholy. The arrival of "Farmer Death" introduces a looming threat to the speaker's love and its creation. The phrase "crumble the mouth-flower fleet" is a poignant image of fleeting beauty and the inevitable decay of life. The speaker's frantic building suggests a desperate attempt to construct something lasting in the face of impermanence. The hope is that the "laborious, casual" tower will withstand Death's reach, preserving the beloved's smile. This theme underscores the vulnerability of love in a world marked by mortality.

The Smile as a Symbol: Beauty Under Siege

The smile serves as a central symbol throughout the poem, representing the essence of the speaker's love for the other person. The building begins "at the singular beginning/of your smile," indicating that the smile is the foundation of their affection. The poem culminates with the image of the "surrounded smile" hanging "breathless" within the tower, suggesting both protection and constraint. The smile, once a symbol of joy and openness, is now contained, its vitality potentially stifled by the very structure intended to preserve it. One could ask if this protective tower truly preserves the smile's initial radiance, or if it inadvertently diminishes its inherent beauty.

A Final Breathless Moment

In conclusion, "my love is building a building" is a powerful meditation on the complexities of love and the anxieties of mortality. Cummings uses striking imagery and paradoxical language to explore the tensions between protection and freedom, creation and destruction. The poem ultimately suggests that love, in its attempt to shield against the inevitable, can become a precarious and potentially confining edifice. The final image of the breathless smile encapsulates the fragility and preciousness of love in the face of time's relentless passage, leaving the reader with a lingering sense of both hope and unease about the true cost of protection.