E. E. Cummings

Stinging

Stinging - meaning Summary

Urban Bell and Sea Dream

The poem compresses a short, imagistic moment where church bells, gilded architecture, and a sensuous soundscape collide with elemental motion. Cummings layers visual and auditory details—"gold swarms," ringing bells described as both sacred and lewd—before a wind physically pulls the sea, concluding in a sudden, single-word shift to dream. The effect is a fleeting, dreamlike juxtaposition of ritual, bodily presence, and natural force.

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stinging gold swarms upon the spires silver chants the litanies the great bells are ringing with rose the lewd fat bells and a tall wind is dragging the sea with dream -S

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