Who are you, little i ?

by e e cummings 

 

 The poem ‘Who are you little I’ depicts a child looking out a window in the evening. It presents about nature; and how it has impact to the speaker. It presents recalling childhood memories in relation to nature.  It presents the positive impact of nature in human life. The speaker is a boy of five or six years old who keeps peering through some high window at the beautiful golden sunset of November and pondering the wonderful transformation of the day into night in a very beautiful way.

The poem begins with a description of the boy who is standing at window to see outer world. He observes self within self. He observes the natural world so fascinating. He finds the twilight of the evening is so fascinating that he prefers to watch it. The word in parenthesis ‘five or six year child’ presents the natural world. As children do not have any artificiality, the speaker uses the word to give more emphasis. He has seen such world or twilight many times. However, he finds it more fascinating today simply because he is observing it from the perspective of a natural stage of life, childhood. He gets confused in such situation. He questions himself why it is so different today. The opening line of the poem ‘who are you, little i’, presents his dilemma. The way he questions himself presents inferiority complex.  He is observing from some high window. It refers he is far away from the reality. He has not in the ground of reality. His observance of sunset is really far from reality. The use of semicolon in the poem after window represents the a pause or changes in life.

The poem can be divided into two different parts. The first part refers to his mental state and second part presents his inferiority. The first part goes up line five. He remembers how he used to enjoy such a beauty when he used to be a little boy of five or six years. It is wonder that he still has youthful presence in himself. It helps him recognize the beauty of the evening. The second part moves ahead from the six lines to till the end of the poem. It presents his nostalgic mood.  The second part presents his desire of liberation. He wants to liberate from captive of adulthood or manhood. The line “if the day has to become the night that is a beautiful way” presents his inner heart he wants to come out; however, his maturity does not allow him to do so. The use of conditional sentence depicts that he wants to enjoy the beauty of the nature.  It implies that we can have the memories of the childhood with us. However, our responsibilities and pressure of so-called maturity exhume our naturalistic pleasure. The speaker puts adult worries and wants to enjoy the life.