What do these lines mean?

Question

"...for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis."

-- "since feeling is first" by ee cummings

full poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/since-fee…

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

cummings can be elusive anyway, so this is definitely up for debate. The poem is arguing that things like kisses, feeling, and the love that the addressee has for the speaker are superior to wisdom. The pursuits of mind, the "best gesture" of the brain, is not as important as paying attention to the things he's exalting in this poem.

The idea is more or less that "the syntax of things," the analytical way of looking at life, is nothing compared to the feeling of living life. In that way, the speaker argues that life isn't a paragraph (something to be analyzed) and it's ultimate end is not something that can be comprehended by education or wisdom or intelligence, either.

That's not the best i can do, but that's the simplest i can make it.

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Asker's Comment:

thanks

Answer 2

And now for people words (putitinyourshoe) i think it stands for life has no ending it can not be summed up in a few short sentances as for death dying is a big part of living so it is bigger than we make it out to be