How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
(with up so floating many bells down) (2)
It's awful nice to feel like you're floating in a world of magic bells. But before you know it, you're actually heading downward and these bells are beginning to sound like funeral bells. That's how Cummings gets you. He makes you think that life is all happy and awesome, and then he reminds you of how it'll all eventually come to an end.
Quote #2
sun moon stars rain (8)
Cummings isn't interested in telling us that we'll die and leaving it at that. He wants to remind us that our deaths are all connected to the cycles of nature. Just as day turns to night and the seasons change, people live and die and, in between, they laugh and cry.
Quote #3
said their nevers and slept their dream (20)
When people get to their deathbed, they need to say goodbye to the people they love. Cummings captures this kind of moment in a beautiful way when he says that these people "said their nevers." In other words, they said all the things they would never be able to say again. Then they go gently to sleep and join the big dream of death.