my father moved through dooms of love Man and the Natural World Quotes

With this quote, the speaker makes it seem like his dad is totally in touch with nature. Being able to "feel the mountains grow" is pretty impressive to us. We're guessing that the speaker probably doesn't mean this literally, though. Could it be that the speaker means that his father could see the big picture?

Man, not only can the speaker's father "feel the mountains grow," he can take the lowest parts of the sea and turn them into mountains. We're even more impressed than before. In this case, it seems like the speaker is using this nature imagery to express the way his father was able to lift the spirits of those around him.

Now the nature imagery in the poem moves from the earth to outer space. The father is shown praising the moon. What is he? Some kind of moon worshiping pagan? A werewolf? Well, the idea of being in touch with nature and even finding God in the natural world is very Transcendental. Cummings was sometimes thought of as writing in this tradition, started by dudes like Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. Cummings's own father is sometimes described a Transcendental Christian minister, so it makes a lot of sense that this sort of language would pop up here.