"I thank you god for this most amazing…"

e. e. cummings


"i thank you God for this most amazing day:

for the leaping greenly spirit of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything which is natural

which is infinite

which is yes

"(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life of love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

"how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

"(now the years of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)"


The poet, e. e. cummings, uses several poetic devices in this poem. However, because of his unique style, much of his work lacks traditional style and structure. Instead, he uses clever personification, strong symbolism and imagery to convey the messages of his poetry. In this specific poem there are several allusions to the Christian religion and a few hyperboles as well.

Cummings' poetry defies the rules of syntax, spelling and pretty much everything else that creates a structured poem. For example in this poem, he has no capital letters, with the exception of the words "You" and "God." Also, after the use of a semicolon, the author leaves no space. The reason for these things is to create a flow to the poem. It seems as though the reader of the poem is speaking in one continuous pattern, stopping only at the end when he is completely finished. He uses no rhyme scheme, and no other real structure, so there are no verses, stanzas, or anything else along those lines.

Several hyperboles occur in the poem. For example, the line "for the leaping greenly spirit of trees…" Trees cannot leap, nor do they have spirits. However when the wind blows through them they do in fact...