Springis
like
a
perhaps
hand
E. E. Cummings
5
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and
ANALYZE VISUALS
What springlike elements
do you find in this image?
State your answer in
terms of subject matter,
color, shape, and texture.
changing everything carefully
10
15
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and a
without breaking anything.
686
unit 7: the language of poetry
a DICTION
Reread lines 16–18. What
do the words fraction
and inch suggest about
the concept of spring
presented in the poem?
Untitled (2001), Laura Owens.
Watercolor, color pencil, and photo on
paper, 14˝ × 10˝. Courtesy Gavin
Brown’s enterprise, New York (LO 185d).