Difficulty Essay
At first glance, the poem “this is a rubbish of human rind” by E.E. Cummings seems like your average poem, and that’s because it is. The poem has four stanzas that are evenly sized and its structure is very similar to every other average poem that ever existed. There is no unique punctuation
or spacing and the rhyme scheme is nothing special. The thing that distinguishes this poem is its cryptic meaning. During my first read, I was overwhelmed with many questions. What is “this”? Is the “this” from each stanza the same? What is the significance of the first line of each stanza rhyming? To answer all these questions, I read through the poem again. I noticed a few small things like the rhymes that appear at the end of every stanza, but nothing substantial, so I reread closely, one stanza at a time.
The poem’s first line already requires a close look: what is rubbish of human rind? Rubbish usually refers to waste or something that is trash and rind is the tough outer skin of certain fruits, so I concluded that “human rind” is just human skin or the outer flesh layer of a human. After taking apart that phrase, I determined that “this” is the waste of human skin, which makes no sense. Because the literal meaning made no sense, I decided to try to determine the plot of the first stanza as it might give me clues as to what “this” is. My first thought was war. Because of prior research on E.E. Cummings, I know he worked as a medic in WW1 for some time, so maybe this first stanza was inspired by the horrors he saw in WW1 as a medic and the “rubbish of human rind” is a dead body. The rest of the stanza fits with the war plot as the dead person could’ve been holding a picture of loved ones when they died. The second thing that comes to mind is a break-up. Maybe the speaker is describing a person going through a breakup and the “rubbish of human rind” is the person going through the breakup that is down in the dumps and not doing anything. If the person going through the breakup is sitting at home feeling sorry for himself, the speaker could describe him as a waste. The clue that led me to this plot theory was the photograph with the word love underlined. Since I couldn’t decide which plot theory was better, I concluded that “this” referred to a person and moved on to the second stanza.
The first question that came to mind when I read the second stanza was is the girl mentioned in the same person mentioned in the first stanza or are they completely different. I determined that this girl was a completely different person because both the situations I mentioned dont fit in the second stanza. Since the subjects of each stanza are different, I determined that the “this” mentioned in each stanza
is different as well. The phrase “who died in her mind” makes me think that the girl mentioned is depressed or going through some kind of mental problem. The mention of the gadgets purring and gangsters dining while the girl is suffering alludes to the idea that the world goes on no matter what a person is going through.
The third stanza is trickier to understand compared to the first two. The speaker tells us that “this” is a deaf dumb church. What does even mean? My first thought was that a deaf dumb church was a church that doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. The purpose of churches is to transform society into a better and more peaceful place to live, and maybe the church doesn’t do that, which is why it is called deaf, dumb, and blind. The “if in its soul” could be some sort of uncertainty within the church, which is why it is not doing its job properly. The cause of this uncertainty could be the “hole in its life” where something is missing, perhaps something that could get rid of the uncertainty and help the church to fulfill its job of uplifting again. During my first read, I knew that bells tolling represents death, but I didn’t know what the old vines meant. However, after a quick google search on the symbolism of vines, I determined that the vines represent some sort of connection to god, which is what churches are all about.
The fourth stanza was a little less cryptic than the third. The subject of this stanza is a “dog of no known kind”, perhaps a dog of unknown breed. The speaker states that the dog has two different colored eyes, one white and one black. At first, I didn’t understand the meaning behind the multicolored eyes, but then I realized that one white eye and one black eye would mean that the dog only sees in black and white. If that is the case, the rest of the stanza delivers a clear message, the dog is spiritually lost because it only sees the world in black and white.
When analyzing this p
oem as one cohesive piece, there is less relation between stanzas compared to most poems. The only things that the stanzas have in common are the “this” at the start of each stanza and a meaning behind each stanza. After analyzing each stanza, it is clear to me that each stanza portrays a different cruel message. The first portrays the message that the world can be very cruel. The second portrays the message that even if you are going through something terrible, the world will still go on. The third portrays the message that uncertainty can lead one off their path and leave them with something missing. The fourth portrays that if you see the world in black and white, you will become spiritually lost in the world. You will stray from your path like the deaf dumb church, be ignored like the girl who died in her mind, and suffer like the rubbish of human rind.
I find it very interesting that you initially said that the poem is average. I even laughed a little bit, because I would say that I felt the exact same way when I first viewed this poem. I like how you start with the questions that started to pop up in your mind as a result of the cryptic meaning. I also like how you start your analysis by thoroughly analyzing the first line of the poem. I like to think that a lot of authors tend to have the first line of the poem be the most important line. Anyways, I like how you also question the subject of the poem. Is the poem talking about one person or completely different people? In your paragraph talking about your interpretation of the third stanza, I found it funny that you thought the deaf dumb church was exactly what I thought it was too. I also really liked how you even searched up the significance of the vines, because I think that adds a very important aspect that had to be considered about the church. Overall, I think you did a great job with interpreting the poem and really writing about your true thoughts.
Hey Rohith,
Compared to some of E.E. Cummings’ other monstrosities, this poem seems somewhat manageable, but I think you’ve made it clear that it is decidedly difficult. I’m really intrigued by the idea that this poem was very average, and I agree with it too. Cummings, made clear choices here. While he could’ve conveyed his meaning in a more convoluted way, he chose a seemingly simple poem. Normal stanzas, lines, and rhymes all reinforce that narrative. But thanks to your close read, the truth was swiftly uncovered.
The idea of human rind being skin is a bit repulsive to say the least. But in a roundabout way, it makes sense. The poem tackles death, but not overtly. There’s horror in war, and Cummings speaks volumes about it. Everything is shattered and destroyed, and the language of the poem supports this line of reasoning.
From the dog to the girl, all the characters experience massive trauma. And unlike the dog, we can view this poem in full color to appreciate in totality. The through line here seems to be the idea of trauma and death and surviving it. Like how you close the poem, million ways to be led astray or fall of the path or face of the world. And in those cases, it’s easy to feel like rubbish. But thanks to your unpacking of the difficulty, I was not led astray today.
I’m disappointed there was no happy conclusion. But that’s fitting too. Sometimes the world is just miserable or broken and we have to live through the atrocity and hope the good is around the corner. So thanks for helping me find that lesson, and I really enjoyed your blog.
Hey Rohith, before reading your analysis of “this is a rubbish of human rind,” by E.E. Cummings, I wanted to kind of just talk about what I thought of your poem on the first and second read. In my mind, after reading the first stanza, I visualize a person holding an old polaroid photograph. I feel like that interpretation makes sense because according to Google, “rind” is another way of talking about the bark on a tree, but when paired with the word “human,” it seems to me that the author is trying to say a photograph is a lot like the outer skin of a person — showing you whats physically there on the outside, but nothing about the emotions or inner parts of that person. The author then goes on to describe three visible people or animals or structures that could be seen in the photograph by forming a stanza for each subject. Cummings, however, chooses to dwell deeper that just the first layer as he describes the mental states and emotions felt by or emitted by each of those three subjects. This effectively proves Cumming’s point as he details the depressive and sad scenery that is actually displayed by the photograph, directly contrasting his statement at the beginning of the poem that the photo just showed a scene of warm and loving emotions. After reading your analysis, Rohith, it was interesting to me how different our interpretations of the same poem were. While I did not know about Cumming’s background as a war medic, I feel like the rhyme scheme of “rind”, “mind”, “blind”, and “kind” that you noticed only added to both of our interpretations as Cummings essentially used it as a tool to connect the different subjects within each stanza.