The Full Text of “anyone lived in a pretty how town”
The Full Text of “anyone lived in a pretty how town”
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Introduction
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” originally appeared as “No. 29” in E. E. Cummings’s 1940 collection 50 poems. The poem describes a community in which everyone generally keeps to themselves. The townspeople progress through life in a familiar, socially-expected pattern—growing up, getting married, raising a family—in hopes of finding success. Amidst such monotony, a man named anyone finds true love and companionship with a woman named noone. Through their story, the speaker explores such subjects as the pressure to conform and the power of meaningful relationships. Repeating phrases appear throughout the poem, highlighting both the indifference of the natural world and the unchanging routines that the townspeople cycle through generation after generation.
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Summary
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A man named anyone lived in a quaint, ordinary town where bells frequently chimed. Season after season, he was open about all the things he hadn’t done but celebrated all that he was able to accomplish.
None of the men or women in the town cared about anyone. Instead, they focused on their own achievements. The townspeople planted the things they never did in the ground and then harvested more of the same. Time continued on: day turned to night, the stars appeared in the sky, and rain fell.
Some children picked up on the fact that a woman named noone loved anyone. But as the seasons passed and the children grew up, they lost interest in the relationship, even as noone herself loved anyone more and more.
The bond between anyone and noone gradually blossomed, bit by bit. noone felt both his joy and his sadness, laughing and crying along with him. Little by little, as time continued to pass, they grew so close that anything that mattered to anyone was everything noone.
The other townspeople married their own partners. These couples also experienced their own joys and sorrows. Their lives followed an established pattern, as if the townspeople were performing the motions of a dance. They would sleep, wake, look towards the future, and repeat. They discussed everything they hadn’t done and ultimately, they died.
Time continued on: the stars appeared in the night sky, rain fell, the sun and moon rose and set. It's a part of life that, as they get older, children tend to grow less interested in the lives of other people. All the while, the bells chime again and again.
Of course, at some point, anyone passed away. noone bent over to kiss him and eventually, she died too. Townspeople who were wrapped up in their own lives briefly paused to bury them next to each other.
Gradually, bit by bit, their spirits settled into the dreamlike slumber that is death. Meanwhile, their bodies decomposed, becoming one with the earth and nurturing a new spring.
The bells kept chiming as the next generation of townspeople grew up and the seasons continued to cycle on and on. These townspeople had children of their own, but then this generation died too. Day turned to night, the stars appeared in the sky, and rain fell.
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Themes
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Community, Conformity, and Isolation
The poem critiques the conformity it sees as inherent to modern life, in which, the poem implies, people are all driven to want the same things and seek the same conventional markers of success. Rather than nurturing a sense of kinship and connection based on these shared desires, however, the poem suggests that this conformity actually drives people apart: people are so preoccupied with reaching personal milestones—so wrapped up in their own lives—that they become indifferent to others' experiences. As such, the poem suggests that conformity often discourages people from empathy and introspection, instead breeding indifference and isolation within communities.
The townspeople are hyper-focused on reaching milestones that fulfill certain social expectations. For instance, the poem’s fourth stanza begins “someones married their everyones / laughed their cryings and did their dance.” Essentially, every member of this society follows the same framework, mechanically approaching life is as if going through the motions of a "dance."
The poem itself is also highly repetitive, reinforcing the idea that the townspeople partake in the same routines that are carried out over and over indefinitely. The speaker also regularly lists the seasons as well as various phases of the sky, rotating through list items (e.g., “sun moon stars rain … stars rain sun moon”) to emphasize that these cycles never change and create a sense that the townspeople are trapped by their routine and conformity.
What’s more, throughout the poem, community members reap “their same," suggesting that they all work towards the same rewards. This line can also be interpreted to mean that the townspeople give birth to children who follow the exact same path as their parents, or that because people never step out of their expected routines, their lives will never change; they will "reap," or harvest, more of the same. The townspeople industriously reproduce the "same" result again and again, seemingly committed to perpetuating existing routines without question or deviation.
And because they fixate on a blueprint for individual success, the townspeople are disconnected from one another’s unique personal experiences. The speaker introduces the townspeople by pointing out that they “care for anyone not at all.” Thus, they find no inherent value in their fellow community members, despite the fact that they all want the same things out of life. Even when noone sees something in anyone, the townspeople pay him no mind.
The few children who do pick up on their bond gradually lose interest, suggesting that the townspeople are not born indifferent to the experiences of others, but rather adopt such attitudes over time when growing up in such a conformist world. The desire to conform, to follow in the footsteps of those before them, creates this communal indifference.
The couple eventually passes away, and even then, the townspeople show little concern. Those who bury anyone and noone are “busy,” indicating that they are again preoccupied with their own affairs. And after these deaths, the community members simply proceed with their lives, going about their normal activities. The speaker again lists the seasons, phases of the sky, and reaping crops to illustrate their seamless, instinctive return to the same habits, utterly unaffected by the loss of two of their own.
The town’s culture champions regularity, encouraging its people to dedicate themselves to established routines. But the townspeople become so swept up in these formulas that they disregard all else—including one another. The poem suggests that this behavior is learned, spread, and reinforced over time, creating a perpetual loop of isolation within their community.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-36
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Love and Anonymity
The figures in the poem all live in relative anonymity, caught up in their own lives and relationships. The townspeople are unconcerned with the experiences of others and emotionally disconnected as a society. Still, the love between anyone and noone allows them to live full, meaningful lives—regardless of external acknowledgment. The lasting power of their bond indicates that it is possible to find true fulfillment through love, even in a society that promotes self-interest.
The main characters find true, enduring love despite their community member’s indifference. None of the townspeople pay anyone any mind, but noone takes interest in him. Few people recognize their connection, but she is not discouraged by this. Instead, noone’s love for anyone grows—she cares for him “more by more,” even as their relationship receives diminished acknowledgment from everyone else.
While their fellow townsfolk carry on with their own affairs season after season, anyone and noone invest in their relationship. Gradually, their connection blossoms into something very meaningful, like a tree growing one leaf at a time. At a certain point, their emotions are so in sync that noone “laughed his joy she cried his grief.” In other words, she experiences true empathy and shares in his experiences. In fact, anything that is important to him becomes “all to her.” It doesn’t matter that the townspeople don’t care about their relationship; what matters to them is that relationship itself.
Even after noone dies as well and is buried alongside anyone, the townspeople remain indifferent toward their relationship. The figures who bury them are “busy” and concerned with their own matters. But this does not invalidate the bond between anyone and noone. Together, they become one with the earth, nurturing new life in which their love lives on. The speaker comments, “noone and anyone earth by april / wish by spirit and if by yes.” Their deep connection is the only trace of them that remains.
Finally, note the speaker's highly universalized language—the characters do not receive traditional names, instead becoming “anyone,” “noone,” “someones,” and “everyones.” These naming conventions signal that the characters really could be anyone. The speaker seems to say that your identity is only understood by those with whom you have a true, personal connection. To everyone else, you might as well be anyone (or no one at all).
Anyone and noone’s relationship demonstrates that in a callous, anonymous world, true human connection has lasting personal significance, even when no one else sees it. As such, the speaker implies that social isolation is simply a fact of modern life—but one that can be overcome through love.
What remains ambiguous, however, is the ease with which such a connection can be achieved. Indeed, it's possible to read the poem less romantically, as a sad tale about a place where no one—as in nobody, rather than a character named "noone"—ever loved anyone else, as in any other person; a place where people never were able to form the kind of connection that the poem insists is what makes all the monotonous steps of life meaningful.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 5-36
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The Power and Indifference of Nature
Throughout the poem, nature is shown regularly cycling through various patterns without regard for the actions and experiences of human characters. Instead, people die and are replaced by others over and over again. In this way, the speaker suggests that the natural world has a kind of dominion over humankind, or at least that individual human lives are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. In other words, nature's workings are indifferent to human life, moving along despite human happiness and despair.
As the characters within the poem experience profound changes, the natural world progresses through its regular cycles. Throughout the poem, the speaker lists the seasons, cycling through them—"spring summer autumn winter … autumn winter spring summer” and so on. Similarly, variations on the sequence “sun moon stars rain” also appear several times, contributing to this feeling of time passing relentlessly: sun corresponds with summer, the (harvest) moon with autumn, starry nights with winter, and rain with spring.
The speaker intersperses these sequences with significant events in the lives of the characters such as love, death, and birth. While momentous to the people involved, such events don't affect the natural cycles at all—which keep moving on, regardless of what happens to the people in the poem.
While human experiences have no impact on the natural world, the figures in the poem are at nature’s mercy. The speaker states “one day anyone died i guess.” The nonchalant language that the speaker uses to report the death of the poem’s leading character shows the ordinariness and inevitability of death. It could happen to anyone on any day and that it will occur can safely be assumed as fact.
Moreover, the figures in the poem are highly depersonalized and interchangeable—suggesting they are all the same in the eyes of nature. The difference between one person and another is the same between “little and small” or “dong and ding.” New generations also simply take over the roles of their parents. The children adopt their parents' indifference towards others, and eventually grow up to be the “women and men” in the final stanza who then have their own children (i.e., "[reap] their sowing") and ultimately die.
Plus, natural imagery suggests that the preservation of one’s legacy and important interpersonal relationships is contingent on the earth. In particular, townspeople plant and sow crops—a reference to reproduction—in order to find success. The growth of the couple’s love is also expressed using natural imagery (“tree by leaf … bird by snow”) and is preserved in the earth. In this way, nature controls the fate of the lives and legacies of the poem’s characters.
The speaker’s descriptions of nature emphasize its disregard for the events of individual human lives. Further, the speaker suggests that deep, invested connections are all that survive natural cycles and people should therefore focus on maintaining meaningful relationships. At the same time, the natural imagery displays the power of those cycles themselves—all life within the poem is broken down to create new life, and, if you play your cards right, preserved within it.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-5
- Lines 7-8
- Line 11
- Lines 13-16
- Lines 21-36
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Parents and Children
Some children who observe anyone and noone perceive the strength of their bond. However, as the children grow older, they adopt the habits of their parents and community members, becoming too wrapped up in their own lives to recognize and appreciate the couple’s love. The poem therefore suggests that when a society champions individualism, its children become desensitized to the concerns of others.
While some children initially pick up on the connection between anyone and noone, their learned self-interest gradually eclipses their concern for others. None of the adults within the town care about anyone or his relationship with noone. In fact, each member of the older generation shares many of the same attributes, including their aims and approach to life.
Still, “a few” of the children take interest in anyone and no one This fades as they grow up, implying that their apathy is learned rather than innate. As the speaker puts it, “down they forgot as up they grew.” Their growth into adults corresponds with a lack of compassion.
It is also coupled with the passing of the seasons, showing a progression through various stages of life. The second mention of the children “forgetting” anyone and noone occurs alongside the reappearance of chiming bells. As such, the speaker suggests that their loss of compassion coincides with marriage, a religious ceremony, or some other ritual that is a part of their parents’ and community’s accepted guidelines.
Moreover, in this instance, the children are said to be “apt” or prone to forgetting—rather than this behavior being intrinsic or inevitable. As such, the speaker emphasizes that social influences trigger their increased self-interest.
Plus, the speaker says that “only the snow can begin to explain” why they lose sensitivity towards the experiences of others. Recalling winter, snow is also one aspect of the many cycles that repeat throughout the poem to show both the standardized routines of the townspeople and indifference towards individual human experience. As such, this image subtly indicates that the “winter” or bleak aspects of this lifestyle occasion their loss of compassion.
Indeed, the children can be seen as what their parents “reap”—they are viewed as the key to their parents’ self-fulfillment as well as the preservation of their society’s norms. As the poem draws to a close, the children become the new “women and men,” replacing their parents, who were first introduced as “Women and men(both little and small) / cared for anyone not at all.”
Therefore, as the children within the town grow older, they are repeatedly exposed to the same rituals and worldviews and expected to uphold them. As such, these young people become so caught up in fulfilling their community's ideals that their concern for others diminishes as they age.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 9-12
- Lines 22-24
- Lines 33-36
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Time and Life Cycles
Because the poem is so ambiguous, it's possible to read it in many ways. What is clear though—and comes to bear on the other themes we've discussed in this guide—is that the poem is very focused on the relentless passage of time and the various cycles that characterize both the natural world and human life.
The poem repeatedly interjects lines about the changing of the seasons, as well as more immediate transitions from day to night and rain to sunny skies. The message is clear: no season, no day, lasts forever, and time marches forward relentlessly. There is comfort in this as well, as the poem implies that rain will once again give way to sun just as winter always gives way to spring.
This circular sense of time is reflected on a human level too. The townspeople grow up and have children who follow in their parents' footsteps, who grow up and raise children who follow in their parents' footsteps, and so forth. People have things they accomplish and things they don't, and all end up in the same place regardless (i.e., dead).
Whether the poem is romantic and cheerful or pessimistic and depressing really depends on the reader. The poem does suggest that everyone gets married and dies, and then their kids get married and die, and on and on and a never-ending repetitive dance. At the same time, as noted in our previous theme discussions, it suggests that finding genuine connection within your own personal dance is itself meaningful and brings a great deal of joy.
Even death is cyclical, the poem subtly implies, as the bodies of anyone and noone eventually become part of the earth. The following lines can be read a number of ways, but one interpretation is that their nourish the earth that in turn creates new life in april, in the spring:
... they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by aprilEven if humanity is ultimately a blip on nature's radar, the poem ultimately argues that with death people return to earth and are thus able to begin the cycle of life anew. Time marches on relentlessly, but that means that there is always the promise of new life on the horizon.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 3-4
- Lines 7-8
- Lines 10-11
- Lines 13-15
- Lines 17-36
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “anyone lived in a pretty how town”
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Lines 1-4
anyone lived in ...
... danced his did.The poem's opening stanza introduces its setting and main character: a person called "anyone." At first it's not obvious that "anyone" is being treated like a name, and that's part of the point. The main character is a specific person, but also could be anyone. By the end of the stanza, it becomes clear that “anyone” is in fact the name of a man who lives in this town, rather than a general term. Still, his name suggests that his exact identity is unimportant. The fact that his name is not capitalized adds to the ambiguity.
The poem takes place “in a pretty how town”—another unusually structured phrase, which can be interpreted in a few ways:
- Taken as an adjective, “pretty” indicates that the town is picturesque and an attractive place to live. This phrase could maybe be rewritten as “how pretty a town,” with “how” denoting a high degree of charm and appeal.
- Taken as a question, the “how” that follows this descriptor invites the reader to consider what makes this town a desirable home, subtly casting doubt on its virtue. How can such a place exist?
- Alternatively, perhaps the line "how" here is meant to be more like an adjective—a town that exemplifies the "how" of life, the way things are.
The unconventional sentence structure carries over into the following line:
(with up so floating many bells down).
The parentheses that surround this image signal that it contains additional information about the setting—ringing bells can be heard throughout the town. The fact that there are “so … many” bells suggests that this town has a bell tower, which chimes to mark the time. Bells are also often rung to mark major life events—weddings, births, funerals. As such, this line introduces the idea of life cycles and the passage of time—an idea picked up by the mention of seasons in line 3.
These first lines also contain assonance and consonance. The similarity between “how” and “town” draws the reader in and accentuates the first pair of end rhymes. Similarly, “so floating” calls attention to the image of the bells, which will become an important symbol in the poem of time’s passage. Plus, the echoing sounds resemble chiming bells.
Line 3 introduces another set of symbols that will appear throughout the poem—the four seasons. They are listed in order from the start of the year to the end, reinforcing the passage of time suggested by the chiming bells. Moreover, this line positions the poem’s events—anyone's life and romance—within the larger cycles of the natural world. Spring, which signals a new beginning, opens the list—a fitting time for a story to commence!
In the final line of the opening stanza, anyone is seen mourning all that he is unable to accomplish (“his didn’t”) and acting on everything that he is able to achieve (“his did”). This line features a repeating grammatical structure, or parallelism, which helps the reader navigate the sentence, given its lack of punctuation and conjunctions, or asyndeton.
The parallelism also results in consonant /h/ sounds, which appear alongside consonant /d/, sibilant /s/, and assonant short /ih/ sounds:
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.
These clusters of repeating sounds have a musical quality, creating a suitable backdrop for anyone’s singing and dancing. Additionally, assonance draws out the /ih/ sound in “winter” within the previous line, producing a slant rhyme. As such, the poem’s lose AABB rhyme scheme begins to take shape.
This first stanza also establishes the poem’s rhythm. In particular, there are about four stressed syllables in each line, but precisely where those stresses fall varies—an example of accentual verse:
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.The steady beat introduces regularity amid grammatical chaos. Accordingly, the evenness and consistency of the cadence increases the speaker’s credibility. Plus, it creates a repetitive plodding effect that mirrors the predictable, endless cycles of the natural world. Indeed, the audience works its way through four beats in each line and four lines in each stanza, much like the four seasons of each year.
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Lines 5-8
Women and men(both ...
... moon stars rain -
Lines 9-12
children guessed(but only ...
... more by more -
Lines 13-16
when by now ...
... all to her -
Lines 17-20
someones married their ...
... slept their dream -
Lines 21-24
stars rain sun ...
... many bells down) -
Lines 25-28
one day anyone ...
... was by was -
Lines 29-32
all by all ...
... if by yes. -
Lines 33-36
Women and men(both ...
... moon stars rain
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Symbols
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Bells
Twice within the poem, the speaker describes a chorus of bells ringing throughout the town. They are said to float up and down, producing music. Bell towers commonly feature a clock and chime to mark specific times of day and/or important events like weddings and funerals. They might also be used to convene or transition religious ceremonies. In any case, ringing bells within this poem symbolize the passage of time. Interestingly, the bells always appear within parentheses, as if they can be heard off in the distance reminding the townspeople (and the reader) that time is constantly moving forward.
First popping up in the poem's second line, the bells are one of the town's most prominent features. The bells return at the end of stanza 6, where their symbolic significance comes into focus. Here, the speaker suggests that children tend to lose interest in other people "with up so floating many bells down":
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)It's a confusing moment, but makes more sense when considering the symbolic connotations of bells in the poem. The sound of bells as the children "forget to remember" implies that the children's forgetting, their diminishing concern for other people, is something that happens over time—that is, as they grow up.
And again, bells mark not just the passing hours but also momentous occasions that typically mark certain phases of life, like weddings, births, and funerals. The mention of bells thus suggests that the children's increasing self-interest simply arises as they get wrapped in the cycles and ceremonies of their own lives. As they grow up and find their own spouses, have their own children, and bury their own family members, they lose sight of the other people around them.
Lastly, the poem's final stanza begins, "Women and men(both dong and ding)." This stanza describes the townspeople going on with their lives after the deaths of anyone and noone—the bells ring again and again, marking the passage of hours as well as births, weddings, and funerals. The couple's life and death hasn't affected the rest of the world at all, which moves forward as normal.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 2: “up so floating many bells down”
- Line 24: “up so floating many bells down”
- Line 33: “dong and ding”
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Seasons and Weather
Throughout the poem, the speaker lists seasons (“spring summer autumn winter”) as well as a set of corresponding images (“sun [summer] moon [autumn] stars [winter] rain [spring]”). While the individual list items appear in various orders, they always follow the same sequence (i.e., "moon" always follows "sun" and "winter" always follows "autumn" in the list), indicating that the earth continuously cycles through the seasons as the poem progresses. Despite the major events that take place in the townspeople’s lives, the earth follows this established pattern. Therefore, in general, seasons and weather represent the consistency and relentlessness of the natural world and its various cycles, which are indifferent to the activities of human beings.
In a few places, the speaker references winter (“snow”) and spring (“april”) in particular. Winter marks the end of a calendar year and is associated with death, hibernation, and the struggle to survive harsh circumstances. Within this broader natural symbolism, then, snow can be interpreted as a symbol for the later stages of life.
The spring months, on the other hand, bring new life and thus represent rebirth or renewal. The speaker draws on these connotations to suggest that the challenges the couple faces bring them closer over time (“bird by snow”). Further, as the children grow older and come up against difficulties, their concern for others fade (“only the snow ...”). Finally, after anyone and noone die, they become one with the earth and nurture new life (“earth by april”).
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3: “spring summer autumn winter”
- Line 8: “sun moon stars rain”
- Line 11: “autumn winter spring summer”
- Line 15: “snow”
- Line 21: “stars rain sun moon”
- Line 22: “the snow”
- Line 31: “april”
- Line 34: “summer autumn winter spring”
- Line 36: “sun moon stars rain”
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Farming
The speaker briefly describes the townspeople sowing (or planting) and reaping (or harvesting). On its most basic level, this image displays the hard work that the townspeople put into achieving their goals—the rewards that they “reap.” But these actions can also be understood symbolically.
The word “semen” literally means “seed” in Latin and comes from the word “serere” meaning “to sow.” Accordingly, impregnation is sometimes referred to as “sowing a seed.” Given surrounding references to children and life cycles, farming can be seen as a symbol for childbearing. Following this line of thinking, it also represents the transfer of life and responsibility from one generation to the next.
In an alternative reading, the farming-related language in the poem might be a way to represent the idea that these townspeople are to blame for any sense of monotony in their lives. With "sow[ing] their isn't," perhaps the speaker is saying not that the townspeople made sacrifices/didn't do certain things in the hope of future goals, but rather that they buried their regrets about all the things they didn't do in the ground. And what then grows from those regrets is more of the same—the same monotonous cycles of life is all they can hope for, because instead of acknowledging the things they haven't done (as anyone so when he "sang his didn't"), they suppress them.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 7: “they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same”
- Line 35: “reaped their sowing”
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Antithesis
Several grammatical structures repeat throughout the poem—a device known as parallelism. The speaker also often parallel grammatical clauses in order to draw contrasts between opposite ideas, which is an example of antithesis.
In general, the speaker uses antithesis to differentiate anyone and noone from the rest of the townspeople. For instance, line 4 reads:
he sang his didn't he danced his did.
The construction of the two clauses here is exactly the same. Only the specific verbs change, and they are opposites: didn't vs. did. Three lines later, this is followed up with another example of antithesis, here with "sowed" and "reaped" being essentially opposites:
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
While anyone expresses himself through song and dance, the townspeople are hard at work planting and harvesting (likely metaphorical) crops. As such, anyone appears to live a more emotionally honest and joyous life relative to his peers, who are preoccupied with labor.
Further, anyone laments all that he is unable to achieve ("his didn't") and celebrates all that he is able to do ("his did"). The townspeople, on the other hand, actively make sacrifices ("their isn't") in the name of a more distant reward—"their same," which might be a reference to the idea that they all have the same desires in life, or that their lives are unrelentingly monotonous.
Later, in line 10, the speaker explains that as children grow older, they begin to disregard the relationship between anyone and noone:
and down they forgot as up they grew
Here, antithesis accentuates the contrast between "down" and "up." In doing so, it emphasizes the children's loss of care and suggests that aging—growing "up"—is to blame for their apathy.
When describing the strengthening bond between anyone and noone, the speaker remarks:
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
In this case, antithesis exaggerates the highs and lows that the couple endures to demonstrate the range of experiences that they have had together. At the same time, the juxtaposition of anyone' s "joy" and "grief" plays up noone's capacity to empathize with him, no matter the emotion.
Later, the speaker says that the townspeople "laughed their cryings and did their dance." Unlike anyone and noone, the townspeople are discussed collectively and are not shown empathizing with one another's distinct emotions. Instead, they appear to share similar experiences and impersonal emotional responses. Indeed, parallelism equates this behavior to performing "their dance," suggesting that the townspeople all go through the same predetermined motions. Once again, the speaker utilizes antithesis to subtly tease out the differences in behavior among the loving couple and the members of their society.
Where antithesis appears in the poem:- Line 4: “he sang his didn’t he danced his did”
- Line 7: “they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same”
- Line 10: “down they forgot as up they grew”
- Line 14: “she laughed his joy she cried his grief”
- Line 18: “laughed their cryings and did their dance”
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Assonance
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Asyndeton
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Diacope
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Alliteration
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Parallelism
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Repetition
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"anyone lived in a pretty how town" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- How
- Didn't/did
- Their isn't/same
- Sowed
- Reaped
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “how”)
"How" is being used in an interesting way here. The speaker might be using it as a standard adverb meaning "in what way." That is, maybe the speaker is asking how the town is pretty, or even how it's possible that the town is pretty. Or, perhaps, "how" is a kind of adjective being used to describe "town"—i.e., this is a "how town." What's a "how town"? Good question! This isn't a typical phrase, and might mean a place that exemplifies the "how" of life—that is, the way life is.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “anyone lived in a pretty how town”
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Form
While this poem does not fall into an established verse form, it does follow its own set of rules. In particular, it is made up of nine quatrains, or four-line stanzas. Throughout the poem, the speaker cycles through four seasons as well as four phases or conditions of the sky. As such, the repeating quatrain structure reflects nature's regularity—both progress through the same four elements over and over again. Furthermore, the poem's repetitive format is consistent with the rigid conformity of the townspeople, who are expected to follow an established routine in order to find success within their society.
This poem contains short lines, which divide sprawling sentences into smaller units. Because the poem seems to begin and end mid-sentence, the love story of anyone and noone can be seen as one episode within a larger history. The poem's structure is therefore consistent with the speaker's message that the cycles of the natural world (and of this society) are indifferent to the events of individuals' lives.
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Meter
"anyone lived in a pretty how town" is an example of accentual verse, meaning that each line contains the same number of stresses (or beats). In this case, there are four stresses per line, but precisely where those stresses fall varies. For instance, here is a look at the meter in stanza 2:
Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rainBecause the speaker's cadence never settles into repeating metrical patterns, the rhythm is unable to build or lose momentum (i.e., speed up or slow down). Rather, the four stresses in each line create a steady plodding effect, almost like a metronome that maintains a regular rhythm. The consistent pulse of the accentual verse is reminiscent of bells that chime to mark the time. It also mirrors the repetitive cycles of the natural world and the predictable lives of the townspeople.
Furthermore, given the speaker's unconventional phrasing, the rhythmic regularity creates a sense of order and logic. The steady beat also produces pauses where punctuation would normally occur. This effect is especially helpful when the speaker recites lists (as in "sleep wake hope and then" or "sun moon stars rain"), as it prevents list items from running into one another.
Interestingly, accentual verse is very common in nursery rhymes and other children's poetry. In combination with rhyme, the speaker's cadence gives the poem a lighthearted feel while ensuring that it is memorable. The experiences of anyone and noone thus come across as a quintessential love story that helps children understand the world they live in.
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Rhyme Scheme
This poem loosely follows an AABB rhyme scheme. In the second stanza, for example, there are the rhyme pairs "small"/"all" and "same"/"rain" (a slant rhyme).
Not every stanza adheres to this pattern. Oftentimes, end words contain similar sounds but do not necessarily rhyme, as in "winter" and "did" in stanza 1. Yet whether via perfect rhymes, slant rhymes, assonance, or consonance, such echoing sounds create a musicality that recalls the "dong and ding" of chiming bells.
The rhyme scheme breaks down as the poem progresses, all but disappearing by the fifth stanza ("someones ... their dream"). Here, the speaker describes the townspeople going about their lives and children growing up, paying no mind to the bond between anyone and noone. The absence of sonic harmony reflects the disconnection among the residents of the town. However, the rhyme scheme recovers as anyone and noone become one with the earth and foster new life. The final stanza follows an AABB rhyme scheme once again, providing a sense of completion at the poem's conclusion.
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Speaker
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The audience learns very little about the speaker, who is an omniscient narrator. In other words, the speaker does not partake in the poem's events, but rather observes and relates them. What's more, the narrator does not adopt any distinct perspective or bias that reveals the speaker's personal feelings. On the contrary, the speaker comes across as detached, never evaluating the poem's events. Even when the poem's protagonist dies, the speaker displays no emotion, simply stating, "one day anyone died i guess." Further, the speaker's plodding cadence and frequent repetition contribute to this evenhanded—even cold and droning—quality to the narration. As the speaker plainly reports the goings on of the town, their interpretation is left up to the reader—one of the reasons why this poem can be understood in many different ways.
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“anyone lived in a pretty how town” Setting
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The time and location of the poem's events are very ambiguous. The speaker describes various natural cycles—seasons, phases of the sky, human life—to suggest that the love story is one moment within an endless loop. In this town, similar events repeat over and over, so this particular episode could theoretically take place at any point in time.
If the speaker's representation of the town is taken literally, it has a bell tower, a four-season climate, and its land is arable (i.e., able to be cultivated). However, because these three images act as symbols within the poem, it would be fair to deduce that the poem could take place within any society that emphasizes individual achievement. Indeed, the residents of the town are "busy folk" who are so focused on their own lives that they "cared for anyone not at all."
The setting is introduced as "a pretty how town," which can be interpreted variously. The speaker often switches around conventional sentence structures, so this line might be read, "anyone lives in how pretty a town." In other words, the town is quaint and picturesque—the kind of town that is broadly considered the ideal place to raise a family, such as an American suburb. The lack of physical detail and distinguishing features allows many readers to see their society reflected in the town.
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Literary and Historical Context of “anyone lived in a pretty how town”
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Literary Context
Because he grew up in the northeastern United States in the early 20th century, Cummings was exposed to transcendentalist literature from a young age. Writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Self-Reliance”) promoted self-sufficiency, including the belief that becoming independent of society and its institutions unlocks the inherent goodness of individuals. Transcendentalists also cherished the natural world and believed that individuals should commune with nature to uncover their personal relationship with the universe. The influence of this movement on Cummings is unmistakable—he often wrote about nature and conformity as a barrier to individuality.
However, Cummings is most often cited as a modernist poet. “Modernism” is a term used to describe a series of artistic movements that took hold during the first half of the 20th century. In literature, modernism broadly denotes a break from linguistic convention—traditional verse forms, sentence structures, grammar, and so on. Indeed, Cummings’s work is highly experimental. His poetry often plays with parts of speech (e.g., using a verb as a noun), upends familiar sentence structures, and makes minimal use of punctuation and capitalization. Cummings also experimented with layout and wrote a great deal of visual poetry. On top of all of his writing endeavors—fiction, essays, plays, thousands of poems—Cummings was also an avid painter.
Cummings’s reputation and style were well-established by the time this poem was published in 1940. Many critics note that both his style and his subject hardly changed from the 1920s until the end of his career. However, during this time, his portrayal of love shifted away from explicitly sexual to more romantic and spiritual themes. The speaker of “anyone lived in a pretty how town” considers love as a means to lasting fulfillment. This poem is thus consistent with such a trajectory.
Historical Context
Cummings published "anyone lived in a pretty how town" as the Great Depression was coming to a close in the United States. This period of catastrophic economic depression exposed the failings of America’s most powerful institutions and initially sparked a revolutionary sentiment.
However, by the end of this decade-long crisis, Americans were worn-out and nostalgic for earlier days. Calls for sweeping transformations of the nation’s economic and political systems gave way to calls for normalcy. The resulting glorification of traditional values held up the nuclear family as the fundamental building block for a productive society.
Moreover, suburban areas saw massive developments during the first half of the 20th century. Suburbanization gained speed shortly after this poem was published, but the mass migration from central urban areas to their outskirts was well underway by the end of the 1930s. Even during the depression, films and radio shows presented largely aspirational pictures of American life. They tended to follow a familiar formula—a husband and wife, their children, economic prosperity, and contentment.
During Cummings's lifetime, it became increasingly apparent that humans were significantly harming the environment. Factory expansion led to more air and water pollution, which posed serious health concerns. Beginning in the early 1930s, the Dust Bowl devastated the midwestern and southern area of the Great Plains. This human-made natural disaster resulted from the over-cultivation of land. During drought periods, nutrient-depleted topsoil created dust storms that killed people, livestock, and plants while destroying the landscape. Such events reaffirmed Cummings’s anti-establishment views and desire to break from societal conventions.
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More “anyone lived in a pretty how town” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of E. E. Cummings reading his poem aloud in 1953.
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Structure and Form in the Poet's Work — An overview of Cummings's expansive experimentation with form and structure, including images of relevant examples.
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The Life and Work of Cummings — A detailed introduction to the poet, including biographical information, an overview of his writings and their reception, and links to a selection of his poems.
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Cummings the Painter — Explore the relationship between Cummings's poetry and painting through images of his art.
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George Lucas's Film Adaptation — Watch a film inspired by the Cummings poem, made by Star Wars creator George Lucas in 1967 when he was a student.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by E. E. Cummings
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