communication in poetry

E. E. Cummings’ poem is both complicated and confusing. Of course, I think that he meant for his first thirteen lines to be gibberish. In fact, he continues to use words relating to communication while simultaneously running sentences and ideas together. First of all, I noticed the lack of punctuation or perhaps the ironic placement of punctuation in unusual positions. The only period in the poem is a caesura, breaking up the very last line of the poem. However, the phrase that follows: “And drank rapidly a glass of water” is not a complete sentence. I would say that this phrase is more comprehensible than any other part of the poem and puts a stop to the gibberish in the previous lines. Ironically, the last phrase in the poem, which is still not punctuated, calls for an end to the poem.
The speaker also uses songs lyrics to comment on the topic of patriotism. But, going along with this theme of confusion and gibberish, the speaker mashes up two patriotic songs: “The Star Spangled Banner” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” thus not fully completing one particular idea. However, by not completing each lyric of each song, or even continuing the theme of song lyrics, the speaker adds to the chaos in the first lines of the poem. The speaker may be trying to argue that ideas can be misinterpreted or only partially communicated through song or even poetry.
The speaker of this poem also seems to be using quite a bit of sarcasm. I felt that the speaker is being very sarcastic in the first line “next to of course god america/ i love you…” Both nouns “god” and “america” are, ironically, not capitalized. I think that if the speaker wanted his audience to take this line literally he would have capitalized the proper nouns which he so loves. He also uses the words “of course” which adds to the sarcasm of the line. The fact that the speaker places America next to God is very important. It is quite daring for a religious person (if the speaker is a religious person) to compare anything with the Almighty, let alone a nation. The use of sarcasm in this poem further emphasizes the idea that not all communication is concrete, that ideas can be taken seriously, literally, or as a joke. I think that is why most of this poem is a collaboration of unpunctuated phrases and ideas. I believe in the gibberish the speaker critizes all forms of communication.