He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

In his poem “next to of course god America i,” E.E. Cummings parodies the jingoism and patriotism of American glory. The poem begins with an unnamed speaker quoting lines of American patriotic songs. The speaker pulls lyrics from “My Country ‘Tis of Thee ” and “The Star-Spangled Banner ” and strings them together. The speaker runs the words of both the lyrics and his own words together to a point where all becomes a verbal mush and the patriotism conveyed by the song lyrics are lost in the muddle. The line, “love you land of the pilgrim’s and so forth oh,” exemplifies the very unpatriotic tone of the speaker’s words (line 2). At the beginning the speaker is talking about his “love” for America, the “land of the pilgrims,” but then attaches the words, “and so forth oh.” The phrase, “and so forth oh,” conveys the speaker’s boredom with American patriotism and nationalistic love. The speaker does not “love” America and finds patriotism boring and trivial. The words in the line, “country ‘tis of centuries come and go,” further compound the sense of complete boredom and lack of interest of the speaker (line 4). The speaker does not find in any way love of one’s country particularly rousing. The words “come and go” are indicative of something that is always there, of something that is stable and unchanging. In reference to America, the speaker is implying that the country will never change, its problems will always be there, and thus, love of America, particularly extreme patriotism, is both futile and contrite. Nationalism is not something worth noting or glorifying. The speaker continues with the lines, “in every languagE. E.ven deafanddumb/they sons acclaim your glorious name by gory/by jingo by gee by gosh by gum,” (lines 6-8). He mentions that even the “deaf and dumb” people of America proclaim the country’s glory without question. The speaker again mocks patriotism, by saying that even those who are “deaf and dumb” love America. People who are “deaf and dumb” are generally considered inferior, so inferior people are praising and glorifying America, thus tarnishing American patriotism. The speaker mentions that “thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry/by jingo by gee by gosh by gum,” further satirizing patriotism. “Gorry” sounds and looks like gory, which references America’s bloody past and son’s refers to not only American citizens, but also soldiers at war, fighting for American “glory.” “Gee,” “gosh,” and “gum,” are words much like “um,” in that they are not real words, but rather fillers and verbal pauses. People hail America with “gee, gosh, and gum.” In lines 9 and 10, the word “beautiful,” is split in half with a hyphen. The word connects the two lines but also tears the word in half, while bringing emphasis to the split. In patriotic songs or words, America is often referred to as beautiful, yet in the poem, beautiful is broken up, symbolizing the ugliness, rather than beauty, of the country. In the lines, “than these heroic happy dead/ who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter/they did not stop to think they died instead,” is representative of American citizens who are happy to rally together against an “enemy” and go to war without thinking through the consequences and the impending death toll (lines 10-12). Extreme patriotism blots out the instinct for self-preservation and people become blood thirsty, rush into war, and die. Just like in Iraq, one of the current American wars, the consequences were not thought out. The supposed purpose of modern day American war is to “liberate” the people, yet if we have dead soldiers, “then shall the voice of liberty be mute?” (line 13). How can war bring liberty and freedom? Patriotism leads to war not to glory and peace. The speaker ends with a pause between line 13 and the last line. Cummings’ ends his poem with “He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water,” (line 14). There is a period after spoke, creating a pause. Then the speaker drinks water rapidly, as if to get off stage quickly. The reader’s attention is distracted from the rest of the poem, American glory and whatnot, and is focused on water. American patriotism is reduced to the incredibly ordinary action of drinking a glass of water. Cummings is very clever in distracting the reader and succeeds in mocking nationalism. (It can even be argued that the speaker is Cummings himself, because in line 6, the words language and even are connected with two capital “E’s,” which are Cummings’ initials.)