i thank You God for most this amazing

by e. e. cummings


Original Language English

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-- from E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, by e. e. cummings

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

The delightfully anarchic poetry of e. e. cummings is more than poetic art, there is something of the mystic experience in it, as well. This poem is a good example.

The two parenthetical verses hint that he is describing much more than simply the natural joy of a beautiful day. There is something truly magical going on here...

He uses an almost Biblical or religiously ecstatic phrasing when he proclaims "(now the ears of my ears are awake and / now the eyes of my eyes are opened)." He isn't just saying this, he seems to breathlessly shout it out to the "great happening illimitably earth." He is perceiving for the first time. He is finally seeing the inner nature of things, as they are in their true essence. He is seeing not with the eyes, but with the "eyes of my eyes," the witness that sees through his eyes.

In this new awareness, he perceives not only the living day all around him, he also recognizes himself for the first time. It is a radical awakening, a new life, a birth of Self -- "i who have died and am alive again today."








i thank You God for