“maggie and milly and mollie and may” by E. E. Cummings
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
I don’t usually provide commentary, but I love this poem especially and I want to share it with you.
As usual with Cummings, a few words are warranted on the form of the poem. Notice how “to play one day,” and “like a you or a me” are parenthetical and how the ands in the poems are all punctuated differently, the way you catch your breath after speaking. This poem sounds like a friend telling you a story.
Before the last stanza, the poem seems to be all scene setting. These four girls are at the beach. They are all doing different things. Each thing is described simply and always with a reference to the girls themselves (“she couldn’t remember her troubles”, “befriended”, “horrible”.)
Then finally we get to the fourth stanza, and the text seems to slip under us,
as small as a world, and as large as alone
A paradox and a marked departure from previous descriptions.
Can a world be small? For some people. Can aloneness be large? For some people. My initial reading was that this is about loneliness. This line telling me that loneliness is large — as large as a world is small — has made this poem my all-time favourite.
But then the final stanza tells us what the poem is about,
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
The scene setting isn’t scene setting after all. Cummings is telling us about the interiority of these girls. What did he say about Maggie who found something that helped her forgot her troubles? or how Milly made friend with a starfish that needed help? As much as I love the loneliness reading, it is here we realize that Cummings described the stone this way because it is the way May is: a smooth round stone, a world complete and contained in herself.
I think about this poem every time I’m at the sea, or fall in love.