Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"One: 10" by E.E. Cummings is a darkly humorous and satirical narrative poem that explores the life and ultimate fate of the speaker's Uncle Sol, a character who embodies failure and misfortune at every turn. Through its playful language and ironic tone, the poem reflects on themes of futility, resilience, and the absurdity of life and death.

The poem begins with the assertion, "nobody loses all the time," setting the stage for a tale that, despite its subject's many failures, ultimately suggests some form of twisted victory or success, even if only in death. The speaker introduces Uncle Sol, describing him as "a born failure"—a man who could not seem to succeed at anything he attempted. The humorous suggestion that Uncle Sol "should have gone into vaudeville" due to his talent for singing "McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself" adds a layer of irony; perhaps his only real skill was one that had no practical value for his chosen endeavors.

Uncle Sol's misadventures begin with farming, a pursuit the poem mockingly describes as "possibly most inexcusable / of all...luxuries." The use of the word "luxuries" here is ironic, as farming is typically seen as hard work rather than indulgence. This irony is compounded by the fact that Uncle Sol's farm fails because "the chickens ate the vegetables," setting off a chain of increasingly ridiculous failures. Each new venture—first a chicken farm, then a skunk farm—ends disastrously, with the skunks catching cold and dying, further emphasizing Uncle Sol's ineptitude.

The poem takes a darker turn with the revelation that Uncle Sol, after his final failure, "imitated the skunks in a subtle manner / or by drowning himself in the watertank." The description of his suicide is both macabre and understated, reflecting Cummings' characteristic blend of dark humor and pathos. The word "subtle" adds an absurd touch, as if Uncle Sol's final act of despair was somehow delicate or nuanced, which stands in stark contrast to the bluntness of the act itself.

Despite his life's many failures, Uncle Sol is given a "scrumptious not to mention splendiferous funeral," complete with "tall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything." This lavish send-off, which seems disproportionate to the man's life, underscores the absurdity of societal rituals surrounding death. The speaker notes that everyone cried "like the Missouri" when Uncle Sol's coffin "lurched because / somebody pressed a button." The image of the coffin lurching, possibly due to a mechanical error, introduces a final moment of comic absurdity just as the poem reaches its conclusion.

In the poem's final twist, Uncle Sol, who failed at farming in life, ends up inadvertently starting "a worm farm" in death, as his coffin descends into the ground. This grimly humorous ending suggests that Uncle Sol, who could not succeed in life, has finally achieved some form of "success" in death, though it is a success of the most ironic and unintended kind.

"One: 10" by E.E. Cummings uses humor and irony to explore the theme of failure, suggesting that even in a life marked by constant setbacks, there is a kind of absurd triumph in the end. Through its playful language and dark wit, the poem reflects on the futility of human endeavors and the inevitability of death, while also mocking the rituals and pretensions that surround both life and death. Uncle Sol's story, while tragic, is rendered with a light touch that underscores the ridiculousness of taking life too seriously.

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