[2 Little Whos] by E. E. Cummings

2 little whos

(he and she)

under are this

wonderful tree

 

smiling stand

(all realms of where

and when beyond)

now and here

 

(far from a grown

-up i&you-

ful world of known)

who and who

 

(2 little ams

and over them this

aflame with dreams

incredible is)

 

2 Little Whos by E.E. Cummings is a cheerful, feel-good 16 line poem that tells a story about the importance of reconnecting with childhood— to steer away from matured cynicism and embrace a childlike optimism for the future. Throughout this piece, Cummings effectively transitions from an admiration of childhood dreaming into an assertion that we still have the capacity to return to this innocence and unabashedness.

 

The first line of the piece initiates the main characters: “2 little whos” (line 1), two children. Immediately, the readers’ attention is directed towards the common tropes associated with childhood—innocence, inexperience, potential, aspirations. Additionally, the identification of the children as “who’s” purposefully creates a distance between the reader and the main characters of the piece. The children are unidentifiable, their personalities and lives are made out to be completely disparate and unknown to the audience. The stanza furthers into a description of the relationship between these two main character children, that they are a “he and she / under are this / wonderful tree” (lines 2-4). Warm, amiable diction like “wonderful tree” serve to first strengthen the joyful tone of the poem; a “he” and “she”, under a happy setting of being in the shade under a big tree. Besides literally being unified under a tree, the ABCB rhyme scheme of “she” and “tree” further adds to the collaborative tone that ornaments the already joyful warmness of the poem. The rhyme scheme represents the friendly relationship between the two children, but also the unification of them and their present environment as “wonderful tree” is linked with “she”. Right away in the first stanza, a positive tone is set for this story-telling poem. Two innocent children are united. They are collaborating, not competing,  and caught up in the joys of the moment under a warm picturesque setting.

 

Continuing to the second stanza, the children are further described as “smiling stand” (line 5), meaning joyful and the continuation of the ABCB rhyme scheme in this second stanza reiterates the themes of collaboration already established. But starting from line 6, a second realm of optimism is introduced to the characterization of the two children. Beyond being caught up in the joys “now and here” (8) in the moment, the children are imagining “(all realms of where / and when beyond)” (lines 6-7)— they are ambitiously dreaming about their futures. The initial warm setting of a blossoming tree is minimized by a new imaginative “realm” that the children are ambitiously thinking about. The unorthodox use of parentheses to section off the section of the piece describing the two children’s imagination about the future serve as a mechanism to portray just how uncontained and separate from the present these dreams are. Words like “realms” and “beyond” are purposefully nonspecific when describing the grandeur of the imaginative world. Cummings establishes the fact that the children are dreaming about their goals, but leaves the exact splendor of these ambitions up to the reader to decide. Doing so initiates an introspection process within the reader, they begin to drift off thinking about their own ungrounded ambitions in the same way Cummings describes the two children to be doing. 

 

Building off of the introspection evoked in the future-gazing section of the second stanza, Cummings wholly ties the two little whos to the audience in the third stanza. By arguing that “far from grown / -up i&you “ (lines 9-10), the initial mystery about the identity of the children is completely uncovered, their unrelatedness to the audience completely bridged. We are the “who and who” (line 12). The description of the audience as well as the narrator themself completely parallels the initial characterization of the two children. The phrase “i&you” is an impactful and eye-catching way to create a sense of unity between audience and narrator as a wide-reaching community: society. Cummings is saying that society is not as “grown-up” as we can make out ourselves to be. And our present, a “ful world of known” (11) is faulty and incomplete. “I&you”, or society, may be stagnant, cynical, and far too grounded, thinking our experiences have left us a “world of known”. But the comprehensiveness of this worldview is as complete as the spelling of the word “full”. The fledgling word, “ful”,  in the poem symbolizes the opportunities the world still has to offer to a cynical, overly realistic audience. We share more similarities with the two dreaming children than we think, we have unharnessed energy that can give us the same level of optimism as those two little whos.

 

The innocent and ungrounded children are not “2 little whos”, but rather “(2 little ams” (line 13): everyone. Once again, parenthesis are utilized to section off this part of the poem; Cummings is reinstating the dreaming of the future evoked by the parenthesis in the second stanza. Besides being “2 little ams”, we are also  “over them this” (line 14). “Them” references the pessimistic outlook a lot of  the mature world, and likely a majority of Cumming’s audience, has. “This” signifies the moment and call to action to exactly when the “them” attitude should be abandoned. Cummings urges readers that now is the time to be “over them”— over our cynicism— and time to embrace the optimistic philosophy of our inner child “aflame with dreams / incredible is” (lines 15-16). Cummings drives his argument home by describing the glory of this childlike outlook, that being “aflame with dreams” is “incredible”. The word “aflame” serves to ignite a childlike excitement within the reader to dream again. This vivid, passionate way of describing a life where one embraces their inner child serves to undermine the status quo. The usual cynical, grounded way of living by intricately planning for the most safety seems dull in comparison to the life led by the 2 little whos. One’s life can be as colorful as the wonderful tree the 2 little whos were sitting under once they embrace every aspect of their character. This process, most importantly, includes the ambitious dreamer they once were as a child.