This work does not fall into traditional repeated feet or meter. Instead, it both mocks and replicates the speech tones of an insincere political public rant, meant to impress the audience with a patriotic message, but in actuality exposing the hypocrisy of the speaker. While it is possible to divide the lines into iambs, trochees, etc., the rhythm of speech is not illuminated by doing so. Likewise, there is no line meter or rhyme that connects this poem with any traditional form such as a sonnet or limerick. By dividing the speech into seemingly arbitrary lengths and by eliminating punctuation, Cummings manages to expose the hollowness of the sentiment. It is by means of unorthodox meter that Cummings shows how the ambient tone of a speech can obfuscate the hypocrisy, making the message sound spontaneous and sincere even when it is really just phony patriotism.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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