1"next to of course god america i
2love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
3say can you see by the dawn's early my
4country 'tis of centuries come and go
5and are no more what of it we should worry
6in every language even deafanddumb
7thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
8by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
9why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
10iful than these heroic happy dead
11who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
12they did not stop to think they died instead
13then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
14He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
E. E. Cummings published "next to of course god america i" in 1926 as part of his poetry collection Is 5, which contained a number of anti-war poems. In keeping with this, the poem satirizes the intense patriotism that many people adopted during World War I. A (very) loosely structured sonnet, the poem features a speaker who feverishly rants about America and war, making a number of patriotic and nationalistic comments that feel hollow. However, it's hard to determine if the speaker says these things sarcastically or if the speaker actually thinks this way. What remains clear is that the poem invites readers to think critically about excessive, unquestioning patriotism.
The poem begins by quoting an unidentified speaker who claims to love America more than anything else, except, of course, for God. The speaker gushes about how America was founded by the Pilgrims and quotes the beginning of the U.S. national anthem, before abruptly transitioning into lyrics taken from "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)." Without completing this quotation, though, the speaker breaks off and notes that time passes no matter what and that centuries always come to an end—but this, the speaker says, isn't worth worrying about. The speaker then upholds that people should praise the glory of America in whatever terms suit them. To illustrate this, the speaker spouts off a mixture of gibberish and colloquial phrases meant to illustrate just how much the speaker loves America. The speaker then asserts that the most beautiful thing possible is dying willingly and happily for one's country in battle, which is what young soldiers have done by charging into violent combat without stopping to think about it. Instead of thinking, the speaker says, these soldiers simply went ahead and died, and the speaker wonders if America's spirit of freedom and liberty has died along with them.
At this point, the unidentified speaker's quotation ends and another person enters the poem. Acting as a narrator, this new person explains that, after this long speech, the first speaker falls silent and quickly drinks a glass of water.
“next to of course god america i” is an anti-war poem that touches on the dangers of empty patriotism. The poem’s main speaker—who seems to be addressing a crowd or audience of some sort—imitates the gung-ho, unflinching patriotism that was popular in the United States during and after World War I, but this speech is filled with shallow, rambling clichés and empty platitudes. As a result, the poem becomes a parody of patriotism itself, framing certain forms of national pride as misguided and thoughtless. More specifically, the poem suggests that mindless patriotism often leads to violence, since it can fuel enthusiasm for war.
The poem’s cynical view of patriotism is illustrated by the lack of substance in the speaker’s speech about America. The speaker rapidly quotes the national anthem and then transitions into the patriotic song “America (My Country ’Tis of Thee)” without actually dwelling on the lyrics of either song. Even though these songs are usually intended to inspire Americans, the offhanded way that the speaker references them makes them seem insignificant and hollow, as if they’ve been quoted so many times that they’ve completely lost their meaning.
However, it’s unclear whether the speaker is purposefully making fun of the downsides of patriotism. On the one hand, the speaker’s tone seems sarcastic and deliberately ridiculous, as made evident by the lines, “thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry / by jingo by gee by gosh by gum.” The use of these absurd words suggests that the speaker wants to humorously mimic the way people talk when they become excessive about patriotism.
On the other hand, though, it’s also possible that the speaker actually is an excessively patriotic person. If this is the case, then the poem implies that such adamantly patriotic beliefs are capable of keeping people from recognizing the flaws in their own thinking or speaking.
Regardless of whether the speaker is self-aware, the poem implies that vague patriotic ideals are dangerous because they can overshadow more important matters. When the speaker describes the “heroic happy dead” soldiers who rush off into battle without a further thought, readers are invited to consider the fact that national pride encourages people to idealize the idea of dying for their country—they are “happy” because the act of dying in battle is seen as “heroic” and patriotic. Furthermore, the speaker calls this sacrifice “beautiful,” indicating that intense patriotism can skew the way people view otherwise horrific things. After all, there is nothing “beautiful” about dying a violent death, but the speaker’s comment shows that intense patriotism ultimately romanticizes the act of dying without thinking twice.
In this way, the gung-ho, unwavering patriotism that the speaker models is quite powerful—so powerful that it can keep people from thinking for themselves. Ironically, then, it becomes clear that extreme and unquestioned forms of patriotism can actually interfere with the very freedom of thought that is supposedly at the heart of American life.
"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth
The poem begins with quotation marks, indicating that the speaker is actually speaking aloud in this moment. Of course, the context of the poem isn't clear yet, but it's still worth noting that the speaker seems to be delivering some kind of speech or public rant—a fact that affects the way readers approach the poem.
The speaker announces a deep love of America, one that is only rivaled by the speaker's love of God. As a way of demonstrating this love, the speaker waxes patriotically about how the country is the "land of the pilgrims," alluding and paying tribute to the nation's history in a way that sounds respectful and moving while also quoting a line from the patriotic song "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)."
However, the speaker's actual attitude toward the United States is difficult to discern. Although the things the speaker says in these first two lines seem to set forth a strong sense of patriotism, the way the speaker says them is unemotional and detached. To that end, the speaker uses certain colloquial phrases that make these lines sound insincere:
"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth
The phrases "of course" and "and so forth" are informal, especially compared to the grand pronouncements the speaker makes about the United States. By working these casual phrases into these lines, then, the speaker deflates the overall patriotic tone. In fact, it's possible that the speaker is speaking sarcastically, using verbal irony to imply that patriotic platitudes lack substance. Regardless of whether the speaker is self-aware, though, the poem frames these patriotic phrases as clichés that no longer carry the significance they once had.
The opening two lines also establish the poem's gesture toward iambic pentameter. This is a meter in which each line consists of five iambs, metrical feet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). Iambic pentameter is commonly found in sonnets, but the version of it that appears in "next to of course god america i" is highly irregular. To that end, the poem's adherence to iambic pentameter has more to do with the fact that most of its lines are roughly 10 syllables than anything else, since very few of its lines actually establish a consistent iambic rhythm. Indeed, the first line only includes one iamb:
"next to | of course | god a- | meri- | ca i
The first foot of this line ("next to") is a trochee, meaning that it contains a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. In fact, every foot except the second one ("of course," which is an iamb) is a trochee. With this in mind, it's quite clear that the poem will not strictly adhere to the iambic pentameter that is usually found in sonnets, instead using an unwieldy and unpredictable version that sounds more like free verse.
oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
Unlock all 614 words of this analysis of Lines 2-5 of “next to of course god america i,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
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thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
On the most basic level, the speaker's thirst after ranting about patriotism indicates that something about the speech itself has exhausted the speaker, who tries to recover by drinking deeply. This, in turn, represents the speaker's intense commitment to this particular topic.
However, this act of drinking water doesn't clarify the exact dynamic surrounding the speaker's beliefs. On the one hand, it's possible that the act of drinking symbolizes a certain regret on the speaker's behalf, as if the speaker has just realized that this rant is controversial because it uses irony and sarcasm to challenge patriotic ways of thinking. On the other hand, though, it's also possible that the act of drinking merely symbolizes that the speaker believes in what has just been said so intensely that the mere process of saying it has completely drained the speaker of energy.
As it stands, it's quite difficult to say which of these two interpretations is correct. As a result, the speaker's intense thirst functions as a simple symbol of how riled up people often get when discussing such politically charged topics.
One of the poem's most prominent features is the speaker's use of alliteration, which appears in almost every line. The alliterative moments become particularly prominent when the intensity of the speaker's words increases.
At first, the speaker uses alliteration consistently but somewhat sparingly, repeating roughly one alliterative sound per line. For instance, lines 2 through 4 ("love you land ... come and go") each contain one alliterative repetition; line 2 features the /l/ sound, line 3 features the sibilant /s/ sound, and line 4 features the /k/ sound:
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
Using alliteration, the speaker connects and emphasizes important words, especially in line 2, which spotlights the words "love" and "land." In this way, alliteration helps the speaker underline words that exaggerate the poem's intensely patriotic tone.
In other moments, the speaker's use of alliteration creates a feeling of intensity that reflects the speaker's passion (regardless of whether this passion is actually sincere). For example, lines 9 through 11 ("why talk of ... the roaring slaughter") are particularly alliterative, repeating the /w/, /b/, /th/, /h/, /r/, and /l/ sounds:
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
By infusing each line with so much alliteration, the speaker ties certain words to each other while also creating a fairly arresting overall sound that aligns with the subject at hand. Indeed, the speaker describes soldiers rushing to their death in battle, so it makes sense that these lines sound particularly intense. In keeping with this, alliteration helps the speaker set forth the kind of tone that an impassioned American patriot would most likely use when talking about war and the country.
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Get LitCharts A+Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
An antiquated way of saying "it is" or, more simply, "is."
The poem loosely follows the conventions of the sonnet, at least insofar as it has 14 lines and a set rhyme scheme. Based on that rhyme scheme, the poem can also be broken into an eight-line octave (or two quatrains) followed by a six-line sestet (or two tercets). This is the basic form for a Petrarchan sonnet, though the rhyme scheme of those quatrains is actually more in line with that of a Shakespearean sonnet. Right away, then, the form isn't consistent.
The poem varies from the true sonnet form in several other ways too. First, the final line is separated from the rest of the poem. This strays from the standard organization of a sonnet, which is normally presented as a single stanza.
Furthermore, although most of the lines contain 10 syllables, this doesn't necessarily mean they're written in iambic pentameter, which is the meter commonly found in sonnets. Instead, the words flow rather freely, failing to fall into the unstressed-stress rhythmic pattern of iambic verse.
In these ways, "next to of course god america i" is a sonnet only in vague appearance, as if it has been organized to look like an approximation of a sonnet without actually adhering to the necessary formal constraints. The form itself, then—as a sonnet that falls apart upon close inspection—might be thought of as reflecting the shallow patriotism the poem mocks.
At first glance, it might seem as if "next to of course god america i" is written in iambic pentameter, a meter in which each line contains of five iambs (five poetic feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, five da-DUMs). After all, the majority of the poem's lines contain roughly 10 syllables, which is often a good indicator that something is written in iambic pentameter.
Upon further inspection, though, it becomes clear that the poem lacks any kind of rhythmic consistency. Although its lines are all roughly the same length, the words that make up those lines create unpredictable rhythms that resemble the flowing nature of free verse more than any kind of true meter. As such, the poem gestures toward iambic pentameter without actually making use of it, much the same way the poem presents itself as a sonnet without adhering to the particular conventions of that form.
For the most part, the poem follows a rhyme scheme that isn't terribly out of the ordinary for a sonnet. This rhyme scheme can be mapped out like this:
ABAB CDCD EFGFE G
The first eight lines of the poem (known in sonnets as the octave) are fairly straightforward, adhering to a very standard rhyme scheme that is most common in the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet. The last six lines (known in sonnets as the sestet) deviate look more like those in a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet.
In this way, the poem maintains a musical sound despite its strange syntax, organization, and pacing. In fact, the rhyme scheme is perhaps the most consistent thing about the poem—a poem that not only includes an unpredictable meter, but also two unidentified speakers. Simply put, then, the rhyme scheme helps lend the poem a sense of cohesion that it might otherwise lack.
There are two speakers in "next to of course god america i." The first speaker takes up 13 of the poem's 14 lines with a rant about patriotism and war. Despite the fact that this person is given so much time to speak, though, it's not immediately clear whether this initial speaker is being sincere or sarcastic.
On the one hand, it's possible that the speaker truly wants to praise the U.S. and speak patriotically about the honor of dying for one's country in battle. On the other hand, though, it's also possible that the speaker says these things as a way of using irony to highlight the absurdity of such thinking—an idea supported by the flippant, hollow way that the speaker often expresses patriotic ideas.
The second speaker only emerges in the poem's very last line, saying, "He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water." In turn, this person fills the position of a narrator who has just quoted the other speaker's words and is now showing readers how that first speaker behaves after having ranted so passionately. This, in turn, serves as a window into the first speaker's general way of being. It also distances the second speaker—who is perhaps E. E. Cummings himself—from the intense things that the first person says. In this way, Cummings is able to set forth potentially polarizing ideas without having to take full responsibility for them, instead attributing them to the rowdy first speaker.
The exact setting of "next to of course god america i" is unclear, though it seems as if the first speaker is delivering some kind of speech or monologue. Whether this takes place in front of an audience is hard to say, but the important thing to grasp is that the first speaker rants feverishly while at least one other person (the second speaker) listens.
In a broader sense, the poem alludes to World War I. This aligns with the fact that it was published in 1926, eight years after the end of the war. Because the poem talks about war, it's relatively safe to assume that it takes place at some point in the time period in which the poem itself was written, placing it more or less in the 1920s. What's more, the poem also probably takes place in the United States, since the first speaker talks so extensively about American patriotism.
"next to of course god america i" is an anti-war poem written in the aftermath of World War I, but it differs in style from other famous poems that were critical of the war. Poems like Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" or Siegfried Sassoon's "Attack" present the horrors of war in a more straightforward way by demonstrating the miserable and gruesome realities of trench warfare. By contrast, "next to of course god america i" uses irony and sarcasm to critique the kind of unquestioning patriotism that leads to war.
Interestingly enough, though, not all poetry about World War I was quite so critical. For instance, Alan Seeger's poem "I Have a Rendezvous With Death" glorifies the idea of dying in battle, setting forth a reverent tone that can also be found in the poetry of Rupert Brooke. However, these poets were writing during World War I, whereas "next to of course god america i" was published eight years after the war had already ended. This, it seems, might shed light on why Cummings was able to write so flippantly and irreverently about the war: because it was over, there was more space for artists to retrospectively speak out against it.
On another note, it's worth mentioning that this poem strays somewhat from Cummings's characteristic interest in nature and love. Indeed, many of Cummings's poems (like "since feeling is first" or "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in") engage with themes often found in Romantic and Transcendentalist literature, despite the fact that Cummings began writing in the Modernist era. In this poem, though, Cummings focuses on patriotism and war, two topics that are more specific and political than the ones that typically appear in his love poems.
The poem's critique of wartime patriotism reflects the way Americans felt about World War I in the 1920s. By the time "next to of course god america i" was published in 1926, there had been ample time for people to reflect upon what had happened during the war, which took place between 1914 and 1918. On the whole, the general perception of the war had already shifted by the mid 1920s, veering away from the ardent patriotism and pro-war mentality that most Americans exemplified during the war. After having seen and heard about the travesties that took place, many Americans came to see World War I as a terrible tragedy, especially since it was one of the bloodiest wars in recent history.
To that end, World War I centered around the use of trench warefare and hand-to-hand combat, meaning that that violence was incredibly up-close and personal. This is why the poem's main speaker talks about soldiers rushing into the "roaring slaughter" of battle, a clear reference to the military tactic of storming the opponent's trenches.
In contrast to the years of World War I, though, the 1920s were years of excess. During this period (known as the Roaring Twenties), the United States enjoyed economic stability and growth, fueling the arts and creating a vibrant culture in which people danced and listened to jazz. It is in this context, then, that E. E. Cummings wrote this poem, perhaps feeling that the country's prosperity and overall happiness had made it possible to voice cynical views about World War I (which Cummings himself had participated in as a volunteer soldier).
Cummings Reads the Poem — Listen to E. E. Cummings himself read "next to of course god america i" in this old recording.
The Life of E. E. — To learn more about E. E. Cummings and his work, check out this brief overview of his life and writing.
Cummings's Paintings — E. E. Cummings was also a skilled painter—see for yourself in this short exploration of his visual art!
Structure and Style — This essay by the poet Paul Muldoon offers up an interesting investigation of Cummings's odd, inimitable style.
The Rebellion of E. E. Cummings — An interesting essay about E. E. Cummings's—and his unorthodox stylistic decisions—published in the magazine of his alma mater, Harvard University.