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Linda Pastan's Poetry Month Pick, April 1, 2009
[Buffalo Bill's defunct]
by E. E. Cummings (1894-1962)
Buffalo Bill’s
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeons just like that
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
Linda Pastan Comments:
I am often irritated by poems which seem to use unconventional syntax and punctuation for no particular reason, but Cummings knew just what he was doing. He makes the reader’s eye work down the broken page. He makes a subtle statement by using a small “i” for himself, while Death, Jesus, and Buffalo Bill get capitals. This poem acknowledges Death’s power (if Buffalo Bill can die, I guess we all will die after all) but at the same time thumbs its nose at it, bringing Death down to size. “How do you like…?” usually implies a negative answer—perhaps somewhere Buffalo Bill is outshooting even death! Some think that by using the adjective “defunct” instead of “dead, ” Cummings is also bringing Buffalo Bill down to size, perhaps denigrating the whole tawdry culture the wild west had become, but that’s not the poem’s effect on the reader. For us it moves as swiftly as Buffalo Bill himself: “onetwothreefourfive pigeons just like that,” as smoothly as that wonderful “watersmooth-silver” stallion. I have always had a particular affection for this poem, and I named one of my own poems “Death’s Blue Eyed Girl” after it.
About Linda Pastan:
Linda Pastan is the author of twelve books of poetry, the latest of which, Queen of a Rainy Country, was published by Norton in 2006. She was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1991-95 and has been a finalist twice for the National Book Award. In 2003, she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
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