by Jules Wrenne

Created on: March 20, 2010   Last Updated: March 21, 2010

Despite the complete absence of punctuation and capital letters, 'When Serpents Bargain for the Right to Squirm' by E. E. Cummings is a perfect classic English sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter, four quatrains and a couplet, ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme. True to form, Cummings spends the quatrains presenting several unlikely ‘whens’ and summarizes with a sardonic ‘then’ in the couplet.    

I have never met a poem that is better crafted than this one.  It is an absolute joy to read aloud, and for those of us who try our hands at writing verse now and again, it is an awesome example - both gloriously inspirational and terribly daunting.   On a good day I think, “Let me aspire to write half so well.” On a bad day I know there’s no point in even picking up my pen.  

Cummings masterfully employs several clever personifications and a haughty first person plural voice to demonstrate his theme. There is lovely alliteration gently tucked into the folds of this poem, marvelously delicate and unobtrusive:  sun strikes, regard their roses, no new moon, and compelled to close.  Assonance is also used effectively within each quatrain to create subtle and appealing internal rhymes:  right and strike, may and okayed, accuse and altitude. There is gentle consonance, as well:  bargain, gain, regard, against, in the first quatrain, for example.  With a light and deft hand, a variety of literary devices is used in combination to create a beautiful, lyrical composition which disguises the ironic, mocking message it contains.

Mankind is fond of setting himself above and apart from the‘animals’, proclaiming himself superior by virtue of his ability to reason.  In this sonnet, which manages to be as sweetly bucolic as it is sarcastic, E. E. Cummings portrays several of man’s accepted practices as pretentious, ridiculous affectations.  While the examples of unlikely behaviors Cummings presents are far more graceful than the figure of speech we more commonly encounter, “When pigs fly!”, I can’t help wondering if the poet took some inspiration there.  Paraphrased, his message seems to be, “When I see Nature doing these sorts of things, then (and not until) – which means never – will I agree that man is right in doing them and raise him to the elevated status which he claims for himself.” 

The use of the third person plural is the poet poking a little fun at himself, I think, since he’s professing an impossible unbelief in his own species. By including himself in this way and refraining from being overly didactic, he infuses the piece with a light tone and presents the reader with a palatable, jocular observation rather than a distasteful, virulent denunciation. 

Although 'When Serpents Bargain for the Right to Squirm' was written more than a half century ago, by choosing to couch his message in a classic form which every student of literature immediately recognizes and by using simple, enduring natural images, Cummings has created a poem that will continue to be relevant as long as the sun continues to burn its hydrogen and man continues to wrestle with his hubris. 

Learn more about this author, Jules Wrenne.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.