Beginning of Essay
E. E. Cummings, who was born in 1894 and died in 1962, wrote many poems with unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and unusual line, word, and even letter placements. Cummings' most difficult form of prose is probably the ideogram; it is extremely short ....

Middle of Essay
.... singular definite article, 'le'; 'll' on the fifth line represents two ones; 'one' on the 7th line spells the number out; the 8th line, 'l', isolates the number; and 'iness', the last line, can mean "the state of being I" - that is, individuality - or "oneness", deriving the "one" from the lowercase roman numeral 'i' (200). Cummings could have simplified this poem drastically ("a leaf falls:/loneliness"), and still conveyed the same verbal message, but he has altered the normal syntax in order that each line should show a 'one' and highlight the theme of oneness. In fact, the whole poem is shaped like a '1' (200). The shape of the poem can also ....