E. E. Cummings's use of Free Verse in his poem "in Just-" is used to support the audience in understanding like nature, life is an on-going occurrence. To understand the structure of the poem, one must first understand why the author would use a purposeful structure as such. Similar to life, the poem has no structure and follows no rule. Words are far apart, however, they are also close together. Conceivably the structure of "in Just-" is an antithesis and the author is introducing the cliche of "read between the lines". There are no promises to the poem, one is even unable to foreshadow how the poem may end. I will be analyzing why this may be.
Cummings opens with the title "in Just- spring" to emphasize the beginning of the new season. He then introduces a balloonman by the name of "luscious" who appears on repeated occurrences throughout the poem. Cummings labels the balloonman "lame" and "queer", nonetheless, when he whistles, children leave what they are doing to enjoy innocent springtime activities. Using his knowledge in Greek literature he obtained from his undergrad at Harvard, he labels the character as "goat-footed", an embodiment of Pan, the Greek god of the pastoral realm, we no longer see the children appear. The only two words which appear to be capitalized are "Just" and "Man". This is reasonable because, with both of these words, the passing of time is represented. "Just" represents the birth of a new season and "Man" introduces the aging of the "balloonMan" who in the beginning is referenced as "balloonman". Cummings separates and entwines words often throughout the poem, nonetheless, the author never separates "balloonman". This is because the audience must realize the purpose of the compound word. The balloonman possibly is a balloonman his whole life and the only difference between the past and the present is his age. Furthermore, after the balloonman has aged, the story ends; possibly to present the loss of innocence in the poem. The theme of nature is innocent within itself, notwithstanding, it is also ironic as nature is pleasant until it is not; similar to the balloonman.
Similar to Cummings, Countee Cullen, who also attended Harvard University, has experience with the loss of innocence in his poem "Incident". The New York native who visits Baltimore has an unpleasant experience with racism. While riding the public bus, Cullen whose heart and head are "filled with glee" encounters a young white boy from the city who appears to be his age. As a sign of welcoming, young Cullen smiles at the boy and soon realizes that he is not welcomed. The white boy who appears equal in size affirms to Cullen they are separate. Although they share the same gender and age group, the social construct of race has set them apart. After spending half a year in the city, the short moment of racial oppression is all that accompanies the mind of young Cullen. Because Cullen is born in 1903 and he is eight years old in the "Incident", this event happened in the beginning times of the Great Northward Migration when blacks traveled north to escape the horrendous racism of the south. Although the institution of slavery may have ended in the north before the south, the different vernaculars of racism failed to seize along with it. Racism still occurred in little to none economic opportunity, leaving African-Americans financially inferior to whites. Nonetheless, the incident conceivably abetted Cullen to apprehend the institutionalized racism of the north and led his innocence to become double-consciousness that later aided in his contribution to the Harlem Renaissance.