Amurica

"why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead"
"next to of course god america i"
e.e. cummings


The lack of capitalization, punctation, and just coherent sentences in this poem is distressing. But I have come to understand it's similar to the song, "God Bless America." This poem praises the goodness that America has and how we all glorify its name "in every language even deafanddumb." The above quote is rather paradoxical because it says that it's beautiful that men are dead- and not just dead-happy dead. It means to say that 'these men have not died in vain.'(Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg address...Thank you for making us memorize that Mrs. Helbing.) The death of those who fought for America is beautiful because they died so that we could be protected from danger.

Another use of figurative language would be the simile, "who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter." The lions in this phrase are the soldiers; the soldiers are compared to lions because they are brave in that they run into the slaughter, or combat/warfare. One of the last few lines, "then shall the voice of liberty be mute?" may mean that patriotism would not be present if it weren't for the courageous men that fought in battle to protect us all.