may i feel said he

may i feel said he
by e e cummings

When I was reading it aloud in my mind, and I found it so difficult to articulate the words. But that is not all completely due to the line breaks, it is also due to the choice of words that e e cummings used. The repetition of 'said he' and 'said she' especially made it difficult to read. This is doubtlessly intentional, because the whole atmosphere of the poem is very awkward, and I even imagined the characters studdering while they spoke. (Since they were in a very awkward position, and they, especially the girl, seemed quite nervous.) Also something interesting that e e cummings chose to use was parenthesis instead of quotations to separate the diaglogue and the narration of the poem. I honestly don't know why he chose to make this deviance from the normal punctuation, so it's just an observation. The line breaks in this poem were not abrupt or interrupting; instead they aided in separating who was speaking which line. However, the lack of punctuation (periods, comas, quotations) made it difficult to distinguish between the girl and the boy, and also made it difficult to read aloud.