Anyone lived in a pretty how town
Encyclopedia
"anyone lived in a pretty how town" is a poem
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 written by E. E. Cummings
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...

. First published in 1940
1940 in literature
The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans....

, the poem details the lives of residents in a nameless town. Like much of Cummings's work, the poem is actually untitled, so critics use the first line to refer to the poem. Cummings often wrote in a manner that did not follow standard English syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

 and punctuation
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...

. This style is evident in the poem's first line, which is written in all lowercase letters and contains the unlikely phrase "pretty how town".

Style

The author used repetition to show the effects of time. In the poem, Cummings states the lines, "spring summer autumn winter", (3) and "sun moon stars rain", (8) repeatedly. Cummings did this to show the passage of time. In repeating these lines he changes the order of the seasons, "autumn winter spring summer", (11) and "stars rain sun moon", (21).

Film

The poem was adapted into a short film
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 by George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

. Released in 1967, the film was shot in color but with no lighting. This film was not Lucas's favorite film compared to his other acclaimed films like Herbie, Freheit, Look at Life, or The Emperor quoting, "it doesn't mean anything". Lucas wrote and filmed the short film as an expression of pure cinema using nonstory, noncharacter approach expressing emotions purely through cinema.

External links

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