[what if a much of a which of a wind]
what if a much of a which of a wind
gives truth to the summer's lie;
bloodies with dizzying leaves the sun
and yanks immortal stars awry?
Blow king to beggar and queen to seem
(blow friend to fiend:blow space to time)
—when skies are hanged and oceans drowned,
the single secret will still be man
what if a keen of a lean wind flays
screaming hills with sleet and snow:
strangles valleys by ropes of thing
and stifles forests in white ago?
Blow hope to terror;blow seeing to blind
(blow pity to envy and soul to mind)
—whose hearts are mountains, roots are trees,
it's they shall cry hello to the spring
what if a dawn of a doom of a dream
bites this universe in two,
peels forever out of his grave
and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?
Blow soon to never and never to twice
(blow life to isn't: blow death to was)
—all nothing's only our hugest home;
the most who die,the more we live
Copyright Credit: "what if a much of a which of a wind". Copyright 1944 © 1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1979 by George James Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E.E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation.