1930s Moonlight

"three couples at the seaside"--- e.e. cummings

Dated: 1936

Media: oil on canvas 

source: http://www.eecummingsart.com/artwork/?eec=1072&gal=s-3-26-22

Immediate thoughts: night on the left, possible daylight on the right, pink sand, beach, three couples, passion, bright colors, sun and moon, light, distance, closeness, hiding, unseen, purity on the right, the impure on the left, sun/moon traveling east, calm waves

"the moon looked into my window" --- e.e. cummings

published in 1931

from ViVa

source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48849870/Cummings-E-E-Complete-Poems-1904-1962

Cummings uses personification to create a scene involving the moon and narrator. This moon seems to have an intimate relationship with Cummings, as it watches over him at night. This relationship, at some moments seems sexual as the moon "touches [Cummings,]...understanding [his] eyes cheeks  mouth/ [and] wandering/ against [his] shirt and into [his] body." This sexualized aspect of the moon is obvious in the poem, as the sexual and impure are often linked with darkness or night. However, another aspect of the moon is also created by Cummings in the poem. Less obviously, the moon possesses pure qualities, as he describes its "curling infantile/fingers," "hands (slipping)"and "little hands...jerkily." His use of the word "infantile" gives the moon youth. Just as children are pure and unknowing, so too is the moon. In addition, by describing the hands as "slipping" and "jerkily"-moving, he implies a lack of knowledge. The hands are inexperienced and naive, directly in contrast with the moon that "understands [his] eyes, cheeks [and] mouth." This dualistic nature of the moon, as both pure and impure, is much like the human as it matures through life. Humans possess both of these qualities through their life. This is made more clear by the movement of the moon as it goes "creeping along the air/ over houses / roofs." There is a constant movement by the moon in the poem, just as humans are constantly growing, experiencing childhood and then adulthood. This movement is even expressed in the form of the poem, as the words flow horizontally across the page in this stanza. Rather than placing "over houses" and "roofs" at the beginning of the next lines, he places them farther on the page horizontally, so that even the reader is continuously moving. In the final line Cummings writes "a fragile light bent gatheringly." This light, fragile and untainted, represents the pure. It then bends to gather, gaining momentum, again representing a constant movement away from childhood to maturity. 

Cummings' painting "three couples at the seaside" also experiments with the combination of sexuality and moonlight. There are three couples pictured in the left of the painting engaging in intercourse behind a dark cliff. To the right is a white sand beach. The sky above the couples is dark and cloudy while the sky in the right side of the painting is much lighter. The time of day is unclear, though a moon hovers. Much like in the poem, it seems the darkness is associated with the sexual and impure. The left side of the painting is explicitly erotic. The couples' relations are restricted by the darkness; they cannot enter and taint the right side of the scene. The white sand is a symbol of purity. In the middle of the painting, however, the cliffs are painted pink. These cliffs seem to act as bridge between the two sides of the painting.

The disjointedness of purity and impurity in the painting can be remedied by looking at the painting using the idea of "movement" from the poem. Seeing the colors of purity and impurity vividly in this painting helps one to understand this movement. At first glance, the two sides of the painting seem to be completely divided. However, just as the moon moves through the poem, symbolizing human maturity, there is a movement of color in the painting. On the left side of the painting, the darkest colors are concentrated. This is the heart of impurity in the painting. As one moves to the right however, the colors slowly become lighter. The middle cliffs' pink color is significant as red is a color associated with passion. Pink, a lightened version of red, is symbolic of the transition from the impure to the pure. Within pink, there is red, representing lust and passion, like the couples in the left side of the painting, but also white, representing the purity in the movement towards the right side of the painting. Finally in the right side of the painting, the white exists as the most pure location. In both works, Cummings demonstrates human sexual evolution. 

In the poem, the moon "looks into [his] window," while in the painting the moon hovers overhead. These two works present contrasting views of the moon. The moon hanging overhead may represent a God-like figure, watching human life. The moon of the poem is instead like a human, both tainted and pure. In his two woks, Cummings uses the same figure to represent divinity and reality. Perhaps this is indicative of the close connection Cummings sees between the human and the sacred. Humans, even in their fallibility, maintain a level of purity similar to the immaculate.