"Buffalo Bill ’s" by E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings

Buffalo Bill ’s
defunct
          who used to
          ride a watersmooth-silver
                                        stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

                                                      Jesus
he was a handsome man
                        and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

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This is a poem without title by E. E. Cummings. The Cummings' style is evident in its usage of irregular spacings. To understand the poem, we should know its subject "Buffalo Bill". Buffalo Bill, whose real name is William F. Cody, was a bison hunter and showman in the late 19th century. He was a heroic figure in the American Old West. He was known for its hunting skills and provided bison meat for Kansas Pacific Railroad workers. Later in his life, he began to tour in Europe and the US with his shows of cowboy themes and earned great success.

The tone of the poem is set in the second line with the word "defunct". Why the poet didn't use "dead" ? Because the word "defunct" means to cease existing and functioning. It is a word of indifference and irreverence. Buffalo Bill was "defunct" as anything else and there is neither glory nor pity. People who watched his show can still remember his beautiful stallion and his excellent shootings. "Watersmooth-silver" is an invented term, but it is easy to understand the meanings behind. "Water" and "smooth" are two words to describe the dynamics of the riding. The horse passes smoothly like the water. "onetwothreefourfive" means the succession of shootings . We can imagine the rapidity and accuracy of these shootings. These descriptions form a sharp contrast with the fact of Buffalo Bill being defunct so as to strengthen the fact that everything is equal before the death. No matter how famous you are, even for Buffalo Bill, the death takes away everything.

"Jesus" could be the cries of the crowd, people who admired Buffalo Bill's incredible show. This word stands out in the poem to strengthen the effect of crowd crying. It could be possible that the poet want to remark that "Jesus" is the cries of the crowd, not himself. "handsome" is not only the appearance, but also the action. The last three lines are rather sarcastic. The poet call Buffalo Bill in an irreverent manner, "blueeyed boy". "boy" indicates that Buffalo Bill is in the group of "Mister Death" and he is an subordinate. So the poet triumphs over Buffalo Bill by putting himself in the same rank as "Mister Death" with the appellation "Mister".

Why E. E. Cummings mocked at the death of Buffalo Bill? To understand this, we should put ourselves in the context of the poet's period. In the development of the west, the Americans needed heroes and created their own like Buffalo Bill. The worship of the violence and the heroic deeds influenced even children's education. Nowadays, we still see the popularity of "superman" films in the US. This represents the exaggerated materialism and the worst indulgence in false heroes in the American society. Cummings have been attacking this phenomenon for a long time. In this poem, he bitterly satirized one of these "heroes", Buffalo Bill. The death of the hero is a disillusion for people who have worshiped him.