In Just - the Loss of Innocense

in Just- The Loss of Innocence

By my interpretation, the poem in Just- by E.E. Cummings captures the gradual loss of innocence of children as they grow older. Each stanza tells part of the story. In stanzas one and two the children are young and pure and by the fourth and fifth stanzas the children do not even exist.

In the first two stanzas, the time is spring which represents birth and the beginning of life’s journey. “When the world is mud-luscious” and “the world is puddle-wonderful” refers to the simple pleasures of innocent children. The children in the poem are very young with no worries but how much mud and water can be explored. The “little lame balloonman” is described with these words to show that the children are so innocent that they use the word “lame” only to describe the balloonman and not to pity or mock him.

The closeness between the names of the children represents the closeness of children at the young age of the boys. They are so often together and dependent on each other as to be almost one person.

The distance between the words “far and wee” shows how the whistles of the balloonman reach the ears of the children over a great distance. His faint whistles immediately excite them and bring them running to him. The mention of marbles and piracies represents the purity of the children’s imaginative and simple games.

The third stanza begins with “the queer old balloonman.” The children have now lost some of their innocence - they now see the balloonman as strange and aged. The words “far and wee” are further apart than they were in the first stanza. The balloonman now gets less attention from the children because they are growing up and have less interest in him. He has to draw closer before the children notice his whistles. Yet the children still respond to the balloonman because they come dancing to him. The children are now involved in the more practical and less imaginative games of hop-scotch and jump-rope. The children are growing up. The names of the two children are still close which represents their continuing closeness.