Next to God, America of Course

Next to God, America of Course was very confusing but intriguing to read. I had to go back and re-read it a few times before I could get a clear message that I thought seemed plausible. The first time I read I noticed that there were bits and pieces of American anthems ,if you will, that we honor in the United States. Because of the poem’s sarcastic tone I came to the conclusion that the speaker is mocking our anthems and the fact that we pay so much respect to them but really they romanticize war. When you think about our national anthem and every other patriotic poem or song we learn to respect, war sounds almost like something you’d want to see. For example in the “Star Spangled Banner” we hear about “the dawn’s early light” and “the rocket’s red glare” and so on. However there is no mention of blood or corpses or anything remotely like what one may experience on the battlefield. It seems to me that E.E Cummings is trying to bring up the idea that these idealized war anthems made people eager to step onto the battlefield for this sort of wonderful experience but they ended up dying, losing limbs, and being mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred. I also thought it was interesting that the title poked at the fact that the United States asserts itself as the world’s greatest power and the only thing that could be more powerful than America is God. The sarcastic tone of the title also hints at the sarcasm in the poem, like we all know that America is second to God and we should roll our eyes while reading (until of course the last few lines where the speaker’s intentions became obvious to me).