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Cover art for I sing of Olaf glad and big by ​e. e. cummings

I sing of Olaf glad and big

​e. e. cummings
Track 77 on Emily Dickinson 
One of the more blunt, though certainly still playful poems of Cummings, I sing of Olaf glad and big tells the story of a conscientious objector. In Cummings' parlance… Read More 
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I sing of Olaf glad and big Lyrics

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i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but--though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments--
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
"I will not kiss your fucking flag"

straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)
but--though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat--
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.

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One of the more blunt, though certainly still playful poems of Cummings, I sing of Olaf glad and big tells the story of a conscientious objector.

In Cummings' parlance, however, objector becomes transformed to “object-or”, suggesting that Olaf is more than just an objector, he is an object or maybe he is something else.

Olaf is punished for his unwillingness to follow commands. He stands up for himself, saying that he will not kiss a flag, and that there are something he will not do, no matter who tells him to do so.

Olaf is then thrown in jail, where he dies.

Cummings' ends the poem by invoking Christ, saying he wishes to see Jesus (a martyr for his beliefs), but also wants to see Olaf again. Olaf stuck to his beliefs even in the face of a jingoist society– and by that reckoning he is a better person that you or I (“more blond”).

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Emily Dickinson (2015)
M. Alexander
  1. 1.
    Anne Bradstreet’s “The Prologue” (2)
  2. 2.
    The Author to her Book
  3. 3.
    A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment
  4. 4.
    To my Dear and Loving Husband
  5. 6.
    Prologue to Preparatory Meditations
  6. 7.
    Upon Wedlock, and the Death of Children
  7. 8.
    Huswifery
  8. 9.
    Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 1)
  9. 10.
    Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 3)
  10. 11.
    Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Chapter 2)
  11. 12.
    Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage
  12. 13.
    Columbus’ Letter to the King and Queen of Spain
  13. 14.
    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
  14. 15.
    The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 1)
  15. 16.
    The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 2)
  16. 17.
    On Being Brought from Africa to America
  17. 18.
    To the Right Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth
  18. 19.
    To the University of Cambridge, in New England
  19. 20.
    On The Death Of The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770
  20. 21.
    To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works
  21. 23.
    Young Goodman Brown
  22. 24.
    Twice Told Tales (The Minister’s Black Veil)
  23. 25.
    Nature
  24. 26.
    Economy
  25. 27.
    Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
  26. 28.
    Conclusion
  27. 29.
    A Psalm of Life
  28. 30.
    Song of Myself
  29. 31.
    When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
  30. 32.
    Success is counted Sweetest
  31. 33.
    I taste a liquor never brewed
  32. 34.
    Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (249)
  33. 35.
    I like a look of Agony
  34. 36.
    I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)
  35. 37.
    I’m ceded—I’ve stopped being Theirs (508)
  36. 38.
    A Bird came down the Walk (328)
  37. 40.
    This World is not Conclusion
  38. 41.
    The Soul selects her own Society (303)
  39. 42.
    Mine—by the Right of the White Election! (528)
  40. 43.
    This was a Poet—It is That
  41. 44.
    I died for Beauty — but was scarce
  42. 45.
    Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  43. 46.
    This is My Letter to the World
  44. 47.
    I heard a Fly buzz (465)
  45. 48.
    The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
  46. 49.
    Much Madness is divinest Sense
  47. 50.
    I Started Early - Took my Dog
  48. 51.
    I cannot live with You (640)
  49. 52.
    Pain has an element of Blank (650)
  50. 53.
    My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun
  51. 54.
    Publication—is the Auction
  52. 55.
    A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
  53. 56.
    Bustle in a house
  54. 58.
    Apparently with no Surprise
  55. 59.
    The Pasture
  56. 60.
    Mowing
  57. 61.
    Mending Wall
  58. 62.
    Nothing Gold Can Stay
  59. 63.
    Design
  60. 64.
    The Widow’s Lament in Springtime
  61. 65.
    Spring and All [By the road to the contagious hospital]
  62. 66.
    The Red Wheelbarrow
  63. 67.
    This Is Just To Say
  64. 68.
    A Sort of A Song
  65. 69.
    Landscape With the Fall of Icarus
  66. 70.
    Danse Russe
  67. 71.
    Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
  68. 72.
    A Pact
  69. 73.
    In A Station of the Metro
  70. 74.
    The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
  71. 75.
    Oread
  72. 76.
    In Just-
  73. 77.
    I sing of Olaf glad and big
  74. 78.
    Anyone lived in a pretty how town
  75. 79.
    The Harlem Dancer
  76. 80.
    Harlem Shadows
  77. 81.
    The Lynching
  78. 82.
    If We Must Die
  79. 83.
    Africa
  80. 84.
    America
  81. 85.
    The White City
  82. 86.
    How It Feels to Be Colored Me
  83. 87.
    The Negro Speaks of Rivers
  84. 88.
    Mother to Son
  85. 89.
    I, Too, sing America
  86. 90.
    The Weary Blues
  87. 91.
    Mulatto
  88. 92.
    Song for a Dark Girl
  89. 93.
    Visitors to the Black Belt
  90. 94.
    Democracy
  91. 95.
    Theme for English B
  92. 96.
    Yet Do I Marvel
  93. 97.
    Incident
  94. 98.
    Woman Warrior (No Name Woman)
  95. 99.
    Everyday Use
  96. 100.
    Howl
  97. 101.
    A Supermarket in California
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