anyone lived in a pretty how town

There are two main ways to read this poem: The first is as a testament to love and the way it perseveres and builds, even in the face of indifference and monotony, and the second is as a poem about a place where love does not actually exist between anyone at all. The two readings are contradictory, but the language and ambiguity of the poem give credence to both.

Most readers view the poem from the first perspective, and this reading makes sense given Cummings’s approach to love in his other poetry. In this reading, anyone and noone are actual characters, a man and a woman who live in an unnamed town. The use of anyone and noone as character names allows for readers to see this story as universal and applicable to all. The name anyone specifically allows for this, but the name noone adds some complexity as well. In this positive reading of the poem, noone’s (and to an extent, anyone’s) name shows the personal nature of these characters’ love while adding a bit of irony to the poem. The character may be noone to the other townspeople (as demonstrated by the