"anyone lived in a pretty how town" is a poem written by E. E. Cummings, whose name is often styled as e. e. cummings. The poem was first published in 1940 and tells the story of a small town, where the residents live a reliable but monotonous life. Everybody does what is expected of them, leading to a lack of true fulfillment or excitement.
E. E. Cummings is known for not titling his poems, so instead poems like this one are known by their first lines. This poem's first line, which reads "anyone lived in a pretty how town," uses an unusual syntax, as is Cummings' trademark. The poem describes a nondescript town and follows a character named "anyone," who lives and dies in the town, but also describes the townspeople from a receded point of view, witnessing their entire life cycles. The poem seems to comment on how identity is unimportant in the face of one's mortality, and it deals matter-of-factly with death and loneliness as intractable aspects of human existence.
The poem uses rhyme, repetition, and a slightly singsongy rhythm, making it feel like a nursery rhyme or a song; however, it feels balder than a nursery rhyme when it discusses the anonymity of the characters and it is also much grimmer and more realistic about death. The tension between the light tone and the subject matter makes this poem feel even more slippery than its syntax does, but the result is a poem that is haunting without being entirely pessimistic.
