Foregrounding

However, Cummings uses occasional capitals or upper case-initials as a deviation from his own 'norm', as seen in his poem 'Buffalo Bill's' (1920) which is a critique of hero worship:

However, Cummings uses occasional capitals or upper case-initials as a deviation from his own 'norm', as seen in his poem 'Buffalo Bill's' (1920) which is a critique of hero worship:

• Buffalo Bill's
• defunct
• who used to
• ride a watersmooth-silver
• stallion
• and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
• Jesus
• he was a handsome man
• and what i want to know is
• how do you like your blue-eyed boy
• Mister Death

The Jesus and Mister Death are capitalized as an internal deviation in Cumming's poem. The placement of Jesus appears as an exclamation to express amazement or anger. The placement might also be Cummings playing with the meaning of the religious figure of Jesus, who is foregrounded above Buffalo Bill and Mister Death. The ambiguity is nevertheless there to be challenged and noticed. Cummings uses foregrounding in many of his poems.