	In E. E. Cummings's poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town," he uses repetitive phrases to show constancy. The poem is about the cycle of life, using humans as an example. In starts very innocent, talking of children and fun. As it progresses, it gets darker as the children become adults, and finally ends with their deaths. All the while, several lines are repeated to show that even though people come and go, the world goes on. The uses of nameless characters like anyone, everyone, someone, and noone shows that the characters could apply to anyone that reads it. The poem is a statement that tells how things change, yet they stay the same. Not only does it make a statement, but repetitive words and phrases also make it easier for the reader to remember an overall sense of the poem. It's a reminder of how insignificant things are important to us. We and those we know live and then die, but the world is still there.
	
He goes on to talk about men and women having children.

Perhaps this is all talk of sowing their seed and reaping their rewards. The rewards are children. In the next stanza, the "seeds" are now children. A listing of the seasons is repeated here, signifying that they are growing up. 

This reveals the final point of the poem. They had children along the way, just like their parents. Now these folk have died and gone to their paradise, but the world will keep turning.

	It seems that one could also draw the conclusion that the poem is about selfishness of adults and society dictating what everyone does: whom we should marry, laugh at our problems, and forget our dreams. This poem reminds me of the play Our Town. Many of the same events and themes occur in this poem, like the "close-knit" small town feel of it, and the loss of a loved one. People are born, grow up, get married, have children of their own, and die. They merely become faceless as time forgets them. However, no matter what they do during their lives or how they die, the seasons still change, it still rains, and the heavenly bodies are still in the sky.
