The short lyric poem, "maggie and milly and molly and may," is written by a famous American poet, Edward Estlin Cummings. The poem is about four young girls that go to the beach. Each girl's personality is revealed by what she does.

        The speaker in the poem could be either a male of a female. The speaker was most likely hidden somewhere, and he/she was observing what the kids were playing with or what they found. The speaker then compared it with life. The theme of the poem is finding one's self. One of the alliterations used in the poem is the title itself," maggie and milly and molly and may." There is also consonance used in the poem such as "blowing bubbles" and "stranded star." There are few similes used in the poem which are "may came home with a smooth round stone as small as the world and as large as alone"  and "for  whatever we lose (like a you or a me)."  The rhyme in the poem is irregular. Only in two stanzas E. E. Cummings used rhyming words.

        There a lot of feelings and emotions going on in the poem. In my opinion, Maggie has an optimistic personality. She is sad and has lots of troubles but she is able to lose herself in something like a sweet song. Milly seems to be a friendly and a caring person because she found a starfish which was weak, helpless and of no use to her at all but still she became friends with it. True friendship is kind and selfless. She also seems to be a loner. I think there is something in Molly that’s frightening. She is afraid of something in her life, or she has problems.  She is chased by her fears. May seems to me mysterious and a dreamer. She brought it home to ponder it. She is sad and alone. For her loneliness is larger than the world itself. They are what they find. I think the sea in the poem refers to life. The poem shows that we find ourselves in what we do in this life.