Thanks for this - very interesting. I'm still a bit perplexed by the line 'Jesus, he was a handsome man' as other analyses suggest he is saying this *of* Jesus, rather than exclaiming it about Buffalo Bill, which would make sense in a way as Cummings was a Christian and it would be surprising to see him blaspheme?
I didn't take it to mean that he was claiming Buffalo Bill was on par with Jesus; rather, I thought he just exclaiming "Jesus," as we would say, "God" or "Wow." Something to that effect. I could be wrong though. There is some ambiguity there.
Yes! I also had seen some analyses suggesting the same. Also, i have some confusions regarding the point-of-view of the last few lines, as the lines till there, has a third person speech which suddenly changes to directly addressing someone, a second person speech.If it is addressing Bill, then the blue-eyed boy would be Death, and vice versa. Please correct me if I am wrong.
The interpretation is fine, even though I'm not a fan of the poem. It seems too short to have any effect on me and I wouldn't have understood much without your backstory. I agree with you that he exclaimed Jesus! in place of what some would put a swear word. And the word "handsome" refers to Bill.
![[Buffalo Bill's] by E.E. Cummings I Poem Analysis](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
