The significance of syntax is again apparent in the relationship between lines 7 and 8 as the letters "O." and "K." are separated by a line break to emphasize the letter O and the imagery it creates as a symbol for the female reproductive organ. .
Cummings" word choice is of equal importance to syntax as he uses the jargon of a car aficionado, creating an intricate and distinct extended metaphor for sex opposed to simple symbolism. The use of jargon with intentional dual meaning insinuates that the poem could be a story that a young man would tell his friends in colloquial terms, using metaphor to describe sex do to societal restrictions surrounding the subject. Words like "Universal joint, radiator, springs, and carburetor" can be imaginatively paralleled to female body parts. Cummings" use of this device continues as he describes the awkward launch of intercourse by writing:.
i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her .
up, slipped the.
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she .
kicked what .
the hell)next.
minute i was back in neutral tried and. . .(542).
Going right to it, flooding the carburetor and slipping the clutch clearly connote intercourse, but our narrator commits a sexual faux pas as he "got into reverse." This can be interpreted in two ways: either as pain experienced by the girl, causing her to kick or, more graphically, as accidental penetration of the anus, which would definitely explain her discomfort. Both interpretations take us to the same place, however, as the narrator is "back in neutral" attempting to reenter his sex object. I argue that she is an object due to his essential metaphor of the car, symbolizing her as unfeeling and dispensable, and his fleeting acknowledgement in line 25 of the crucial partnership that sex requires for venerable commencement. By writing ". . .and believe i we was. . .", Cummings is not only depicting the narrator's novice sexual status, as he is thinking only of himself, but also his conception of the woman's involvement and importance to the whole process.