Here's a well-known poem by E. E. Cummings, with no title other than its first line. It would be interesting to discuss it in terms of its diction and -- especially -- its tone. What tone do you hear in the speaker's "voice"? How would the tone be different if "dead" was substituted for "defunct"?
Incidentally, the poem seems to be alluding to the Wild West Show that Buffalo Bill Cody travelled around with in his later life. So the "pigeons" that he breaks are what? Not real birds but . . . ?
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 blueeyed boy Mister Death
Cummings composed for the typewriter, and indeed one authoritative edition of his works reproduces the typewriter look of his poems as does the above.
How would you choose to try to render by your voice the visual, typewriter-spacing effects above? Can they be spoken? If not, are they illusory?