spontaneous normally means fun and carefree, but in this context is seems condesending and like being spontaneous is a mistake.

Here, the only way the subject will get forgiveness is with 'spring'. To me, this means with rebirth, as spring is every year. The sun comes out, the flowers grow, and the earth comes alive again. In order to get forgiveness, the sweet spontaneous will have to start fresh.

this makes me think that whatever the subject did, she was convinced to do so by someone enticing. 'rhythmic' reminds me of musicians, who are always a little crazy, but entertaining. With that, the subject must have been entertained enough to do was the rhythmic lover suggested

the parenthesis must be a literary device, as I read them I suggest a whisper in a way, but I am not sure what they actually mean.

this is where the tone of the poem shifts dramatically from gentle to aggressive. Here, it is saying that the subject needs to be begging on her knees for forgiveness from her religious. Also, the use of the word scraggy knees gives an ugly image to the reader

here the narrator gives an opinion of the subject, that despite the mistakes that brought her to her knees, she is beautiful

this made me think that the scientists are like children. 'naughty' is a word you say to a kid as you slap their wrists and tell them they did something wrong. And a thumb reminds me a child sucking on one, innocently. So maybe the scientists here are prodding and poking like children

a funny two words to pair together, because philosophers to me can see the world from a ton of different angles. Whereas here, cummings puts in the word 'pinch' suggesting a smaller scope, like the narrator could only see the situation at hand from a small persepctive

this is one of the first words that brings the poem away from the innocent tone it started with, as it has a sexual connotation.

this word, meaning to love, adds to the gentle tone of that the poem begins with. But in the context here, the next work is fingers, so 'doting fingers' could mean like a gentle touch

the poem begins delicately, with words like o sweet and spontaneous, setting a gentle tone.

This ending was odd to me. Because Georgiana died, did he kill himself too? Or is he moving on to the 'perfect future' and leaving this horrible episode with his wife be a thing of the past?

I think this sentence marks the 'moral' of the story, which is not to take for granted the good thing that you have. Alymer had a perfect woman that he loved, but because he tried to change her, he lost her.

This sentence stuck out to me a lot. The 'she' being referred to is mother nature and how she creates obstacle for us but gives us no real way around them. I gathered this first from the definition of 'mar' from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which states it as, 'to ruin the beauty or perfection of something'. As well as the definition of the word 'pantentee' which is known from Merriam-Webster as, 'to whom a grant is privileged.' With that, I concluded that with this sentence we know that Alymer wishes he had more control over the birthmark, as he does with science.

This part of the text says that people as smart as Alymer have to lay their armor down in a sense when it comes to the pursuit of love, thus proving my earlier point. He says that he has to enter a new world, one where he is in love with a woman as much as he is in love with science.

What stood out to me in this sentence was the idea that Alymer washed his hands of 'acid' and then pursued his wife. It made me think that maybe he didn't mention being a scientist right away to her so he knew she loved him for him, not his abilities.

Hawthorne starts the story with 'IN' capitalized to grab reader's attention and let them know that what he is going to say is important. I imagine it being in a loud and dominant voice. I also see that first sentence as being like 'once upon a time', a way to entice reader's into the story.