About the poet:

E(dward) E(stlin) Cummings (1894-1962), often styled as e e cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, novelist, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings.

About the poem:

Cummings’ poem 'who are you, little i' describes a child looking out a window at the end of the day. It is about nature and the effect it has on the speaker. The speaker of the poem is the person “voicing” the words, recalling a childhood moment closely connected with nature. Perhaps the speaker is Cummings.

Summary:

This poem is about the speaker's response to nature. With only eight lines, this poem is quite short. The beauty of nature and its positive impact on humans are the central themes of this poem. The speaker in this very short poem stands near his window one evening, watching the sunset outside. 

Suddenly he goes back to his past, in his childhood days. He recalls how he used to enjoy such beautiful natural scenes as a child. He remembers how he used to enjoy such beauty when he used to be a little boy of five or six years. It is a wonder that he still has a youthful presence in himself. This presence can recognize the beauty of the evening.

It has been a long since then. when he was a kid, he used to love the golden sunsets in November. Now all of his joys and pleasures have been suppressed by his adulthood worries. But he appreciates if the days of life pass on like this, it's not bad. Here he indicates the gradual passage of life nearing its end.