Through his brilliance of pen to paper, he provided meaning and direction for those lost in the creation of a new post-war, modernist society. He cleared the path for those struggling to self-identify and individualize. Through a vast collection of poetry and short novels, Cummings played a significant role in the modernist movement of literature. “E.E. Cummings was, without a doubt, one of the most startling poetic innovators to write in the English language. Each stanza, each line, each word demands separate explication in relation to the content in which occurs” (Stanley). Cummings served as one of the most distinguished ambassadors of a new image of the world, with special emphasis on race, gender, regional perspectives, love/sexuality, ethnicity, and stylistic approaches to literary creativity and formatting.
“The public remembers Cummings all too well as a typographical prankster, a sweet singer of nature and love, a champion of the individual, a scourge of science, collectivism and liberalism. It barely knows him as a professional and lifelong painter, a systematic aesthetician, and a careful craftsman. And beyond the private man behind these personae, the public knows virtually nothing” (Cohen). He was, however, so much more! “Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1894 (poets.org). E.E. was born to two parents who, by all accounts, loved and encouraged him and his eventual love affair with the written language, poetry in particular. His father was an educator and, ironically, a minister, which perhaps fostered his later relationship with God.
Interestingly, Cummings decided to become a poet when he was still a child. Between the ages of eight and twenty-two, he wrote a poem a day ...
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Friedman, Norman. "Diction, Voice, and Tone: The Poetic Language of E. E. Cummings." Modern Language Association. 72.5 (1957): 1036-1059. Web.
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Rablin, Perry J. "Tribute to EE Cummings." English Journal. 66. No. 5 (1977): 55. Web.
Ray, David. "The Irony of E. E. Cummings." College English. 23.4 (1962): 282, 287-290. Web. .
Stanley, Julia. "An Analysis of E. E. Cummings' "Actualities: I"." National Council of Teachers of English. 17.3 (1966): 130-134. Web. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/354427>
Tate, Allan. "Understanding Modern Poetry." English Journal. 29.4 (1940): 263-274. Web. .
There are many instances of irony in the short story "One's a Heifer" by Sinclair
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while others didn’t have the same luck. But in history e.e. Cummings has stunned people with his creativity and exposure to the real world and not living in the fantasy people imagine they live in. Cummings was a great poet, and was able to make his own way of writing while he was also involved greatly in the modernist movement. But he demonstrates all his uniqueness in all and every poem, delivering people with knowledge and making them see the world with different eyes as in the poem “Since feeling is first”. Biography Born on October 14, 1894, E. E. Cummings an American poet was born at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It is important to not that the direction of Brooks’s literary career shifted dramatically in the late 1960’s. While attending a black writers’ conference she was struck by the passion of the young poets. Before this happened, she had regarded herself as essentially a universalist, who happened to be black. After the conference, she shifted from writing about her poems about black people and life to writing for the black population.
Fairley, I.R. (1975). E.E. Cummings and ungrammar: A study of syntactic deviance in his poems. New York: Watermill.
During E. E. Cummings ' life, he made many arguments in favor of individualism and condemned conformity. During a speech at Harvard, he once stated, "So far as I am concerned, poetry and every other art was, is, and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality" ("E. E. Cummings"). His unique writing style is also a testament to how he valued individuality and creativity—how his poetic style was drastically different from most of the poetry that had been written before him.
Wegner, Robert E. The Poetry and Prose of E. E. Cummings. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1965.
Cummings, E. E. Poems 1923 ‚ 1954. New York : Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1926.
Magistrale, Tony. "The Art of Poetry." Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport, Conn. ;London: Greenwood, 2001. 39-41. Print.
Kurt Vonnegut uses irony in the development of his story Harrison Bergeron, in order to allow the reader to understand the conditions of equality. He opens the first paragra...
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
Holbrook, David. Llareggub Revisted: Dylan Thomas and the State of Modern Poetry. Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes, 1965. 100-101.
ABSTRACT: In contemporary literary culture there is a widespread belief that ironies and paradoxes are closely akin. This is due to the importance that is given to the use of language in contemporary estimations of literature. Ironies and paradoxes seem to embody the sorts of a linguistic rebellion, innovation, deviation, and play, that have throughout this century become the dominant criteria of literary value. The association of irony with paradox, and of both with literature, is often ascribed to the New Criticism, and more specifically to Cleanth Brooks. Brooks, however, used the two terms in a manner that was unconventional, even eccentric, and that differed significantly from their use in figurative theory. I therefore examine irony and paradox as verbal figures, noting their characteristic features and criteria, and, in particular, how they differ from one another (for instance, a paradox means exactly what it says whereas an irony does not). I argue that irony and paradox — as understood by Brooks — have important affinities with irony and paradox as figures, but that they must be regarded as quite distinct, both in figurative theory and in Brooks’ extended sense.
These imaginative minds are often separated into two different generations, or styles of writings, based on the style of authors and the experiences that they wrote about. The first generation of poets wrote about the longing for freedom and attempted to see the light at the end of the tunnel and remained hopeful. The optimistic poets, such as Wil...
Bergman, David, and Daniel Mark Epstein. The Heath Guide to Poetry. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1983. Print.