EE Cummings: A Flawed but Gifted Poet
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” EE Cummings, an American poet took these words to heart and challenged all aspects of the literary genre of poetry. Almost no American poet compares to him and is an undefined genius. Throughout his 45 year career, he set a high precedent and a new way to read and write modern poetry. Cummings used this as a medium to go beyond the traditional elements of the genre in general. Being one of modern literature’s most radical poets, Edward Estlin Cummings unique and unconventional style of poetry is likewise reflected
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From studying at Harvard, helping in WW1 and never holding a regular job, Cummings devoted most of his time and effort into creative expression. After earning his Bachelor's degree at Harvard, Cummings volunteered to drive an ambulance in France during World War 1, but soon after was wrongly imprisoned for spying. He wrote about his experience in his novel “The Enormous Room”. “This experience deepend Cumming’s distrust of officialdom and was symbolically recounted in his first book, The Enormous Room (1922)” (“E.E. Cummings”) Cummings, because of his transcendentalist beliefs, often rebelled against and challenged any authority. He proudly believed that power should be in the individual. “Tulips and Chimneys” was Cummings first volume of poetry and was published in 1923. He wrote this soon after his time studying art in Paris and New York. He was unable to stay committed in marriage or job, because his true joy was literacy and art. He wrote about traditional ideas; generally in the form of sonnets but added poetic flair by uncommon technique of writing. Cummings’ writing style matched perfectly with his personal life. His writing was flawed but by examination ultimately beautiful just like …show more content…
Cummings composed his poetry in a way that broke free from traditional writing style to make his work more meaningful. He had a passion for being a satirist and openly confronting general beliefs and ideologies of modern society in his poetry. One can speculate that Cummings seemingly disliked grammatical structure and punctuation.“Cummings is perhaps best known for his revolt against capitalization. His eccentricity in matters of poetic form and grammar unquestionably influenced the development of modern verse.” (Solomon). Cummings work can be carefully compared to the poems of other romantic writers like William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson from the 19th century. Modernism and romantic transcendentalism, which he adopted in his work, can be seen throughout most of his poetry and are mainly themed around love, nature, and irony in society. He primarily emphasised the importance of an individual and sympathised with a specific
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while other 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”.
Baldwin was a well-defined writer. “In his essays, he constantly depicted and expanded upon personal experiences” (Magill 104). Baldwin's ability to write with such passion and drama is what makes him truly gifted. “In his fiction he drew on autobiographical events, issues, and characters, building dramatic situations that closely reflected his intimate experience of the world” (Magill 104). Baldwin’s talent of choosing words carefully and connecting images with emotions helped him achieve maximum effect in his work (Magill 104).
Griffith, John. "Jonathan Edwards." The Critical Perspective. Ed. Harold Bloom. Vol. 5. New York: Chelsea, 1987. 2573-79. Print. Rpt. of "Jonathan Edwards as a Literary Artist." Criticism (1973): 156-73.
Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
Through his ramblings, Morse deliberates his facial expression while commuting across the “nerve-wracking” St. Jude’s campus. Concerned with his impression as he walked among the students, “he felt that if he smiled at the uniformed Catholic children they might think he was a wacko or pervert and if he didn't smile they might think he was an old grouch made bitter by the world” Morse strives to portray the most important characteristic of all, humility. The reader quickly senses that Morse has failed personally, professionally, financially, and these characteristics plague his journey. Like a light switch, Morse flips between feeling inadequate and overwhelmed by his failures (small rental house, awkward social presence, and inability to remember important dates) to wondering, “Why should he be worried when all he was doing was going home to enjoy his beautiful children without a care in the world”. In stark contrast, Aldo Cummings, a forty year artist still living at home views Morse as part of the “power elite”, a wealthy member of the upper class and one who could not possibly understand Cummings or any other artist under any circumstances. Along the path, Cumming is pleased after he “so decisively snubbed Morse” and quickly moves into a
Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. He earned a BA from Harvard and volunteered to go to France during World War I with the Ambulance Corps. After the war, he stayed in Paris, writing and painting, and later returned to the US. He died in Conway, New Hampshire, in 1962. Cummings is one of the most innovative contemporary poets, he used unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and unusual line, word, and even letter placements - namely, ideograms. Cummings' most difficult form of poetry is probably the ideogram; it is extremely terse and it combines both visual and auditory elements. There may be sounds or characters on the page that cannot be verbalized or cannot convey the same message if pronounced and not read. Four of Cummings' poems "la," "mortals," "!blac," and "swi" illustrate the ideogram form quite well. Cummings utilizes unique syntax in these poems in order to convey messages visually as well as verbally.
Edward Estlin Cummings, commonly referred to as E. E. Cummings, was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a source of vast knowledge and was responsible for many creative works other than his poetry, such as novels, plays, and paintings. He published his first book of poetry Tulips and Chimneys in 1923. Many of his poems are known for the visual effects they create through his unusual placement of words on the page, as well as, his lack of punctuation and capitalization. The manner in which Cummings arranges the words of his poems creates an image in the reader's mind of the topic he is discussing, such as a season or climbing stairs. His visual style also brings emotions, such as loneliness or cheerfulness, to the reader's mind. Due to this creativity, Cummings won many awards, such as the National Book Award and the Bollingen Prize in poetry (Marks 17).
With his quintessential unorthodox poetic style, E. E. Cummings has become a legend in the world of poetry. Notably, the way he manipulates traditional grammar, syntax, and line structures compel readers to further investigate any possible concealed meanings. Cummings expresses feelings as perceived by the characters in his poems and uses line breaks, unconventional capitalizations of words, and unusual syntax to alert readers to many societal changes. In the poem, “in Just-,” readers are exposed to spring as seen through the eyes of a child. In contrast, readers witness how an ideal suburban town can become detached from interpersonal connections in the poem, “anyone lived in a pretty how town.”
The poem begins with an end-stopped line. The next four sentences are end-stopped lines, as well. These sentences end with periods; when ending a sentence with a period, Cummings emphasizes the sentence and makes the reader reflect on what he or she has read. Use of periods is uncommon for Cummings, who tends to use unique punctuation at seemingly random times. These sentences appear to be straightforward, displaying how Cummings wants the diction to speak rather than the punctuation.
Ellmann, Richard and O'Clair, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
search paper) E.E. Cummings (re In the realm of poetry, punctuation has always been seen (to the ignorant eye) as a lesser tool in the development of a poem. The poet E. E. Cummings sought to change the seemingly necessary formalities in poetic writing by utilizing punctuation in a way very different than that which is defined in a grammar textbook. Punctuation has the capability of developing just as much meaning as literary devices, forms, and meters. Cummings’s work transcends the common usage of the parenthesis in a manner that is unorthodox but still effective in its purpose.
Cummings investigated fundamentally with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, deserting outdated methods and assemblies that created new, highly distinctive means of rhythmical countenance. In 1920, seven poems had been published by Cummings, to include "Buffalo Bill’s.” Plateful as Cummings’ introduction to a broader American listener. The major dissimilarities between Cummings and other poets considered to be high modernists are Cummings’s disregard in manufacturing perilous theory, his syntactical testing, and attention to graphic content of the poems as an essential element to the theme of the
It was in 1894 in Cambridge Massachusetts when notable poet Edward Estlin Cummings was born. Edward Estlin Cummings (or E.E. Cummings) is most known for his creative and unique poems and recognizable style. Starting at a very young age, E. E. Cummings wrote his own poems and eventually attended Harvard University and graduated in 1917. His works make people use their sense of sight & hearing to understand the poems because “... language is meant to be spoken as well as written, heard as well as seen”. Edward Cummings uses sight and sound to create meaning by adding visual and auditory techniques into his poems.
Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 of intellectual parents both being literature professors. Long before he could read, his father would recite poetry from classic authors. Many of his poems can be traced to the illustrated style of D.H Lawrence. The imagery he provides of disparity and death in many of his poems. In the span of Dylan’s life, he witnessed both Great Wars. The first war may have been the main topic of discussion by his parents at childhood. And later at service in the air defense over London. Because of his determined health Thomas was not able to enroll in an active combat role during World War II. Thomas life’s experiences played a major role in influencing his writing...
E.E. Cummings suggests, "feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things." According to Cummings, poetry is purely defined by the feelings the poem expresses and syntax plays no role. This is evident when he writes "for life's not a paragraph And death I think is no parenthesis." While poetry must express feelings and must create "imaginary gardens with real toads in them." Poetry cannot be defined by these standards alone. After all, without certain rules to define poetry any expression of emotion can be defined as poetry. While it is true that the main purpose of poetry is to create worlds and express emotions, poetry must also accomplish more.