A Unique Poet
“[L(a]”, the poem by Edward Estlin Cummings, (E. E. Cummings) is fascinating. It acts like visual art piece, but reads like poetry. In order to understand this poem, one my visually see the poem while they read it. There is a visual arrangement of words, and Cummings writes this poem into almost a form of art. He uses an ideogram format and his own unique way of writing that breaks all the normal rules for grammar.
According to the Poetry Foundation, E. E. Cummings decided to become a poet when he was a young child. He wrote a poem a day, between the ages of eight and twenty-two, experimenting with traditional poetry of the time. In 1916, when Cummings attended Harvard, modern poetry caught his interest and he began to
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Each line must exist to support the other. Line one begins with a 1 or is it an l and a parenthesis mark. If you look at it from the side the parenthesis looks like a side view of a leaf falling. Next to the parenthesis is the single letter a. If the parenthesis were removed we would have the French word “la”, or a feminine singular article. The next line is “le” and is the masculine singular article. Whether male or female they exist in isolation. The next two lines are “af” and “fa” and seem to represent a leaf falling or mirror image of something that exist in nature. Line number five is “ll”. These can represent the joining of leaves in the air as they are falling, only to become isolated from each other. The next line is represented by, “s)”. This symbol can represent a sense of closure that started in line one. It is almost as if the leaf “)” has turned around in its falling. The last three lines, beginning with “one”, describes the isolation of a leaf from the tree. It can also symbolize being alone and is also symbolized in line eight by the isolated “l”. These two lines continue the alone feeling represented in this poem. In the last line the letters “iness” symbolize a sense of falling into isolation, drifting slowly to the
This is a figure of speech which takes on animals, ideas, abstractions and inanimate objects with human form, character or sensibilities. It is representing imaginary creatures or things as having human personalities, intelligence and emotions. In the poem ‘ALL THAT TIME’, in stanza one the poet has given the trees the human character of embracing each other and leaning on each other. The poet also describes one of the trees upright one which is also a human characteristic.
The poem talks about the old tree and relates it to an aged man. "Or the trenched features of an
Literary devices such as metaphors are used in poetry to symbolize one things for another. The book in this poem represents the beloved body of a woman who is expecting. The subject of the book is a metaphor for the body of a woman. The womb would be represented as the bulk of the book while the “Hinge of the Darker Door” represents the strong spine a pregnant woman has to have to take care of the burden of having a child. Another metaphor that is used in this poem is of a pear tree. In the Chinese culture, the pear tree is a symbol for femininity and is a sign of fertility. Since some of Kiki Petrosino's poems refer to a restaurant in a China city, it can be deducted that she also chose to refer to the pear tree being a symbol from Chinese
In 1911, Cummings began his studies at Harvard. Throughout his college years he worked as an editor for the literary magazine. This would later influence his paintings and poetry. Cummings left Harvard in 1916 with a master’s degree, his first poems published the next year in the anthology, Eight Harvard Poets. These poems illustrated his early experiments in style and language for which he later became famous for (Constantakis).
The poem being separated into two indicates change of direction. In the sestet, there is a sudden change in emotion. The first line, ‘the final hour’, immediately shows this. The father is now dying. Weak. ‘Your hands between the sheets’ indicates that the father is in a bed, suggesting restricted physical movement, unlike before. There is then a role reversal, as the son is lifting the fat...
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.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
He uses powerful imagery and onomatopoeia to achieve the desired effects that make the poem more realistic. All this combined together produces effective thought provoking ideas and with each read, I gradually get an improved understanding and appreciation of the poem.
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).
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
The poem begins with the speaker comparing her body as being like a persimmons tree, displaying off the double meaning of the word "limbs"(1). The speaker lateral limbs (1) arms and
Loss and isolation are easy, yet difficult to write about. They are easy because every human being can empathize with loneliness. If someone denies this, they are lying because loneliness is a common feeling, anyone can relate. It’s hard because we don’t discuss loneliness or loss publicly very often, and when we do, we forget about it quickly. These poems contrast each other by speaking of the different types of loneliness and isolation, distinguishing between the ones of loss, and isolation in a positive perspective.
“We pluck and marvel for sheer joy. And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs…” (14-16). This emphasis on nature reflects the respect and connection to the natural world the culture was trying to convey in their poetry. The colorful and illustrative descriptions of the physical world are indicative of the mindset and focus of these poems. Namely the fact that they were concerned with the world around us and the reality we experience as opposed to that of abstract concept of god or the supernatural as seen in other historical texts. This focus on nature is important because it sets the context in which the major theme of loss and separation originate from. In this poem the poet chooses to emphasize the passing of time in the choice of comparing the two seasons. Spring, in which life begins a new, and fall, in which the leaves begin to fall off and die. The poem reads “And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs- Those are the ones I hate to lose. For me, it is the autumn hills” (15-18). This juxtaposition of these two
between willows, a safe Ophelia drifting / In a rented boat” (line 1-3) which may be hinting
The poetic devises found in the passage are metaphores,similes, assonance , alliterations and enumeration.Primarly, the usage of metaphores and similies are to create an example for the reader, as seen in the phrase '... wall of green jungle.'. Another use of them are to create a beautiful image for the reader as in '... to unfurl like a flower...'. Next, the use alliteration ,found in the repetition of the 'k' sound in line 3, is used to make the reader focuse on that part of the text. Finaly, the role of enumration, which is positioned in the lines eight to forteen in the passsage, is to ampliphy the components the subject is devided