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Poetry as a literary art
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Anyone lived in a pretty how town
by E. E. Cummings
Biography of E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1894. He received his B.A. in 1915 and his M.A. in 1916, both from Harvard. During the First World War, Cummings worked as an ambulance driver in France, but he was interned in a prison camp by the French authorities (an experience recounted in his novel, The Enormous Room) for his outspoken anti-war convictions. After the war, he settled into a life divided between houses in rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village, with frequent visits to Paris.
In his work, Cummings experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax, abandoning traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression. Later in his career, he was often criticized for settling into his signature style and not pressing his work towards further evolution. Nevertheless, he attained great popularity, especially among young readers, for the simplicity of his language, his playful mode and his attention to subjects such as war and sex. At the time of his death in 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost.
Anyone lived in a pretty how town
by E. E. Cummings
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did
Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that no one loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then) they
said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and no one stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
no one and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.
Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
Throughout, his poems he gives us two different definitions. There might have been more than two meanings of being, but these two were the ones that stood out the most to me. As a person you have a choice to be yourself around others, or to be someone you’re not. Accepting who you are and being yourself makes you a better poet, according to Cummings. His idea of “being” is to accept who you are because you are the only person who can accept of who you are no one else. “Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else” (19). Throughout Cummings poems he believes that “being” is harder than “unbeing” because there may be people out there that won’t accept of who you
Born on October 14, 1894, E. E. Cummings an American poet was born at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother had a great influence on his early interest in art and poetry. His father was a Unitarian clergyman and sociology professor at Harvard. He began his interest in writing poetry during his high school career as early as 1904 and he also began learning language such as Latin and Greek in the Cambridge Latin High School. During this time he also shortened his name from Edward Estlin to E. E (Constantakis).
Robert Frost is very successful poet from the 20th century, as well as a four time Pulitzer Prize winner. Robert Frost work was originally published in England and later would be published in the US. He was also considered one of the most popular and respected poets of his century. Robert Frost created countless of poems and plays, many of them containing similar themes. Some of the most popular themes found in his poems encompass isolation, death and everyday life.
The poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings talks about the cycle of life and the importance of structure, symbolism, and language of the poem. For instance, the poem has nine stanzas, which has a rhyming pattern of AABC. The rhythm of the poem is significant for it supports one of themes, the cycle of life. Cumming uses season to explain the poem's progress. “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “sun moon stars rain” (8) symbolizes time passing, which represents life passing. In the poem, as the seasons and skies rotate, life continues along with them. In addition, the uses of the words “snow” (22), “buried” (27), “was by was” (28), and “day by day” (29) leading to death. Towards the end of the poem, the depression of death was mention, but Cumming was just stating the n...
“James Baldwin’s turbulent and passionate life informs all of his writings” (Magill 104). 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). His work was fascinating. “James Baldwin wrote to understand the trials of the past and to articulate principles for the future” (Magill 104). Baldwin’s writing style is what has made him so famous
...and traveling filled life. He visited the soviet union in 1931 to view their system of art and was dissapointed with the minimal amount of artistic freedom allowed. Cummings went on to develop various forms of literature throughout the rest of his life and eventually recieved numerous awards such as the Shelley memorial award for poetry and the Bollingen prize for poetry and continued to give speeches and poetry readings across the country until his death (Blank). Cummings is a great example of a person who does not let anything deter him from his goals. Even though Cummings had a traumatizing experience during WWI, Cummings did not let that shake him from his ultimate goal which was to excel at becoming a poet. Cummings was a very important man in the world of literature and he proved it by his constant poetry readings and lectures given across the united states.
“Anyone lived in a pretty how town,” by E.E. Cummings, is a poem that alludes to the circle of life and how birth and death are a natural part of this cycle. This meaning is conveyed by a complex metaphor; broken down, this metaphor slides away to reveal the true social commentary behind it. This poem is an allegory; the speaker uses pronouns with unclear antecedents to mask the true meaning and add poetic flair to the simple belief he or she presents.
Edward Estlin Cummings, abbreviated to E. E. Cummings, although he was more popularly known in all lowercase letters as e. e. cummings, was an admirably influential American poet, author, playwright, and essayist. His renowned experimentation with poetic form and language in order to create his own personal style is his most prominent accomplishment. Often, he revamped and combined words to create new ones of his own style and in his own likeness. Cummings also bent grammatical and linguistic rules to accomplish his own purposes; he incorporated the usage of words like “if” and “because” as nouns, something odd and unheard of in his time period. He was first sneered at, jeering faces refusing to accept his twisted style as poetry, but quickly his work rose to such a revered status that it shone alongside the ubiquitous writings of the great Robert Frost. The entire collection of Cummings work includes a huge number of approximately 2900 poems, as well as several novels, and countless diary entries of eloquence and skill from even the earliest years of his childhood. E. E. Cummings was, in truth, a genius, for he spent his time inventing new ways of arranging poetry in certain line types, intercepting idea with parentheses and writing backwards and in spiraling loops to emphasize his intricately concealed main points. In his time, this was extremely uncouth and unheard of, and as he steadily grew to become a famous name worldwide, more wanted to read his works. The underlying meanings in his poems were so obscure, it was hard to see past them the very first time one laid eyes on them, as it was to see past the psychical barriers E. E. Cummings hid behind when in public, and sometimes even with those he truly cared about. This sec...
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).
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928. Elie is a writer, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and surviver of the Holocaust. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a “messenger to mankin”. Elie was born in Sighet, a small town in Romania, to his father Shlomo and Mother Sarah Wiesel. Elie Wiesel had three sisters: Hilda and Bea, who were older than he, and Tzipora, who was the youngest in the family. On May 16, 1944, the Hungarian authorities deported the Jewish community, including Elie and his family, in Sighet to Auschwitz – Birkenau. Auschwitz was the first camp Elie was sent to. On January 28, 1945, just a few weeks after the two were marched to Buchenwald and only months before the camp was liberated by the American Army on April 11. Sadly Wiesel's father suffered from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion, and was later sent to the crematoria. The last word his father spoke was “Eliezer”, Elie's name. After the war, Elie was placed in a French orphanage, where he learned the French language and was soon reunited with his two older sisters, Hilda and Bea (Tzipora was murdered at the camps), who had also survived the war. In 1948, Elie began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. Elie also taught hebrew, and was a choir master before going on to becoming a Journalist, for Israli and French newspapers.
“Anyone Lived In A Pretty How Town is a short work of poetry written in 1940, by American poet Edward Estlin Cummings (E. E. Cummings). Throughout the poem, Cummings uses the four seasons as an analogy of the human life cycle. Edward Estlin Cummings (E. E. Cummings) uses a complex contradicting language to display the setting, mood, and meaning, in “Anyone Lived In A Pretty How Town”; it illustrates how life can be related to nature.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known poets of his time. His work was known for being bold, dark and thrilling. The majority of Poe’s literature is full of despair, heartbreak and tragedy. However, his work was not just sad. They were literary masterpieces, packed full of many different literary devices. That is why everyone knows the name of Edgar Allan Poe.
E. E. Cummings' poem "since feeling is first" is a poem which shows how emotions dictate people's actions and why the narrator thinks they should. The poem implies that to follow one's heart is better than following one's mind, yet, at the same time the poem is the narrator's analysis of why emotion comes before thought. The last line of the poem brings a twist on theme that the rest of the poem seems to be following. It speaks of death and of thought, rather than of life and emotion, showing that death is something that should not be ignored in life, and that thought is important even with the domination of feeling. Cummings enhances these themes by using the literary elements of diction and tone, irony, and setting and situation.
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.
For many of Browings fans and himself, poetry did not need to be a big extravagent piece of work, and for he critics who did not understand that aspect, Browning`s work would always “lacking something”. Although there was not understanding of that, there was still a light at the end of the tunnel for Browning in the respect of being appreciated by later critics. Of course, not all of Browning`s poetry reviews were pesimistic, and one literary scholar, William DeVane, considered the poet`s name to have increased as he had gotten older, along with the number of positive reviews. Although Browning was obviously not happy by the many negative reviews he received, but even some of the most brutal reviewers acknowledged his flat out raw talent, even if they did not agree with how he went about using it.