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E.e. cummings poetry analysis
Analysis essay on Anyone lived in a pretty town EE Cummings
E.e. cummings poetry analysis
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The Poetry of E.E. Cummings
Edward Estlen Cummings engages the intuitiveness of readers of his poetry with precision. A painter as well as poet, Cummings uses words to create vivid and visceral moments of meaning that are the beating heart of Cummings’ poetry.
The form and content of E. E. Cummings’ poetry is driven by and results from his own personal philosophy regarding the transcendent importance of love and individualism over reason and societal norms. The relationships between those central themes are here explored in three of his poems, published within a span of fourteen years, with the main focus being the poem, “anyone lived in a pretty how town”.
Cummings was a critical lightening rod in his day, and remains controversial even among some of today’s critics. He is, however, one of America’s most-read poets (Silea 2; Baum 104). The target of this controversy was less his subject matter than the manner in which he expressed it. To varying degrees at different stages of his life, he deconstructed the English language, breaking grammatical structures into bits and pieces, only to put them back together in new and thought-provoking ways. He did not do this in ignorance, but with keen awareness of the rules upon which he transgressed: “trying to write poetry before you’ve learned all there is to know about writing is like…trying build yourself a house from the ridgepole down;instead of laying the foundations first & then erecting a structure on them, story by story” (Letters 205).
By today’s standards, this flouting of convention may seem quite tame. This would in likelihood not be the case were it not for the ground broken, plowed and sown by Cummings.
One of Cumming’s ...
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...Poems. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1926.
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Fairley, Irene. E. E. Cummings and Ungrammar: A Study of Syntactic Deviance in his Poems. New York: Watermill Publishers, 1975.
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Marks, Barry. E. E. Cummings. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1964.
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Fulton, Alice. “You Can’t Rhumboogie in a Ball and Chain.” Approaching Poetry: Perspectives and Responses. Ed. Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. 128-29.
A writer’s choice of nouns and verbs alters the feel and meaning of a poem. A prime expel of this fact is in the Crowder Collage literature book, on page even hundred seventy-three, more topics for writing, number two. I chose the poem “When the Time’s Toxins,” by Christian Wiman, for the exercise.
...us 75.1 (Jan. 1991): 150-159. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
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.
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).
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