e e cummings
I have always been intrigued by the poems of e e cummings. I enjoy the unconventional, which his poems certainly are, even now. Many of them are only intelligible by studying them very carefully. Others are not necessarily intelligible in the normal sense, but give only impressions and suggestions–but very strong ones.
When I was in high school and college, I wanted my instructors to teach me more about cummings. Most of them were unwilling, and I think it is because they neither appreciated nor understood his work. I had to go to the library and learn about him and his poetry on my own. I’m gald that I did. I already felt that there was something significant and beautiful there, and I was right.
Please give cummings’ poetry a chance. He has a lot to say about life and death and love, just as all great poets have had a lot to say on those subjects. Mostly his poems capture glimpses of the beauty and sublimity of the world around us.
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything
For further reading:
Biography at Poets.org with links to some poems
Biograrphy at Poetry Foundation with links to some poems
Tons of resources at Modern American Poetry
Ah, e.e. cummings is so amazing. I especially love the “leaf falls loneliness” poem and the “etcetera” poem.
RG’s Response: Me too. The “leaf falls” poem is the epitome of his style. The “etcetera” poem is a bit racy, no?