E. E. Cummings E. E. Cummings is a phenomenon in literature of the twentieth century. Any serious literary criticism would not deny it.
The poet altered grammar and verse-writing rules for the sake of artistic expression. His second nature of a painter has urged him to experiment punctuation, typography and capitalization, just to name a few tools he employed to convey his expression. His poetry form is strikingly bold and sometimes puzzling and though his style is difficult to classify, it has definite characteristics that can be analyzed. Cummings works reflect his experience and worldview, his background, especially childhood and adolescence years, should provide help to understand him better; and his link to nature is indispensable to his writing. Edwards upbringing did not hinder his individuality, he was lucky to have caring, supportive and intelligent parents. Edward was born on 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His father, Edward Cummings, was an educated man, holding a degree in philosophy, he continued his study in Oxford and later returned to Harvard to teach teach political economy and sociology. He was known as humane, inspiring professor (Norman, p. 17).
At home, Edward Cummings was a tolerant accepting parent, this is father illustrated by the recollections of his daughter, “Sage people worried about children spoiling their lawns. My father liked to have us play in our yard, and used to say he was raising children and not grass. We could call and shout, but we were forbidden to scream unless we were hurt.
The Term Paper on My Father 2
Step 1: Descriptive Paragraph Prewriting & Plan Directions: Complete all of the elements of the prewriting; otherwise, the content of your piece will not be accurate. Topic: My father Overall Impression/Point: As people age older they change physically and emotionally, however we can always see them as they were before. Audience: Instructor, Family and friends. Purpose: Persuade Topic ...
My father did a lot of his work at home in his study. He said that happy noises, even loud ones, never disturbed him” (Norman, p. 20).
Evidently Edward Cummings had progressive views, and his son was sent to public school where principal was an Afro-American. It hints on the environment inside the family, the E. E. Cummings was not feed stereotyped views at early age, which so hard to shake off once a person becomes an adult.
Upon entering Harvard, class of 15, the future poet was speared from the peer pressure, which required some degree of conformity with the club system and its societies. This fact could only play a positive part in forming the self-determining and unique position that very much inseparable from E. E. Cummings and his work. The spare time that otherwise would be probably spent on socializing on the campus, had the young man been studying far from home, was channeled towards his literary interests; apart from musical activities Cumming was joined only a literary magazine, The Monthly, from all the clubs and societies at Harvard. It is interesting to note that during his final year he took a room on campus and became a mysterious figure in the group around The Monthly. During his college years the poet gave impression of quiet and private person, but it did not prevent him from establishing warm relationship with many bright people of the time, including Robert Hillyer, J.R.
Dos Passos, and R.S. Mitchell, these young and talented people shared ideas and passions inspiring personal grotw of each other, but Cummings, however, seemed to draw his strength from an inner source and was not easily influenced by others. During his final year at Harvard, he was mesmerized by avant-garde art, modernism, and cubism, he showed his admiration in graduation dissertation, “The New Art.” His classmates and all those who listen him speak on the topic were impressed by his passion. Cummings was inspired by works of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and Pablo Picasso. Strongly impressed by the new directions in art, Cummings not only immersed himself in drawing discovering his unique version of avant-garde, but he began experimenting with words. Thus Cummings commenced forging his strikingly unique poetic style. Cummings poetry is enormously influenced by his admiration for avant-garde, in his pursuit to make words as bright and vivid as artists colors, Cummings was not afraid to ignore even the basic rules, as Kennedy, Richard explained: “Cummings is a very great expert in all these, so to speak, illegal syntactical devices: his misuse of parts of speech, his use of negative prefixes, his word-coining, his systematic relation of words that grammar and syntax don’t permit us to relate–all this makes him a magical bootlegger or moonshiner of language, one who intoxicates us on a clear liquor no government has legalized with its stamp.”( p.
The Essay on E E Cummings Works Poem Words
Cummings was born on October 14, 1894. Cummings grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father was a sociology professor at Harvard. Cummings's imaginative and controversial works place him among the most popular and widely recognized poets of the twentieth century. He wrote poems with themes that more closely resemble the works of English Romantics. Cummings works represent outside the box ...
47) The independent personality of the poet makes his writing shockingly unique. The daring hand of the poet breaks established common forms, in search of the most suitable material to convey his expression tells us about his character. Sometimes Cummings is pure expressionist, his message ironically defies rational, common, familiar and understandable, for the mere sake of message itself. Sometimes he urging the reader to put aside casual thinking and try to hear his message. Often he just ironically laughs at household interpretations. It is not difficult to imagine that some people did not see any point in his works and quite often the critics reactions were far from warm, despite this fact, Cummings got a lot of supporters, one of them was Ezra Pound, who often praised Cummings’ work in his reviews; particularly, in one of those dedicated to Cummings’ play, Him, he shared the authors point of view, which Cummings worded in the following way, “relax, stop wondering what it’s all about”–like many strange and familiar things, Life included, this PLAY isn’t ‘about,’,” it simply is.
Don’t try to despise it, let it try to despise you. Don’t try to enjoy it, let it try to enjoy you. DON’T TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT, LET IT TRY TO UNDERSTAND YOU (Norman, p. 239).
Cummings works were often described as expression of anarchistic freedom, rejecting dictate of reason that took so much from mans freedom in the poets contemporary society. Although Cummings despised so well entrenched habit of reasoning, claiming that they limit individual freedom, his poetry has a distinct flavor because Cummings created the rules of his own, and his style can be somewhat explained by worldview.
The Essay on Sun Moon Poem People Reader
anyone lived in a pretty how town by e. e. cummings 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' is about how commonplace language and commonplace lives can be intimate and profound. It is a technically innovative poem which designed so that the reader cannot know what is going on from a 'distant', perfunctory viewpoint. Repetition, strange grammatical usages, and impersonal nouns demand very close reading ...
Even his rejection of the common rules, has put him in reverse dependency on the same rules. As this paper will further reveal, there are some reasons behind uniqueness. The distinct and smilingly anarchic Cummings style exists only because there is some internal order and reasons behind its existence(Norman, Charles p.123).
To begging with, there is an obvious similarity to his approach to poetry and the painting technique . The spatial organization of color turned to the durational organization of words, the technical problem that of tempo. Words, like planes in abstract painting, lose some of their logic, but take functionality in a vital and organic structure of time.
Form has taken priority over logic and all its attributes of grammar, spelling and punctuation, become subservient to its demands. The words serve to emphasize the moment, the spark perfectly timed must fuse them at their fullest incipient power. Another example of rationale behind qualities his writing is grace so much praised by the critics. It does not come from nowhere. It is an effortlessness which accompanies the poetry not burned by excessive and redundant words. And since there is no grace for the sake of itself, but rather a characteristic of the technique aimed to convey the message.
The speed of the form makes it attractive. The swiftness put in his poetry contributes to its grace. Even the frustration some people experience with the poetry, is explained by the same dynamics of Cummings writing . The speed employed by Cummings require agility of mind, which sharpen perception. Some people are plainly irritated by the Cummings expression, because it does not yield itself to an ordinary mind of the contemporary society. The Cummings words are much harder to get grasp of compared to the monotony conventional Georgian poetasters.
Cummings l is a good illustration to this point (a,” the first poem in his 95 Poems (1958), was the prototypical parenthetic poem (Powers, Kate) The form the poet chose is not arbitrary, though it may seem like that . Cummings split the word loneliness, with a short sentence, a leaf falls, thus enhancing the power of the image. This the sentence is “parenthesized” by the word. However, “loneliness: a leaf falls,” is too dull for Cummings, therefore, he chooses to hide the statement by applying the schema of dispersion. He breaks words into separate lines employing some pattern different from its original structure, that adds a new dimension, the typographical level, which is of primary importance in this Impressionist poem, this makes use of the layout on the page, which usually conveys little meaning. This way word loneliness can have additional flavor by featuring word one, thus further emphasizing the picture of desolation.
The Essay on Dylan Marais Thomas Poems Poetry Work
"I've had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that's the record." (Quoted by John Malcolm Bringin, Dylan Thomas in America). One of the most renowned authors of the twentieth century, Dylan Thomas is as well known for his philosophical poetry, critical writings, and essays. Often focusing on themes as birth, death, love, and religion, Thomas's works remain distinctly personal through a blend of ...
In addition to typographical level, the original layout creates a sonic level. It creates whispers characteristic of autumnal forest: the els make a moaning, windy noise, and the esses and effs sound like leaves rustling along the ground. Using only a few words and original approach Cummings definitely creates a reach image. It seems that the only way for Cummings to express himself, is by breaking the familiar and old. A good example of this was originally published in August of 1940 as number “I.” of “Five Poems” in Poetry; it was collected as “29” in 50 Poems, published in the same year. Cummings skillfully sheds schizophrenic hues in poem to show craziness of normal people. “anyone lived in a pretty how town” which tells the story of a person named “anyone” and his lover, “noone” (that is to say, no one).
He dwelled in a town where “women and men… / cared for” him “not at all.” People of the town inhabit the world of negative, but some of their children guessed that there was someone in town, the woman named “noone,” who loved him, yet even the children forgot this as they grew older, turned into adults, and joined the ranks of “mostpeople.” Nevertheless, “noone” loved “anyone” so much that his “any was all to her.” The life of the every villager seemed to follow the same template , “someones married their everyones,” the children grew up, and “anyone” and “noone” grew old. Then “one day anyone died i guess / and noone stooped to kiss his face,” but nobody cared. Eventually “noone” died as well, and “busy folk buried them side by side.” Still, life went on; people continued to follow their gloomy ways, completely unaware of natural beaty that surrounds them. Yet, univocal meaning would be uncharacteristically simple for Cummings the poet put exactly the opposite meaning, in the same lines, as though he is warning his reader against hastily made decisions. For instance, line four of the third stanza can be either, “Noone loved him,” or “no one loved him.”.
The Essay on Gatsby: Nature of Romantic Love
The Great Gatsby is a story about a man, Gatsby, who is stuck in alternate reality. He is stuck in a past life and wants to remain in it forever. The Great Gatsby reflects a story about the great American dream and, as some may view, a beautiful love story. The Great Gatsby is not a story about perfect love. In fact, it actually mocks the notion that love having no flaws. Fitzgerald writes about ...
Stanza seven has the same quality “one day Anyone died,” or “one day anyone died,” anyone at all, and either “Noone stooped to kiss his face” or “no one” did. Who are Anyone and Noone? Are they the same as mostpeople? There is a purposely built-in ambiguity in the poem, and this quality is pertinent to many Cummings works. As the above examples suggest, Cummings creates illusion anarchic writing, by breaking common rules, seemingly ignoring any logic and reason, but with careful examination, one can see that Cummings writing has some internal order, and there is a reason behind the odd look of his verses. In addition to his stylistic tool, one aspect of poets worldview, namely his attitude towards nature helps to understand better Cummings poetry. The images of nature, natural elements, and natural processes are inseparable from his writing. The multitude of his literary themes, personal references, figurative language, and concrete shapes blend reflect multidimensional quality of natural world.
Cummings not only admires nature for its infinite richness of form and meaning, he seeks refuge in it; the nature is the place to preserve his human qualities, as opposed to increasingly technological Western society, marked by cruelty of its organizational systems, social codes, and craziness of common sense. Cummings draws his strength from the natural world as did the Romantics in the nineteenth century. Laurel O’Neal noted, “For Cummings the rational approach is inconsistent with the nature of the universe and is therefore inadequate as a method of establishing values, or achieving meaningful growth” (p. 67).
The world of nature in all its vibrancy and dynamism is far more greater, any reason would ever be. Therefore, Cummings sees the rational approach to life as bankruptcy of mind.
The Essay on Character, Nature, Spatial Distribution of World Cities
The nature character and spatial distribution of world cities: Increasing globalisation has had major impacts on the world urban system. As a result a group of cities has emerged as key nodes in the organisation and functioning of the world, known as World Cities. World cities, such as London and New York are a product of cultural and economic globalisation and act as nodal points for the ...
Cummings admits his reliance in i:six nonlectures (1953)on nature began forming in childhood : Only a butterfly’s glide from my home began a mythical domain of semiwilderness; separating cerebral Cambridge and orchidaceous Somerville. Deep in this magical realm of Between stood a palace containing Harvard University’s far-famed Charles Eliot Norton. & lowly folk, who were neither professors nor professors’ children, had nick-named the district Norton’s Woods. Here, as a very little child, I first encountered that mystery who is Nature here my enormous smallness entered Her illimitable being; and here someone actually infinite or impossibly alive–someone who might almost (but not quite) have been myself-wonderingly wandered the mortally immortal complexities of Her beyond imagining imagination (32).
Cummings adoration for nature is further emphasized by the fact that he spent every summer at Joy Farm the family farm near Silver Lake, New Hampshire, Charles Norman, in E. E.
Cummings: The Magic Maker, describes this place in the following way: Cummings had more than three hundred acres of woodland to roam in, which, despite the blandishments of regional lumbermen, had been left strictly alone. So had the grass and bushes around the house, with the result that thrushes were more numerous than chickadees or sparrows. Hummingbirds sipped from vials of sugared water outside the screen porch where Cummings and his wife took their meals. (10) Cummings’ poetry reveals his love towards nature. The first poem in Tulips & Chimneys, “Epithalamion,” portrays the experience of discovering the vital connection between man and the power of nature through images. The earth has the warmth and energy of a woman who draws the “thrilling rain the slender paramour” from his lawful wife, the sky.
Careful analysis of Cummings works will inevitably reveal the a strong connection between the author and the nature. Certainly E. E. Cummings works are too multifaceted and rich for any analysis, however, thorough it can be, to claim anything, but a humble attempt to reveal at least a part of the intended meaning, but there are some Cummings background, the patterns of his style and his adoration of nature certainly help to reveal more of Cummings world. It should be stressed that uniqueness of Cummings work is inseparable from his personality; his self-reliance and freedom of perception is the very basis for the originality of his work, in this connection his early years should be mentioned, because they were vital in forming his self-reliant character. WORKS CITED Cohen, Milton A. PoetandPainter.
The Aesthetics of E. E.Cummings. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1987. Friedman, Norman. “Cummings Posthumous.” Journal of Modern Literature 7:2 (1979): 295-322. Kennedy, Richard S. Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of E. E.
Cummings. New York: Liveright, 1980. Norman, Charles. E. E. Cummings.
The Magic Maker. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964. Powers, Kate. “Cummings ‘From Spiralling Ecstatically This’.” The Explicator 49: 4 (1991): 235-237.
