A Take on E.E. Cummings as a Whole While poetry seems to become more and more obsolete in the 21st Century, writers like E.E. Cummings set a precedent for unique literary works through poems. Unlike famous writers such as William Shakespeare, Cummings never found the need to follow patterns other authors used. He enjoyed the freedom of poetry and accentuated letters to form and create stories that speak to his readers. Although during his time many did not see his talent, it is writers like Cummings who now make poetry fun. Rather than rigid rules and repeating rhyme schemes, words straight from the heart and mind of Cummings flowed onto paper. His rawness today provides a fresh look a poetry and entices those who see poems as boring, mundane, …show more content…
His work led him all the way to France where he befriended William Slater Brown. Together they wrote witty letters back home and befriended French soldiers. Due to their scandalous writing and joke telling to pass along the time, the French government suspected them of treason and eventually put them into a concentration camp. Questioned and essentially held hostage, Cummings stayed there for three months until his father demanded his release. Although he was free to go home, the experience scarred him forever but prompted the subject for his first published book The Enormous Room (1922). Ironically enough, a year after his release, Cummings was drafted for the war and had to spend half a year training until he finally was able to leave in January of 1919. Once done with his army days, Cummings split his time between Paris and New York, where he visited poets and artists, and spent time with his friend’s wife, Elaine Thayer. Elaine’s husband, Schofield Thayer, co-owned P.F. Collier & Son where Cummings worked before the war and the two became friends. Schofield knew of the affair and, oddly enough, did not disapprove. In the midst of writing for the The Dial and publishing his first book and collection of poems, Cummings had his first and only daughter with Elaine. Once the Thayer couple divorced, Cummings and Elaine got married in 1924. As karma has it, the two divorced a year later when she found a new European fling. Despite their separation, Cummings became more successful, producing collections & and XLI Poems in 1925 and winning Dial magazine’s annual $2000 writer
Poetry is a reflection of the poet’s life experiences through the use of various poetic devices as well as imagery (Poetry, 2015). The audience is able to comprehend an understanding about the poet’s message and the influence of the idea. Poets generally write from personal experiences, which form a narrative or reflective piece relating to a place, person or thing (McCabe, S, 2010.) Clive James started his poetry career at the University of Sydney, however over a period of time James began to understand the meaning of successful poetry through crafting a poem with an interesting or personal life events. James understood personal experiences created interesting poetry, with the display for love of language (Patrick, 2009). James uses alliteration,
It is through the pioneering of such typology that E. E. Cummings became known as one of the most eclectic poets in American history.
People express their strong feelings in many ways, through actions, verbal or written words. American poet, E.E. Cummings found his way of conveying his feelings to the world through poems at a young age. Throughout his life, Cummings experienced many ups and downs; from affairs to wars. Cummings’ unique style of poetry, filled with broken rules, strong emotions and literary elements communicates true feelings from the heart of Cummings from all that he experienced. His poem, “I Have Found What You Are Like”, explores many of the poetic devices found in Cummings’ style, interesting use of capitalization, punctuation and metaphors, that help to convey his feelings to his readers.
First of all, E.E. Cummings used plenty of visual techniques in his poetry. For example, in Document A, the poem is shaped like an“L”. The “L” in his poem could represent that he was lonely or that he felt lonely. Moreover, in Document B where the poem is shaped like a zigzag to
The beautiful thing about poetry is that it can be written in so many forms, about numerous topics and can have its own personalized sound. Billy Collins brings poetry to life in a simple and fun way that many poets never accomplish. It is obvious in the “Introduction to Poetry,” he is emphasizing the need for people to look into poetry in a different light and divulge into the true meaning instead of reading it in such a surface manner or over analyzing it. His work highlights the use of imagery bringing the words to life on the page, encouraging the reader to take it easy and enjoy the words of the poetry. His journey as U.S. Poet Laureate lead to students across America having access to a poem per day being shared at school, enhancing the knowledge and desire for poetry across the nation (Collins, “Poetry 180”). Although Collins’ approach to poetry was unconventional and focused on experience, he allows readers everywhere to feel his words - tangible and full of life.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by
These characteristics combined often leave the reader feeling at a loss and not quite sure what to make of the poem. Nevertheless the message of the poem, for the reader who chooses to pursue it, is quite powerful. E.E. Cummings, the author of this poem, is not simply a poet. He also painted, wrote essays and plays, and taught as a guest professor. A student of Harvard, he in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps during the first world war, and fell in love with Paris, where his work was located.
Poetry is often dissected until there is nothing left but a tired meaning or beaten down theme left. The beauty is often lost on the incessant search for a deeper meaning and the flow of the lines and stanzas is often forgotten in the intrusive prodding to find something more. Both poems, “Introduction to Poetry” and “Poetry Should Ride the Bus,” exemplify this opinion on the study of poetry, and challenge the traditional views of poetry in the sense that poetry is not there to be a source of deeper meaning. Rather, it is there to fill the reader with a sense of something more and be a literary treasure written to beautify the mind and unearth something in the reader. I want them to water-ski across the surface of a poem waving at the
For as long as it can be remembered people have used multiple forms of literature in order to gain knowledge, entertain, and even express a certain idea. Poetry is in fact one of those forms of literature, and before people began to write it, it was known to be told verbally by many. A person would tell a tale and those who listened would memorize it, what eventually caused poetry to spread around. Still to this day, many come to fall in love with the magic poetry possesses. It is the writer’s decision to either have a specific rhythm to it or just have a simple list of words. This essay argues that poetry is a creative way of expressing one's emotions and that it should be, not only preserved, but celebrated, even by those who have not considered themselves poetry fans in the past.
Technically, individuality is at the core of Cummings’ experiments with word coinings, innovations with typography, and punctuation that make Cummings’ literature, especially his poetry look and sound different 5. His extraordinary style of writing, which represents his individuality, is clearly present at “Buffalo Bill’s” and “from spiraling ecstatically this.” To understand his poetry on a deeper level it may be necessary to review each technique separately, plus look at the emotions that appear inside a reader as the poem is read.
Have you ever read one of E.E. Cummings’s poems, and could you figure out what is said? E.E. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massecuites in 1894. He started writing poetry as a young boy, and he also painted. He was influenced by the major movements of his time, which were Cubism and Impressionism. E.E. Cummings graduated from Harvard in 1917 just as the United States was entering World War I. E.E. Cummings joined the ambulance corps after his graduation and traveled to Paris, France. While there he was exposed to the Paris arts scene, which helped develop his unique style. E.E. Cummings used unusual spelling, spacing, and punctuation to convey his unique visual and auditory techniques.
Cummings” pg.13). Cummings continued to publish volumes of poetry at a rate of approximately one every four or five years (“E.E. Cummings pg.14). The last honor involved giving a series of public talks; published as i: six Nonlecture (1953), they provide a succinct and charming summation of his life and personal philosophy. Two years later he received a National Book Award citation for poems 1923-1954, and two years after that he won the prestigious bollingen prize in poetry from Yale University (“E.E. Cummings” pg.15). (In his poetry he often ignored the rules of capitalization and has sometimes been referred to as e.e. Cummings) expanded the boundaries of poetry through typographic and linguistic experimentation (Frazee, “E.E. Cummings). An avoidance of capital letters and creative placement of punctuation soon became his trademarks. His experimental poetry took many forms, some amusing, some satirical, some beautiful, some profound, and some which did not make much sense (Frazee “E.E. Cummings”). Typical stylistic devices in his work include: running words together; scattering punctuation symbols cross the page; subverting the conventions of the English sentence; intentional misspellings and phonetic spellings and the invention of compound words such as “puddle-wonderful” (“E.E. Cummings”). However, this obvious experimentation is often combined with strict formal structures and traditional
E. E. Cummings, an author known for his various poems and other forms of artwork, wrote numerous works of poetry over a vast amount of subjects. While the subject matter of the poems differ, a few elements of Cummings' style stays the same in virtually all his poems, some of which is important and some of which is not. The fact that Cummings uses enjambment in his poetry is a stylistic trademark that however annoying its use may be is consistent. Other stylistic trademarks of Cummings' poetry are that Cummings has a control over the tone of each of his poems and that each of his poems has its theme located near the end of the poem. While these traits that may not be highlighted in most of the analysis of his poems, each does occur quite
Edward Estlin Cummings is a famous poet and novelist. A true man of the arts, he also enjoyed playwrights, painting, and drawing. His lifetime lasting from 1894-1962 was vivaciously lived! He spent a large portion of his life in his birth state, Massachusetts, although certain life events lead him beyond the United States. Cummings served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and was a volunteer in an ambulance unit as well. A great portion of his life was also dedicated to his Harvard education and multiple romantic relationships. Despite these things that took up most of his time, Cummings managed to find time for his passion, writing. E.E. Cummings’ unique style of writing is attributed to his free spirit, which amounted to all of
The poems to come are for you and for me and are not for most people.