Edward Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894. His father was a professor at Harvard, leading Cummings to attend Harvard from 1911-1915 (Poetry for Students vol.3). At a young age Cummings showed a strong interest in poetry and art. His first published poems appeared in the anthology “Eight Harvard poets” in 1917. During WW1 Cummings volunteered for the French-based ambulance service and he spent four years in an internment camp in Normandy on suspicion of treason (Poetry for Students vol.3). When Cummings returned to New York, he pursued painting but was drafted in 1918. During the 1920's and the 1930's Cummings traveled throughout Europe, developing careers in painting and poetry. He published his first poetry collection,…show more content… Anyone can relate to the feeling of being lonely at one point in their life. In result, when someone feels lonely it’s probably because they are not around friends or family, and just want to be able to have conversation. It also could mean someone wants to stray themselves away from the crowd because they want to be alone, that being said, everyone needs those silent moments to have for themselves. However, whichever situation it may be people still feel that “loneliness” every once in a while, and that’s what this poem is relaying.
This last poem was first published in “95 poems”, it’s called “Maggie and Milly and Moly and May”. Since all of their names start with M, it could be a symbol for an aspect of me (Poetry For student’s vol.12). This is another poem representing an experiment with rhymed couplets. This poem is written in the tone and style of a nursery rhyme. Nursery rhymes do not all share a single poetic form, but they are usually marked by their use of end-line rhyme. Most likely the four children represent four young girls. This poem depicts children at play. It describes four children who have gone to the beach to play and describes what each child finds in the process. Maggie a shell, Milly a starfish, Molly a "horrible thing", and May a "smooth round stone" (Poetry For students vol.12). Each item is symbolic, because each child is finding something of themselves. The main theme of the poem is a search for the self, of identity. Each young