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E.E. Cummings. By Jessie Sidhu and Liz Abramov. e.e . cummings. Edward Estlin Cummings 2900 poems 2 autobiographical novels 4 plays Artist as well 1962, second most widely read poet in the USA (after Robert Frost). Biography. Carnbridge , MA 1894 Began writing- 1904 Harvard
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E.E. Cummings By Jessie Sidhu and Liz Abramov
e.e. cummings • Edward Estlin Cummings • 2900 poems • 2 autobiographical novels • 4 plays • Artist as well • 1962, second most widely read poet in the USA (after Robert Frost)
Biography • Carnbridge, MA 1894 • Began writing- 1904 • Harvard • 1915- B.A. • 1916- M.A. • Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound • 1917- First Book Eight Harvard Poets
Biography • Named after his father, Edward Cummings • Father-Harvard Graduate • Married three times • 1932- Married Marion Morehouse (model/actress) • 30 years
Biography • 5 months ambulance driver in World War II • Sent to French prison camp • Novel: The Enormous Room • Traveled through Europe • Pablo Picasso • Elizabethan Song, 18th Century Satire, Pindaric Ode • Buried in Boston, MA (1962)
Honors Academy of American Poets Fellowship Two Guggenheim Fellowships Charles Eliot Norton Professorship (Harvard) Bollinger Prize in Poetry (1958) Ford Foundation Grant
Poets Style • Disordered syntax + typographical disarrangements • Arranged derangement, integers of the word • curve of ‘e’, rhythm of ‘m’, astonishment of ‘o’ • Word coinage kept already existing root words, joining to them new affixes
Poets Style Tmesis his signature Varied use of parentheses “Visual stanza” not rhyme/ meter, but shape thought Visual appearance of most poems=based on interest in contemporary art forms
Poets style • Analysis of words into parts • Both syllables and individual letters • Use of space + punctuation marks • Comma used where period is expected • Words were literary art • If the printer messed up on a word- interfere with his “arrangement”
Positive Criticism At early age, most critics thought of him as a potential lyric & satiric poet Critics believed that his innovative verse techniques & his lyric/satiric talents successfully blended Structure of poems connected to meaning of poems
Negative Criticism • Thought techniques were: • Cheap and shallow • not poetic • Style made critics upset, said it was; • Unusual and thought style to call attention to itself rather than to describe a theme • Objected explicit treatment of sexuality • Believe style didn’t evolve throughout career • Structure drew readers’ attention from actual poem • Many critics believed he didn’t develop much as a writer through his career
e.e. cummings “I am someone who proudly and humbly affirms that love is the mystery-of-mysteries… that ‘an artist, a man, a failure’ is… a naturally and miraculously whole human being… whose only happiness is to transcend himself, whose every agony is to grow.” Unique poet Original artist Incredible modernist poet of consequence