Biography E(dward) E(stlin) Cummings decided to become a poet when he was still a child. Between the ages of eight and twenty-two, he wrote a poem a day. By the time he was in Harvard in 1916, modern poetry had caught his interest. He began to write avant-garde poems in which conventional punctuation and syntax were ignored in favour of a dynamic use of language. (Founded the Harvard Poets Society) After Harvard, Cummings went to New York. In this city he held his first and only job, three months with P. F. Collier Son, Inc., mail-order booksellers In April of 1917 volunteered for Ambulance Service in France, a popular choice of work for pacifists. September of 1917 held on suspicion of treason and sent to an internment camp in Normandy for questioning after inserting provocative comments in letters he was censoring. Cummings' first collection of poems, Tulips and Chimneys, appeared in "The chief effect of Cummings' jugglery with syntax, grammar, and diction was to blow open otherwise trite and bathetic motifs through a dynamic rediscovery of the energies sealed up in conventional usage.... He succeeded masterfully in splitting the atom of the cute commonplace." M. L. Rosenthal Style Technique Seasonal Spring; brings positive tone to poems Reminiscent (over pasts loves, Influential people, memories) -Feelings of deep romance, and love for someone -Filled with compliments, and positive thoughts about a specific person Realistic -punctuation, spelling and syntax Lifes not a paragraph and death i think is no parenthesis ~E.E. Cummings Modernism Modernism as a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society and its accompanying commercialism, consumerism and rejection of the individual. Breakdown of social norms and despair of individuals amongst an uncertain and unmanageable future Sense of spiritual loneliness, alienation, frustration and disillusionment Cummings had a strong belief in individuality, his poems are constantly exhorting us [the reader] to be original, independent, self-reliant. And he is scornful of everyone who takes refuge in received ideas and conventional standards (Kirsch, Adam). This is a shift from a knowledge-based exploration to being-based. The meaning of Cummings' poems is generally the same as the meaning of sunsets and rainbows. They don't mean, they just are! He greatly influenced the work of Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mansfield, Woolf, Kafka, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Hemingway A poem should not mean / But be." Archibald MacLeish -Love -Passionate feelings -Descriptive nature poems -War -Sex -Dreams -Past or Future (usually never present) past loves grievances regrets -Desire wishing (to be with someone) -Loneliness In Just- in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloon man whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's spring and the goat-footed Balloon Man whistles far and wee i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) Literary Devices *Dialogue "he said, the wind said, the rain answered *Questioning (unsureness) "May I feel, said he" "Do you believe in always,the wind said to the rain *Repitition "I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart. *Metaphor "You open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens." Negative Literary Criticism sentimental and politically nave We agree that on some of the poetry, the emotion can turn the poem too passionate, almost sappy. Mr. Cummings has an eccentric system of typography which, in our opinion, has nothing to do with the poem, but intrudes itself irritatingly, like scratched or blurred spectacles, between it and the reader's mind We belive the extra punctuation is anything but extra, it adds emotion, and connection to the poem. We think the parenthesis for example, make you feel as if you are in Cummingss mind. We disagree We agree Positive Literary Criticism The poetry of E.E. Cummings* is easily recognizable, even for the literary novice. While many immediately associate the work of Cummings with the liberal use of lowercase letters and acrobatic word arrangement, the depth of his writing goes beyond this, both in form and meaning. We think the deeper meanings and emotions, make more of an impression on the reader, that the unusual punctuation. Cummings's innovative and controversial verse places him among the most popular and widely anthologized poets of the twentieth century. Cummings's work celebrates the individual, as well as erotic and familial love. Conformity, mass psychology, and snobbery were frequent targets of his humorous and sometimes scathing satires After reading other poetry, we noticed his style is definitely recognizable, and all about love, some poems are funny or sarcastic. He created provocative drawings and impressionistic paintings with vivid colors. This artistic style also molds his poetry into a visual art. He uses the white space on the page as much as he uses periods, commas, and colons to lead the eye on a journey down the page. We agree that Cummings poetry is art. The imagery, paints a picture in your mind. We agree Works Cited Poets.org." The Academy of American Poets. 22 Apr Eich, Marty. "e.e. cummings: The Life of America's Experimental Poet." The American Poetry Web. 22 Apr "ee cummings quotes." Brainy Quote. 22 Apr Cummings, Edward Estlin. Collected Poems. Harcourt, Brace and company: 1938 Bengtsson, Gunnar. "Biography of ee cummings." AmericanPoems.com. 22 April Apr Burt Franklin& Co.. E.E. Cummings The Critical Reception. New York: Burt Franklin & Co., Untermeyer, Louis. Modern American Poetry, Modern British Poetry: A Critical Anthology. Harcourt, Perceptions,Inc.. 22 Apr Hutchinson, Tom. "biographical timeline." ee cummings. 22 Apr Hulali. "The Anatomy of ee cummings." Old Poetry. 19 August Apr 2007. Caryn. "e.e. cummings." Literary Kicks. 21 February Apr Benzel, Michael. "E.E. Cummings." Modern American Poetry. 22 Apr "Cummings, E. E.: Copyright Page." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec Project Editor. Vol Thomson Gale, eNotes.com Apr, 2007