Cycles in Poetry and Art

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962)

all ignorance toboggans into know

by E. E. Cummings

all ignorance toboggans into knowand trudges up to ignorance again:but winter’s not forever,even snowmelts;and if spring should spoil the game,what then?

all history’s a winter sport or three:but were it five,i’d still insist that allhistory is too small for even me;for me and you,exceedingly too small.

Swoop(shrill collective myth)into thy gravemerely to toil the scale to shrillernessper every madge and mabel dick and dave--tomorrow is our permanent address

and there they’ll scarcely find us(if they do,we’ll move away still further:into now

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learning

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learning tobogganing

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learning tobogganing -exciting

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learning tobogganing -exciting -can be scary

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learning tobogganing -exciting -can be scary-happens more than once (slide down and climb back up)