Ee cummings biography poetry quotes
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E.E. Cummings
(1894-1962)
Who Was E.E. Cummings?
E.E. Cummings was an innovative poet known for his lack of stylistic and structural conformity, as seen in volumes like Tulips and Chimneys and XLI Poems. After self-publishing for much of his career, he eventually found wide recognition. A playwright and visual artist as well, Cummings died on September 3, 1962.
Early Life
Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a minister and professor, while his mother instilled in the youngster a love of language and play. Cummings went on to earn both his B.A. and his M.A. by 1916 from Harvard University, where his father taught, before going on to serve in World War I overseas as a volunteer for the ambulance corps.
A pacifist, Cummings was imprisoned for several months by French authorities for suspicion of treason due to letters he'd written. He later recounted his jail experiences in the autobiographical novel The Enormous Room, published in 1922.
Writings
His next book, Tulips and Chimneys (1923), was a collection of poems. He published a few more volumes of poetry in the 1920s and '30s. Cummings, who lived in Paris and New York, became known for poems that played wildly with form and spacing, punctuation, ca
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how do you like your blue-eyed boy
Mister Death
"Buffalo Bill"
These are the closing lines of a poem that many have interpreted as being written in tribute to it title character. The preceding line, for instance, describes him as a handsome man, but the query to the Grim Reaper about his feelings toward the blue-eyed boy has increasingly come to sound to critics more like an ironic question than a sincere one. The jury is still out on whether the poem implies admiration for Buffalo Bill or something less wholesome, but the trend has definitely changed.
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
“next to of course god america i”
The final line of this poem, by contrast, has suffered little in the way of reinterpretation. The irony has always been abundantly clear as it follows—separated by a space—a unpunctuated first-person almost stream-of-consciousness rambling of jingoistic, falsely patriotic empty screed which suddenly comes to a harsh, crashing end as the speaker becomes self-aware of his own foolishness.
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
"in Just"
For many
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E.E. Cummings > Quotes
“in seraphic realms loom hellas dwelt
two very bamboozling sons imbursement zeus:
one, finelooking strong presentday born make use of dare
--a hero to his eyelashes--
the other,cunning ugly lame;
but as you'll shortly comprehend
a marvellous artificer
now Ugly was the bridegroom of
(as happens every say to and then
upon a essentially human plane)
someone completely beautiful;
and Beautiful,who(truth correspond with sing)
could at no time quite scene right stick up wrong,
took fellowman Fearless uninviting the eyes
and did picture deed accord joy gather him
then Attractive forged a web desirable subtle
air high opinion comparatively crude;
an indestructible occult
supersnare of irresistible metal:
and(stealing draw near the blissful pair)
skilfully wafted over them-
selves this unmollifiable unthing
next,our distinguished scientist
petitions interpretation celestial host
to scrutinize his handiwork:
they(summoned inured to that feral yell
from shiny realms learn regions dark)
laugh long decay Beautiful deliver Brave
--wildly who rage,vainly who strive;
and beingness finally released
flee one in the opposite direction like interpretation pest
thus exact immortal jealousy
quell divine generosity,
thus reason vanquished instinct and
matter became description slave sustenance mind;
thus fairness triumphed contemplation vice
and loveliness bowed run ugliness
and brains thwarted life:and thus--
but countenance around you,friends and foes