Poe.e.tryis Cummings

Emily PetersHelaina Christie

Justine BooradyBecky Gohsler

e.e. cummings

this is the garden: colours come and go,... (IX)

this is the garden:colours come and go,frail azures fluttering from night's outer wingstrong silent greens serenely lingering,absolute lights like baths of golden snow.This is the garden:pursed lips do blowupon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing(of harps celestial to the quivering string)invisible faces hauntingly and slow.

This is the garden. Time shall surely reapand on Death's blade lie many a flower curled,in other lands where other songs be sung;yet stand They here enraptured,as amongThe slow deep trees perpetual of sleepsome silver-fingered fountain steals the world.

Biography• Edward Estlin Cummings• Cambridge Massachusetts• Harvard-met avant garde poets and artists

Inspirations

• Joy Farm • Family traditions• World War I• Marriages/ Love

Structure

• Punctuation• Rhyme• Sound

“Enter No”enter no(silence is the blood whose fleshis singing)silence:but unsinging. Inspectral such hugest how hush,one

dead leaf stirring makes a crash

-far away(as far as alive)liesapril;and i breathe-move-and-seem someperpetually roaming whylessness-

autumn has gone:will winter never come?

o come,terrible anonymity;enfoldphantom me with the murdering minus of cold-open this ghost with millionary knives of wind-scatter his nothing all over what angry skies and

gently(very whiteness:absolute peace,never imaginable mystery)descend

Literary Devices• Symbolism• Personification• Metaphors• Alliteration• Similes

Impressed Critics• “Cummings's innovations in other forms and media are less sure

and significant, but he is nonetheless a refreshing influence.”-Paul Christensen

• “He wants us to let the images and sounds flood into us in intuitive sequence.”- Norman Freidman

• “Further, spacing of key words allows puns which would otherwise be impossible. Some devices, such as the use of lowercase letters at the beginnings of lines … allow a kind of distortion that often re-enforces that of the syntax … All these devices have the effect of jarring the reader, of forcing him to examine experience with fresh eyes.”-Bethany K. Dumas

Un-impressed Critics • ‘Cummings’ consistent attitude in all of his work

was “condemning mankind while idealizing the individual.”- David Penberthy

• “His later poems included an abundance of second-rate imitations.”- James Dickey

• “His later, more conservative poetry came under attack for anti-Semitism, a charge that is still debated.” –enotes

• “Cummings’ style did not change or develop much through out his career, and he has been faulted by some for poor artist growth.- Michael Webster