Poe.e.try C U M M I N G S

POE.E

.TRY

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Jonath

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Jaclyn

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Caitlin Jam

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BACKGROUND INFO

• Edward Estlin Cummings• Born October 14, 1894• Graduated from Harvard University• WW1- Imprisoned for 3 months• Poet, playwright, painter, and author• Died Sept. 3, 1962

INFLUENCE• Father’s Death

- “... a locomotive cut the car in half, killing my father instantly. When two brakemen jumped from the halted train, they saw a woman standing – dazed but erect – beside a mangled machine; with blood spouting (as the older said to me) out of her head. One of her hands (the younger added) kept feeling her dress, as if trying to discover why it was wet.”

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WHAT DO TH

E CRITICS SAY?

• “eccentric and self-indulgent”• “explicit treatment of sexuality”• “insufficient artistic growth”• “spontaneity and child-like

wonder”• “forcing his reader to visualize

language”

WE AGREE:

• “explicit treatment of sexuality”• -Ex: I like my body when is with your• -Ex:

COMMONALITIES

Many of his poems includes mangled structures or no structure at all.

He uses the themes of love, nature, and the seasons of rebirth.

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r who a)s w(e loo)k upnowgath PPEGORHRASS eringint(o- aThe):l eA !p:S a (r rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs) to rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly ,grasshopper;

LITERARY DEVICES

He tends to use a great amount of alliterations to get his point across

He uses intricate rhyme schemes to further enhance the situation at hand.

maggie and milly and molly and maywent down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sangso sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded starwhose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thingwhich raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stoneas small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

PICTUREShttp://www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummings