THE VISION OF E.E.

CUMMINGS

Brandon Stolz, Isabella Brancifort, & Jessi Kruse

COMMONALITIES Lower case Imagery Repetition Love

SOMEWHERE I HAVE NEVER TRAVELLED, GLADLY BEYOND

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility:whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens;only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

EARLY INSPIRATION

Farm Mother Longfellow Lowell

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." 

MIDDLE LIFE

INSPIRATIONS

Ezra Pound French

detention camp First wife

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."

LATE LIFE INSPIRATIONS

Death of Parents

Marion Morehouse

Travels War

“I think very much the influence for me in poetry is poetry”

REOCCURRING THEMESNATURE, LOVE, LIFE

Where's Madge then,Madge and her men?buried withAlice in her hair,(but if you ask the rainhe'll not tell where.)beauty makes termswith time and his worms,when lovelinesssays sweetly Yesto wind and cold;and how much earthis Madge worth?Inquire of the flower that sways in the autumnshe will never guess.but i knowmy heart fell dead before.)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)i am never without it(anywherei go you go,my dear; and whatever is doneby only me is your doing,my darling)i fearno fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i wantno world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)and it's you are whatever a moon has always meantand whatever a sun will always sing is youhere is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the budand the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which growshigher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars aparti carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

THE POSITIVE CRITICS Bewildering, complex “the rule breaker, the grand

violator' of every accepted standard of poetical and grammatical structure, which make his poems stand out…”

Creates a puzzle “Cummings's ‘meaning’ habitually

lies in his playful manipulation”

WHAT WE THINK… “…the rule

breaker”Agree- Different- Unprecedented

“Creates a Puzzle”

Agree- hidden meanings- Intentional layoutDisagree- Grammar

confusing- Hard to

understand

NEGATIVE CRITICISM

- “Violates typographical norms only to be different…”(Kennedy, 8).

- Discombobulated- “…annoying modernist

gimmicks”(Friendman).- Confusing

WHAT WE THINK…

Too Different:Agree- No benefit- Confusing- Unnecessary

Vs. “…modernist

gimmicks”: Disagree - Distinguishes- Feeling/Mood

“POETRY IS WHAT’S DIFFERENT