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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

COMMONALITIES

Many of his poems includes mangled structures or no structure at all. -!blac -n(o)w

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;

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

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. -if

-flotsam and jetsam

-a pretty a day

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

maggie and milly and molly and may

INFLUENCE

- Father’s Death- “... a locomotive cut the car in half, killing my

father instantly.”

- my father moved through dooms of love

-Marriage -Married three times -Themes of love and romance

WHAT

DO T

HE CRITI

CS 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 it is with your

• “forcing his reader to visualize language”• -Ex: “a horrible thing

• which raced sideways while blowing bubbles”

• “insufficient artistic growth” - Similar themes are use through out his career. He uses related structure

-Ex: Tulips and Chimneys (1923) compared to 95 Poems (1958)

WE DISAGREE:

• “eccentric and self-indulgent”-Poems visualize language

- Ex: all in green- Show a lot of emotion

-Topics and themes are normal

• “spontaneity and child-like wonder”- Common patterns- General themes - Mature subjects

- Ex: may I feel said he