ee cummings

by katie guilmette& olivia fondots

background

poet and painter

edward estin cummings

cambridge, massachusetts

october 14 1894

edward cummings and rebecca haswell

background

cambridge latin school

harvard univeristy

graduated magna cum laude in greek and english

A.M. from harvard

started to become intrigued by the new movement of the arts in last year of college

began to experiment with free verse

his debut• first works were published in

Eight Harvard Poets 1917

• next work was his autobiography of his experiences

• concentration camp depot de triage during WWII

• getting arrested on suspicion of espionage

• “The Enormous Room”

cummonalitiesstructurally unique

placement of words and letters

double letters

parenthesis

hyphenation

capitalization

title is the first line

a painter too

• interested in modernism and cubism style art

• celebrated works of ezra pound, igor stravinksy, and pablo picasso

“r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r”

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r      who

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

ee cummings

“since feeling is first”since feeling is first

who pays any attentionto the syntax of things

will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a foolwhile Spring is in the world

my blood approves,and kisses are a better fate

than wisdomlady I swear by all the

flowers. Don’t cry- the best gesture of my

brain is less thanyour eyelids’ flutter which

says

we are for each other: then laugh, leaning back in my

armsfor life’s not a paragraph

and death is no parenthesis

“Buffalo Bill’s”Buffalo Bill'sdefunct who used to ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

what they say…

• “radical and politically out of step”

• had a “pacifist stance”

• “spoiled little rich boy”

• selfish man – he put poetry before everything else

We Disagree..

• “radical and politically out of step”

• had a “pacifist stance”

“miracles are to come. with you I leave a remembrance

of miracles…”

-ee cummings