the poetry of e.e. cummings --
111 of my favorites
"to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best,
night and day, to make me everybody else means to fight the
hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never
stop fighting" -- ee cummings
edward estlin cummings (1894-1962) is one of my
major poet-deities. he was a painter as well as a poet (he really got
serious about it after seeing the surrealist/dadaist/weird-as-shit
stuff at the Armory show in 1913, while he was at harvard), and
because he was concerned with appearances and meanings combined, he
played cool tricks with typography. unfortunately, people get caught
up in his use of lowercase (and the man *was* known to use capitals,
dammit) and miss out on the lyrical beauty and/or scathing satire
found in his work.
he wrote truly amazing stuff. check out his
introductions to the poetry volumes is 5
and New Poems.
NOTE:
the 111 poems, intended to be a source of reference
for those wishing to enjoy the poetry of e.e. cummings, has been
removed pending copyright hassles. further note that i received no
benefit from this web page beyond satisfaction at a job well done.
deb martinson