E.E.Cummings
(October 14, 1894- September 3, 1962)
Edward Estlin Cummings was a poet who admired Pablo Picasso; he had frequently visited Paris, France to meet the other poets and the artists. He graduated from Harvard with the both degrees, B.A. and M.A. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. Cummings wrote some poems that published in a book called Eight Harvard Poets just before he participated World War I as a volunteer for ambulance driver. (the academy of American Poets) He had become famous after his books came out, The Enormous room and Tulips and Chimneys, after he returned to New York after his studies at France in Arts. Cummings always loved to play with his words in his poems and quotations. he liked to write about love and nature poems, he also created his own poetic style in 1918 because he was a painter so he had extra talent. He created so many poems that got him critcized, he talked about sex and the war that led the young readers to be interested. Cummings was the first person who started the new way to express the poems by making his poems with different kind of form, punctation, and didn't follow the right techniques. During his writing, he got alot of honors, fellowship award, and prize.
http://www.poets.org
maggie and milly and molly and may
10
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and
milly befreiended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as as 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
http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15406
This poetry was talking about the four girls who were having their own time at the beach and it showed the release from the pains and sadness. The girls with their objects that they found at the beach helped them to forget what they had before they came to the beach. The girls are being themselves by showing what they like to do at the beach it is like its their opportunity to be free for a day. The poem showed that there are the up and downs with these girls and they had to go through the times where they felt the pain and finally release them by going to the beach themselves and it shows that they each have different personalities. There are possibility of believing in a good cause in your own future is to be with yourself and explore what is in front of you.
Buffalo Bill's
Buffalo Bill's
defunct
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
http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15399
Buffalo Bill’s poem expressed in Cummings’ anger, he critcized the cowboy’s life. Cummings used his imagination to express that the cowboy killed the buffalos as fast and easy as killing the pigeons. Same time, he was telling that the cowboy was a “small town hero” due his description of handsome. At the ending of the poem, Cummings was asking the cowboy how did he felt when he died just like the buffalos. He used the word, defunct like the cowboy is not in use anymore. I think that this poem is expressed in a conversational way because he asked the cowboy what it was like to be those buffalos.
Comments (8)
Anonymous said
at 8:39 am on May 10, 2007
I liked the use of the black and white, classic look. The poems you picked where touching and the meaning was easy to relate with. You did a great job with the explanations.
Ashley Czepa
Anonymous said
at 9:15 am on May 10, 2007
I really liked the pictures too, they suited the poems really well! I also really liked your descriptions, i know cummings is a hard poet to understand, but you packed a lot of really good insight in a paragraph! i like it!
Anonymous said
at 9:20 am on May 10, 2007
The pictures are very fitting for each poem.
Suggestion: Cummings' biography might be easier to read if it was in sequential order. Also, it would be cool if you wrote more about Cummings' word choice and his strange style of wording.
Good job simplifying these complex poems!
Anonymous said
at 9:21 am on May 10, 2007
(the above post was made by Chelsea Dietsche.)
Anonymous said
at 9:23 am on May 10, 2007
I think you did a very good job as well. In the first poem, I agree with you that the girls are trying to escape the world from their pains, but also it seems they love being in their own little world, they are happy and free of troubles when they can run around and play together. I also enjoyed how much you got out of the second poem, there wasn't many words and to me they were a bit random. Good job at finding all those hidden meanings!
Anonymous said
at 9:24 am on May 10, 2007
This is a good page with great explanations to somewhat confusing poetry!
Anonymous said
at 9:31 am on May 10, 2007
(The 5th one down is by Bre Erickson.)
Anonymous said
at 9:54 am on May 10, 2007
I absolutley love your page!!!! The photo's captured these poems very well. Your analysis, were really fulfilling in the sense that it made the reader understand it better. Fantastic job!!!!!
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