Inderpal Kaur
GSI Tara Phillips
Discussion 101 (Friday 9-10)
2 November 2016
E.
E. Cummings
Born
in 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Edward Estlin Cummings developed an
interest in poetry and literature from a young age. At age eight, he began to
write daily poems in which he experimented with traditional forms and styles.
However, by the time he graduated from Harvard in 1916, Cummings became
interested in modernist poetry and the opportunity it provided him to subvert
the conventions of the English language. Heavily influenced by writers such as
Gertrude Stein, Cummings decided to play with punctuation and syntax, creating
poetry that relied just as much on its visual form as its content (“E. E.
Cummings 1894-1962”).
Like
many of his contemporary modernist writers, E. E. Cummings wrote a great deal
about World War I. In 1917, he volunteered for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance
Service in France along with his friend John Dos Passos, which led him to
publish his first autobiographical novel The
Enormous Room in 1922 about his war experiences in France. Soon after that
followed his first collection of poems, Tulips
and Chimneys, published in 1923, as well as numerous other poems,
paintings, and plays in the following decades. Although he contributed to the
discourse on urban life and modern values, Cummings’s poems also included more
romantic themes such as love and imagination that set him apart from his peers
(“E. E. Cummings Biography”).
In
particular, he often used the traditional form of the sonnet to write about
topics like nature, love, and city life, but with nontraditional use of
punctuation, spacing, or syntax. One of his more satirical pieces was titled
“next to of course god america i” (“E. E. Cummings: next to of course god
america i” - Text and Audio Clip) and it drew attention to the perils of blind patriotism and empty
rhetoric. The poem alludes to “The Star Spangled Banner” and “My Country, ‘Tis
of Thee” in the lines, “say can you see by the dawn’s early my / country ‘tis
of centuries come and go.” However, by leaving the lyrics incomplete and
combining two different patriotic songs without any punctuation or
capitalization to distinguish them, the words appear to be rushed, as if said
perfunctorily and lacking sincerity. Cummings makes use of this tactic
throughout the poem, leaving out punctuation or capitalization until the very
last lines, “‘…then shall the voice of liberty be mute?’ / He spoke. And drank
rapidly a glass of water” which is the only part of the poem not included in
quotes. From this, the reader can infer that the first 13 lines comprise a kind
of long, run-on speech using trite, patriotic platitudes to describe the
casualties of war as “heroic.” The poem seems to mock those who conform to the
popular thought that the dead are “beautiful” and “happy” simply because, “they
did not stop to think they died instead,” for the sake of the country.
In
this way, as we’ve seen from the Camera Eye sections of The 42nd Parallel to the poems of Garcia Lorca, visual and
syntactical aspects of language and its form become increasingly important in finding
meaning and critiquing urban life through modernist literature.
Discussion
Questions:
1. How does what we see inform our
ability to understand? How can we compare the emphasis on the form and layout
of Cummings’s poems to some of the other works we’ve read in class? What about
this trend is particularly modernist?
2. What challenges do spacing,
enjambment, and missing punctuation present when reading poetry? Do they
enhance or detract from meaning? Or both?
Works
Cited
"E.
E. Cummings 1894-1962." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d.
Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
"E.
E. Cummings Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 22
Aug. 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
"E. E. Cummings: next to of course god america i." BBC.
BBC, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.
"next
to of course god america i." Poetryarchive.org. Poetry Archive, n.d.
Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
I thought it was great that you chose to write about E.E. Cummings since his poetry stands out so prominently from other poems just from its visual form. I think it is interesting that he still wrote about more traditional subjects such as nature and love yet put a very modernist twist on these subjects with the way he formatted his poetry. I think this idea enforces the aspect of modernism that emphasizes distinct form from traditional forms of poetry.
ReplyDeleteIt's intriguing to see how E.E. Cummings was able to put such a modernist edge on traditional values through his poetry. I also agree with Nicole about the prominence of his poetry's visual form (i.e. "rpophessagr"). When I first saw it, I was fairly surprised, to say the least. The satirical poem you mentioned was interesting, as well.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate that fact that you brought up a very important poet and essayist in the expatriate modernist movement, E. E. Cummings. His experiences in Europe inspired him to write about the politics in the era, especially concerning WII. To answer your discussion questions, I think the topics E. E. Cummings suggests in the poem bears resemblance to Dos Passos's political awareness, where the ideology of caring what is happening in the world was deemed as particularly important.
ReplyDeletee.e. cummings is one of my favorite poets, so I'm so glad you decided to write your blog post on him! I find it interesting that you talk so much about visual form and his emphasis on it. In class we have been focusing so much on sound and orality, from the nonsensical Dada poems to the dialect in Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I feel we may have let the visual element of modernism slip by. Thanks for bringing up this important point!
ReplyDeleteI think that the poem you posted of Cummings is a unique example when it comes to the lack of punctuation. He does not leave us just with a string of unfamiliar words, but a collection of phrases which most would know very quickly. Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second discussion question, I believe that those elements enhance the meaning of the poem. Poems are naturally shorter than stories and so the poet must be able to invoke the same effects from the reader as another author with so much less content and because of this poems must have such elements in order to add more meaning in less space.
ReplyDeleteI think such creative uses of punctuation and structure can perplex the reader, push him/her to read faster, slow down at times, pause with confusion. Such accessories to the poem push the limits of our understanding of the poem and allow us to think outside the box and ask the question "why?" numerous times. Punctuation also works as a tool for the poet, a sort of connection to the reader; with varying punctuation, the poet has direct control over the way we read the poem out loud and thus the way we understand it. Punctuation thus works as a type of language on its own, one that both the readers and the poet can understand, one with which the poet can express feelings and ideas that cannot quite be expressed as well with the mere use of words.
ReplyDeleteI was actually surprised at this poem because it seems like one of E.E. Cumming's more readable ones - over my experience, I've seen a lot of Cummings poems that look like nothing more than scattered phrases, words, and fragments that are meant to convey meaning. E.E. Cummings seems intent to defy understanding, forcing the reader to "feel" the poem instead of using logic to interpret his works.
ReplyDelete