Essay about E.E. Cummings The Birth of Modern Poetry

â€Å"The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness.† This quote said by Stephen Spender depicts a great poet as someone who utilizes their past observations to increase their knowledge about people, nature, love, and life. Like a great poet, E.E. Cummings employed his past experiences in his poetry and life. Known as one of the preeminent poets of the 20th century, E.E. Cummings poetry has received an array of both positive and negative criticism. Nonetheless, Cummings’s poetry has inspired many poets and authors with his liberal views on love, nature, and religion along with his modern†¦show more content†¦Blackmur, a literary critic, criticized E.E. Cummings’s poetry stating, â€Å"There is a great big moral vacuum at the heart of E.E. Cummings’s poetry.† (Roberts 256) Other critics also re probated his work by stating that there were no morals or lessons gained from reading his poetry. Another critic, Louise Bogan, remarked, â€Å"It is the deletion of the tragic that makes Cummings’s joy childish and his anger petulant.† (Roberts 256) Bogan stated that because there is no plot or lesson to Cummings’s poetry, his joy is childish and his anger is grouchy. Another asset of his poetry that was heavily criticized was his unique style of writing. The contemporary writing style was very unfamiliar to his readers at that time. In his poem â€Å"Snow†, Cummings incorporates his unique writing style along with his typographical errors: â€Å"Emarkable /s)h? /ya /(from n/o(into whe)re f / ind).† (Thompson 2) Despite the confusion and difficulty to read and comprehend the poem, Cummings sought to promote a diverse lesson with his usage of separated letters and other punctuation marks in order to create verbal movements and cause the reader to c ontemplate (Webster 15). E.E. Cummings’s audacity to ignore the biased criticisms of critics and develop a contemporary writing style has made him one of the most baffling, yet eminent poets of the 20th century. E.E. Cummings’s love poetry has modeled the modern views of love. Known to be a radical poet, Cummings appalled many criticsShow MoreRelatedEssay about E.E. Cummings612 Words   |  3 PagesEdward Estlin Cummings is a famous poet and novelist. A true man of the arts, he also enjoyed playwrights, painting, and drawing. His lifetime lasting from 1894-1962 was vivaciously lived! He spent a large portion of his life in his birth state, Massachusetts, although certain life events lead him beyond the United States. Cummings served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and was a volunteer in an ambulance unit as well. A great portion of his life was also dedicated to his Harvard educationRead More The Poetry of e.e. cummings Essay3340 Words   |  14 PagesThe P oetry of e.e. cummings The poems to come are for you and for me and are not for most people. --its no use trying to pretend that mostpeople and ourselves are alike. Mostpeople have less in common with ourselves than the squarerootofminusone. You and I are human beings;mostpeople are snobs. Take the matter of being born. What does being born mean to mostpeople? Catastrophe unmitigated. Socialrevolution. The cultured aristocrat yanked out of his hyperexclusively ultravoluptuous superpalazzoRead More Time in Thomas’ Fern Hill and Cummings’ anyone lived in a pretty how town3549 Words   |  15 Pagesis lost; poetically speaking,†¦time is regained in the act of visionary creation (Crewe 400). Poetry allows for the capture of a moment in time otherwise lost in the blink of an eye. British poet Dylan Thomas and American poet E.E. Cummings have both been noted for the recurring themes of passage of time in their poetry. In Thomas’ Fern Hill and Cummings’ anyone lived in a pretty how town, both modern poets utilize a juxtaposition of paradoxes to express the irrevocable passage of time and theRead MoreThe Disenchanted Research Paper3448 Words   |  14 PagesFitzgerald’s life and work were in a knot from the start; his profession spanne d one of the most tumultuous eras of the century, and from the very start he was the creator and the victim of the new culture of celebrity which accompanied the rise of modern technology. Budd Schulberg masterfully created a character that closely and in many ways represents Fitzgerald in his later years; Manley Halliday is that character. â€Å"His mind’s eye, incurably bifocal, could never stop searching for the fairy-tale