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Not a big fan... I think he appealed to me as a teenager (hey! rebellious and look at the way those words are thrown over the page!) but now, looking past the surface, I only see the occasional phrase I like. ("With up so floating many bells down")
But there are some full poems I like. "in Just-" being a good example - it's anthologised so much for a good reason.
Also, I remember liking, and being confused by, "Buffalo Bill's / defunct" when I read it aged about 8. Partly responsible for starting my love affair with poetry.
Cummings isn't alone, poetry in general is pretty underappreciated.
Myself, I just started reading e.e. Cummings in particular a little over a month ago, so I don't really have a well established favourite yet, but of what I've read, I must admit a certain avid fondness for 'the boys i mean are not refined'
"the boys i mean are not refined
they go with girls who buck and bite
they do not give a fuck for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night
one hangs a hat upon her tit
one carves a cross on her behind
they do not give a shit for wit
the boys i mean are not refined
they come with girls who bite and buck
who cannot read and cannot write
who laugh like they would fall apart
and masturbate with dynamite
the boys i mean are not refined
they cannot chat of that and this
they do not give a fart for art
they kill like you would take a piss
they speak whatever's on their mind
they do whatever's in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined
they shake the mountains when they dance"
Not necessarily a bash to him, but I do wonder whether he'd have gotten famous if he hadn't decided "capitalisation rules are for sissies" and made up his own.
As a grammar person, I also wonder whether he first started this trend of "it doesnt matter if u no wat im saying y do i have to rite it out"
ee cummings is my favorite poet. I love his innovations, his intensity, and his ability to break through barriers of the English language simply by turning punctuation on its head. This is probably my favorite:
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
I've read all the answers given to your question, its amazing how different people interpret the same poem. I enjoy e.e. cummings for all the reasons most do not,the sheer unconventional (ness) of it.
heres My Favorite.
I carry your heart with me
(Icarry it in my heart) I am never without it
(anywhere I go you go, my dear;and whatever is done by only
me is your doing, my darling)
I fear no fate for you are my fate, my sweet
I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
And its you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you
Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of the tree called life; which grows higher than a soul can hope or a mind can hide)
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)
I love cummings becuase i just think what he writes is beautiful, it is like music not words. Here is another one i love....
********************************
there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic
Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly
we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.
(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)
**************************
how can you not love that!!!
In answer to my own question 8-) ...I've got lots of favourites but I thought I'd offer this one as a starter:
"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water.
e.e. cummings (1926)
I agree with what has been said but I would add that I like him also because his poems are short yet thick.
i love e.e. cummings because he kinda goes with what ever random things are on his mind, and u can see this in his poetry...it's very good because it all makes since once you've evolved to his way of thinking...without parameters...my favorite by him is
pity this busy monster,manunkind... (XIV) by E. E. Cummings
pity this busy monster,manunkind,
not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victum(death and life safely beyond)
plays with the bigness of his littleness
-electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange;lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen until unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh
and trees,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know
a hopeless case if-listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go
- e. e. cummings
i dont really read him much
not for lack of interest
its just that things pile up like leaves
against a wall
that sees too much wind
and i cant find my way out
of the pile
so when compensating
for lack of knowledge
the real kind
while called upon to answer
what must be done
done
is to let the thoughts wander
(which they always do anywho)
and distach the brain from the fingers
let the fingers do the walking
From "is 5":
in spite of everything
which breathes and moves, since Doom
(with white longest hands
neatening each crease)
will smooth entirely our minds
--before leaving my room
i turn, and(stooping
through the morning)kiss
this pillow, dear
where our heads lived and were.
i love e.e. cummings. the sky was candy luminous is my favorite. im getting a tattoos of one of his poems but i cant decide which one. im leaning toward the sky was. does anyone have anythoughts on that poem?
What is a credo poem?
by Answerbag Staff on May 18th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
A POEM.....No Mind Of Your Own....
by THE BANNIBAL ONE on November 21st, 2011
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Shel Silverstein: Do you like his poems and drawings? Or.....
by greyowl on October 2nd, 2011
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Does anyone else write poetry when they are hurting? It is an outlet for me...
by Nancy is really struggling right now... on November 21st, 2011
| 1 person likes this
is this a good poem?
by Dylan_L2271 on November 16th, 2011
| 2 people like this
You're reading Over a year ago someone asked a question about e.e. cummings poetry & got just ONE response : ( Are there any e.e. cummings fans here? If so, why do you like his work? It would be great if you could post your favourite!
Comments
Thanks for your answer : )
He appealed to me too when I was a teenager, partly because of the way he manipulated words but mostly because of the ideas he conveyed, especially what he wrote about art, war, and love. Phrases like 'the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses' and 'in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me' are exquisitely expressive - but then I'm biased!
Hat's off to edward elstin for being partly responsible for your love affair with poetry, even if you're not a big fan! {(~_~)}
by hazlit on April 8th, 2008
Sorry, that should have been 'edward estlin'
by hazlit on April 8th, 2008