E.E. Cummings Poetry

[Janine]

To Janine: Nobody is going to throw anything but many of his works are profound and many are joyful. Top tier? How about near there. quasi

quasi, I fully agree! Throwing tomatoes only at Virgil....his idea! I was happy to ablige.

[Adolescent09]

All the kudos and flying tomatoes aside, can someone, that being the major advocates and fans of Cummings' poetry, explain the meaning of those two works I previously quoted?

[Virgil]

Oh my, right across my chest. I'd prefer that on my speghetti.

[Adolescent09]

All the kudos and flying tomatoes aside, can someone, that being the major advocates and fans of Cummings' poetry, explain the meaning of those two works I previously quoted?

Please, I'd really like to know. I'm not trying to be rude or anything (I see you guys like jokes), but it has really been eating away at me.

[ktd222]

1(a

le
af
fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness

Adolescent09,

I don’t want to tell you word by word its possible meaning because it would take all the surprise from you when you realize what the poem is achieving. But I can tell you how I would begin analyzing this poem; take each word that would be formed as a separate thought; then begin deconstructing those thoughts.
Hope I was helpful

By the way, I do like some of Cumming’s work, but some of it just gives me a headache when reading them.

[Adolescent09]

my god.. that's brilliant. Thanks so much I appreciate it. How unique .

I'm still trying to piece this one together though..:

two

o o
ld
o

nce upo

n
a(
n

o mo

re
)time
me

n

[Virgil]

Please, I'd really like to know. I'm not trying to be rude or anything (I see you guys like jokes), but it has really been eating away at me.

Adol, I don't think it means anything much. It's all style. Sometimes there is no there there.

[Janine]

my god.. that's brilliant. Thanks so much I appreciate it. How unique .

I'm still trying to piece this one together though..:

Hi Adolescent, Sorry to have skipped over you like that. I took your first statement all wrong. I thought you did not like the poems and were poking fun at them; I'm so so sorry. Yesterday Downing and I were indeed talking on IM and trying to figure them out, as well, which proved to be rather entertaining for us. I told her they are somewhat like an anagram - is that the correct word for a scrambled word puzzle? Well, as any rate so far we have picked out some things from this poem - this is close I believe:

Two old men once upon a time (no more).

There are 6 "o" so that would work out. you can check the remaining letters for accuracy. I think you are free to place the words in any way that pleases you, but this is how I would read them, as I have them above. Like I had stated before about the first poem, I would say these are very much simplistic poems depicting one thought, much like a Haiku. They are fun to figure out I think, but as ktd222 stated some can really produce a headache. I like best cummings poems with more form, but I do enjoy the very simplistic ones written artistically such as this one and the ones in definite patterns. Some become exceedly obscure, I believe, towards the later part of his career.

Adol, I don't think it means anything much. It's all style. Sometimes there is no there there.

Virgil, get out of here! Say what???
I like best your 'SPEGHETTI' post.....now that one really gave me a roar!

[Adolescent09]

[QUOTE=Janine;409936] Some become exceedly obscure, I believe, towards the later part of his career.[QUOTE]

So it seems as if people love E.E. Cummings' obscurity. These two 'necklace'-worded poems sure are obscure! Thanks for replying to my inquiry.. I get the point just a little now..

[Janine]

So it seems as if people love E.E. Cummings' obscurity. These two 'necklace'-worded poems sure are obscure! Thanks for replying to my inquiry.. I get the point just a little now..

Adolescent - that is an interesting way of describing them - 'necklace worded poems'. I don't think all of his poetry is obscure. The two I posted I did not think so obscure or difficult to interpret. Perhaps people do find his more obscure puzzle type/graphic poems intriguing. I do sometimes.

I felt the second poem suggests that now two old men are gone or departed, so it conjures up the idea they were and now are no more - 'mortaliy' - in one word. That poem reminds me of the Simon and Garfunkel song "Old Friends", for some reason.

[barbara0207]

I felt the second poem suggests that now two old men are gone or departed, so it conjures up the idea they were and now are no more - 'mortaliy' - in one word. That poem reminds me of the Simon and Garfunkel song "Old Friends", for some reason.

I think the two men are not dead yet, but may soon be.
When I read the poem I rather visualized two old men sitting on a bench talking about old times ("once upon a ... time"), when they were still young and thought there was a lot of time lying ahead of them. But now they have grown old and there is not much time left for them ("(no more) time"). But these three words also signify that the times they are talking about are no more. They have passed into a different time, that of old age. The two words "no more" sound like a sigh of regret, of longing for the days when they were young. Perhaps there were things they wanted to do but never got to doing.

I think these associations are made possible by the form. If Cummings had written the poem in one or two lines, one would not spend so much time thinking about different connections of words, different sentence structure.

[Janine]

I think the two men are not dead yet, but may soon be.
When I read the poem I rather visualized two old men sitting on a bench talking about old times ("once upon a ... time"), when they were still young and thought there was a lot of time lying ahead of them. But now they have grown old and there is not much time left for them ("(no more) time"). But these three words also signify that the times they are talking about are no more. They have passed into a different time, that of old age. The two words "no more" sound like a sigh of regret, of longing for the days when they were young. Perhaps there were things they wanted to do but never got to doing.

I think these associations are made possible by the form. If Cummings had written the poem in one or two lines, one would not spend so much time thinking about different connections of words, different sentence structure.

Hi barbara, this interpretation is excellent. I really like it. You have expressed it so well. I fully agree with your last line - this explains why Cummings wrote it this way. The different connections or sequences of words is something I too was considering. The poem is not static this way - it is more open to individual and varied interpretation - brilliant!

[quasimodo1]

By: E.E. Cummings

From "If"

If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,
Life would be delight,---
But things couldn’t go right
For such a sad plight
I wouldn’t be I.

If earth was heaven, and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I’d be in suspense
For on such pretense
You wouldn’t be you

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seen fair,-
Yet they’d all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn’t be we.

If



....

[dramasnot6]

I love that one...

[quasimodo1]

I think the two enigmatic poems you posted must be read a certain way, i.e. vertically and then you can form meaningfull words and expressions that were (in my limited view) E.E.Cummings attempt to match the look, timing and brevity of the item he was writing about. Of course it is senseless in normal parlance but he is one to take great liberties with the language. quasimodo1