E.E Cummings

05 December 2005 @ 9:25 p.m.

Ahkam...you have once again charmed me into the enthralling world of poems, and E.E. Cummings...

all ignorance toboggans into know
by Edward Estlin Cummings

all ignorance toboggans into know
and trudges up to ignorance again:
but winter's not forever,even snow
melts;and if spring should spoil the game,what then?

all history's a winter sport or three:
but were it five,i'd still insist that all
history is too small for even me;
for me and you,exceedingly too small.

Swoop(shrill collective myth)into thy grave
merely to toil the scale to shrillerness
per every madge and mabel dick and dave
--tomorrow is our permanent address

and there they'll scarcely find us(if they do,
we'll move away still further:into now

From my inexperienced intepretation (especially poets like Cummings who play on form and language with caps and spaces), it appears that Cummings encourage the carpe diem. Things do not stay forever, enjoy life while you can. He also seems to convey the message that we should not linger in the past (since it already took place) but to look forward to the future.

Whoa..this poem truly widens my perspective on literature. Wait till I complete the ultimate read-a-thon:
1. Emma - Jane Austen
2. Crime and Punishment (author's name too hard to spell..Fydor Dotvesky I think..no offence)
3. Tess of Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
...

These are some interesting info on Cummings:

E. E. Cummings was a combination of an unabashed Romantic in his view of life and an avant-garde modernist seeking to explore unusual means of expression. His poetry developed from boyhood imitations of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to the linguistic surprises he brought to the literary scene in the 1920s. He continued to write sonnets all his life, often traditional in theme--a tribute to love, an address to the moon, the praise of a church, a prayer of thanks for the ability to respond to life--but sometimes he chose "unpoetic" subjects--a nightclub dancer, the gurgle of water going down a sink, brothels and their customers, a denunciation of salesmen, a politician giving a hypocritical patriotic speech, a m�lange of play with advertising slogans.

Complete version available on http://oldpoetry.com/authors/Edward%20Estlin%20Cummings