Edward Cummings example essay topic

E.E. Cummings E.E. Cummings is a phenomenon in literature of the twentieth century. Any serious literary criticism would not deny it. The poet altered grammar and verse-writing rules for the sake of artistic expression. His second nature of a painter has urged him to experiment punctuation, typography and capitalization, just to name a few tools he employed to convey his expression.

His poetry form is strikingly bold and sometimes puzzling and though his style is difficult to classify, it has definite characteristics that can be analyzed. Cummings works reflect his experience and worldview, his background, especially childhood and adolescence years, should provide help to understand him better; and his link to nature is indispensable to his writing. Edwards upbringing did not hinder his individuality, he was lucky to have caring, supportive and intelligent parents. Edward was born on 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father, Edward Cummings, was an educated man, holding a degree in philosophy, he continued his study in Oxford and later returned to Harvard to teach teach political economy and sociology. He was known as humane, inspiring professor (Norman, p. 17).

At home, Edward Cummings was a tolerant accepting parent, this is father illustrated by the recollections of his daughter, "Sage people worried about children spoiling their lawns. My father liked to have us play in our yard, and used to say he was raising children and not grass. We could call and shout, but we were forbidden to scream unless we were hurt. My father did a lot of his work at home in his study. He said that happy noises, even loud ones, never disturbed him" (Norman, p. 20). Evidently Edward Cummings had progressive views, and his son was sent to public school where principal was an Afro-American.

It hints on the environment inside the family, the E.E. Cummings was not feed stereotyped views at early age, which so hard to shake off once a person becomes an adult. Upon entering Harvard, class of 15, the future poet was speared from the peer pressure, which required some degree of conformity with the club system and its societies. This fact could only play a positive part in forming the self-determining and unique position that very much inseparable from E.E. Cummings and his work. The spare time that otherwise would be probably spent on socializing on the campus, had the young man been studying far from home, was channeled towards his literary interests; apart from musical activities Cumming was joined only a literary magazine, The Monthly, from all the clubs and societies at Harvard. It is interesting to note that during his final year he took a room on campus and became a mysterious figure in the group around The Monthly. During his college years the poet gave impression of quiet and private person, but it did not prevent him from establishing warm relationship with many bright people of the time, including Robert Hillier, J.R. Dos Passes, and R.S. Mitchell, these young and talented people shared ideas and passions inspiring personal grow of each other, but Cummings, however, seemed to draw his strength from an inner source and was not easily influenced by others.

During his final year at Harvard, he was mesmerized by avant-garde art, modernism, and cubism, he showed his admiration in graduation dissertation, "The New Art". His classmates and all those who listen him speak on the topic were impressed by his passion. Cummings was inspired by works of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and Pablo Picasso. Strongly impressed by the new directions in art, Cummings not only immersed himself in drawing discovering his unique version of avant-garde, but he began experimenting with words. Thus Cummings commenced forging his strikingly unique poetic style..