Selected Poems

Everyone should read ee cummings, even non-poetry lovers will love cummings whimsy and clever wordplay. He has also written the most beautiful, most romantic poetry of anyone in the English language.

This review is from a strictly prose guy, as poetry usually goes right over my head. In my efforts to understand poetry, I have discovered that the work of e.e. cummings breaks through the stylistic barriers that make many people shy away from poetry altogether. cummings' use of bizarre spacing, punctuation, and phrasings keeps the reader away from the "sing-song" routine that tends to damage the credibility of many a poem, and cummings uses the art of style to say many things and make many points in just a few words. The most fascinating aspect of cummings' work is letting the small number of words in a poem really sink in until you gain many insights. This book usefully arranges cummings' most noteworthy poems into categories so you can more easily dwell on his major areas of subject matter. cummings did not live the hard life of many noteworthy poets, so a good number of his poems are musings on abstract concepts like life, love, mythology, and mortality. However, his much sharper observations on war, prostitution, politics, and the dark side of urban life can be truly shocking once you delve into their deeper meanings. Contemplating the title of this review, which is also the first line of the poem on page 181 of this book, will help any poetry-fearing reader to dive into cummings' world.

About this selection: yes! We find much to praise in it. But we also complain of omissions. Where is the splendid ballad "darling! because my blood can sing" with its refrain "but if a look should april me"? Where is the exquisite poem "except in your/honour", written in 6-line stanzas of alternating four- and two-syllabics? Where is "my love/ thy hair is one kingdom," a splendour modelled on the Song of Songs? Where is the sonnet beginning "when the proficient poison of sure sleep/ bereaves us of our slow tranquillities"? And why did the editor include the "Ballad of an Intellectual," a sour jingle about sour communards?We praise this selection for its topical arrangements, for the artwork by Cummings (especially the sketch based on a Daumier painting, and the cover illustration "Street Canyon"); we praise the editor for his apt, brief, informative introductions to each section; we praise the editor, especially, for his invaluable biography of Cummings entitled! DREAMS IN THE MIRROR, a book without which any reader's understanding of Estlin Cummings and his poetry, is bound to be imperfect and deficient.We notice that 47 of the 156 poems in this admirable selection are sonnets. Have other reviewers noticed? We notice, further, that at least fifty more poems are written in a formal mode, enlivened by EEC's delicate flair with antithesis. Cummings is not an aleatoric writer; his apparent anarchy is skillfully calculated, and precious little is left to chance. Some of Estlin Cummings' experiments have allowed readers to forget that he was a poet of sophistication, of skill, of learning and (yes) of ineluctably exquisite beauty.

After being introduced slightly to e. e. cummings in High School, I was intrigued by his experimental and original style. I bought this book soon after. With a wonderful selection of his amazing poetry, small biographies, and a few of his paintings and drawings, one can tap into the genius that is e. e. cummings. This is the perfect beginners' book to the wonderous world of e. e. cummings.

I've always liked cumming's poetry, so perhaps I'm more than a little biased, but this is a particularly lovely collection. The illustrations by the poet add a new dimension to the already luminous poetry, and the commentary gives one something of an impression of cummings' state of being at the time of the poem's conception. I'd have to reccomend this to anyone who liked even one of cummings' poems.