E E Cummings Early Life Born in 1894
E. E. Cummings
Early Life ● ● Born in 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts Full name is Edward Estlin Cummings Father was a professor at Harvard University Began writing poetry when he was 10 years old; his mother encouraged him to write ● Received his BA in English and Greek from Harvard in 1914, and his MA in 1915 ● While at Harvard he became interested in Modern and Avant-Garde poetry, particularly imagism
WWI ● Like many writers of his generation, he was shaped by his experience of WWI ● In 1917, Cummings volunteered to serve in an ambulance group in France ● He and a friend were interned in a prison camp by the French authorities on suspicion of espionage for his outspoken anti-war convictions ● His only novel, The Enormous Room (1922), is based on his experience in the camp
New York and Paris ● In the 1920 s, Cummings frequently travelled between his home in New York and Paris ● In Paris he met many famous artists and authors, including Pablo Picasso ● Cummings himself was a painter who belonged to the Cubist movement like Picasso ● He published three major works of poetry in the 1920 s that exhibited his distinct style: Tulips and Chimneys (1923), XLI Poems (1925) and & (1925)
Style ● Began by following Pound’s Imagist principles, but soon developed his own unique style ● “An unabashed Romantic in his view of life and an avant-garde modernist seeking to explore unusual means of expression” ● Experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, abandoning traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression ● Yet frequently explored very traditional themes such as love and nature
Political/Philosophical Views ● Valued whatever is instinctively human and promoted feeling and imagination, especially romantic and sexual love ● Rejected social forces that hinder the expression of individualism, especially whatever encourages group behavior, conformity, imitation, or artificiality ● Emphasized feeling and emotion rather than thought or analysis ● Regarded technology and the complexities of civilization as dehumanizing
To review. . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. When and how was Cummings first exposed to modernist poetry? Why was he placed in a French prison camp during World War I? How did Cummings’ work as a painter influence his poetry? How could you describe the form and content of Cumming’s poetry? What were Cummings’ philosophical views?
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