for,
my sister
isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that
i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my
self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et
cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
~ e.e. cummings
The poems of E.E. Cummings are instantly recognizable for their unorthodox arrangement on the page. Though his phrasing may seem curious, with words scattered across the page, unconventional word pairings, and lack (or addition) of punctuation, it is said that his poems make better sense when read aloud. Their full emotion and meaning then become clear. Cummings was also a painter and he believed in the importance of the presentation of his words, hence his unique taste in typography. His self-portrait is pictured above.
Cummings’ views on war were very much formed by the time he spent as an ambulance driver in France during World War I. He and a friend openly expressed anti-war views in the letters they wrote home to the United States and this caught the attention of censors.
Eventually, they were both apprehended by the French military on unjust suspicions of espionage and Cummings spent 3 and a half months in a concentration camp in Normandy. His experience there, where he was held with other detainees in a large room, was the basis for his book “The Enormous Room”. It wasn’t until his father wrote a letter to President Woodrow Wilson that Cummings was finally released.
Of “The Enormous Room” famous writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Of all the work by young men who have sprung up since 1920 one book survives—The Enormous Room by e e cummings....Those few who cause books to live have not been able to endure the thought of its mortality.”
Throughout his lifetime, Cummings wrote nearly 3,000 poems, four plays, numerous essays and two autobiographies.
Photo: E.E. Cummings' self-portrait.
