E.E. Cummings

E.E. Cummings

About E.E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962) was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cummings' parents were very open-minded in raising their son and encouraged him from an early age to write poetry and keep a journal. He attended Harvard University, from which he received both a bachelor's degree in 1915 and a master's degree in 1916. At Harvard, Cummings was introduced to many forward-thinking poets who greatly influenced his writing. His poems were first published in Eight Harvard Poets, an anthology, in 1917.

That same year, Cummings and a friend volunteered for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in France during World War I. After only a few months of service, the two were taken prisoner for suspected spying and kept in an internment camp for four months. Cummings studied art in Paris after the war and returned to the States in 1924 and by that time, his literary reputation preceded him. Cummings' first publication, a novel titled The Enormous Room (1922), recounted his experiences during the war. Critics welcomed the book with generally favorable reviews, as well as his first collections of poetry, Tulips and Chimneys (1923), XLI Poems (1925), and & (1925). Cummings' poetry challenged and experimented with all conventions of traditional language. At times he did not use punctuation or complete words and often abandoned the use of capital letters. He inventively adjusted standard syntax within his writing, with adjectives, for example, functioning as nouns.

Cummings traveled through Europe and was introduced to several creative movements, including Dada and Surrealist societies and Pablo Picasso's work, all of which influenced his later poetry. Two failed marriages brought a more mocking and critical tone to Cummings' poetry and art during the late twenties and early thirties, but soon after he married Marion Morehouse in 1934, his writing and painting returned to a more exultant milieu, embracing individualism, creativity, and nature. During the 1950's, Cummings began touring colleges and universities to read his poetry and lecture; his addresses at Harvard University evolved into an autobiographical book titled i: six nonlectures (1953).

In Cummings' later years, he was generously awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and the Bolligen Prize in Poetry. A complete collection of his poetry, Poems, 1923-1954, was published in 1954, and his last volume of poetry, titled 95 Poems, appeared in 1959. Cummings died on September 3, 1962 in New Hampshire after suffering a stroke.

    Poems by E.E. Cummings

  • May I Feel Said He

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Funny Poems

    may i feel said he
    (i'll squeal said she
    just once said he)
    it's fun said she

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 71
    • Favorited 0
    • Votes 18
    • Rating 3.78
  • Maggie And Milly And Molly And May

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Children Poems

    maggie and milly and molly and may
    went down to the beach(to play one day)

    and maggie discovered a shell that sang

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 1522
    • Favorited 0
    • Votes 141
    • Rating 4.04
  • [i Carry Your Heart With Me(i Carry It In]

    Famous Poem


    in Famous Love Poems

    i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
    my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
    i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
    by only me is your doing,my darling)

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    • Stories 15
    • Shares 47274
    • Favorited 143
    • Votes 3793
    • Rating 4.45
    • Poem of the Week
    • Poem of the Day
    Featured Shared Story

    I just heard this today and love, love, love this poem. I am not really a reader, especially poetry, though I do enjoy both and lived through that lens growing up. But I wouldn't generally be...

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  • Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Love Poems

    somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
    any experience,your eyes have their silence:
    in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
    or which i cannot touch because they are too near

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    • Stories 1
    • Shares 3421
    • Favorited 33
    • Votes 863
    • Rating 4.29
    • Poem of the Day
    Featured Shared Story

    This poem is the one that did it! I read this along with my class, in seventh grade, and was forever inspired by the way Cummings uses words to create this picture of love and roses. He uses...

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