|
In his exploratory study of modern American poets, economist David Galenson limited his analysis to 11 outstanding innovators who averaged more than three poems per anthology. Of the 11, five were finders and six were seekers. The five conceptual poets range from level-headed Richard Wilbur to suicidal Sylvia Plath and institutionalized Ezra Pound, but they all achieved their greatest successes at a young age. Typical traits of finders that can be found in this group’s reliance on literary traditions, focus on the poet’s interior life, and works based on the poet’s distinctive ideas about what poetry should be like.
e e cummings, 1894- 1962: conceptual and typographical innovator
Eccentric, humorous, lyrical, satirical and rebellious, e e cummings created works – and a name for himself -- that are instantly recognizable because of their untraditional visual patterns, typography and spelling. In the timing of his most successful works and in the focus of the works themselves, he embodied characteristics of conceptual innovators, but with a few experimental characteristics thrown in. As with many conceptual poets, e e cummings concerned himself more with poetic forms than with detailed explorations of subject matter. For example, his poem “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r ” used inventive typography to mimic the motion of a grasshopper. In the words of cummings, the subject of the poem could “rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly/,grasshopper;” Starting early in his career, he stressed the importance of stylistic devices, from broken syntax and unorthodox punctuation to uncapitalized ‘i’ and run-together words. He reveled in those innovations. As he wrote to his father: in “such minutiae as commas and small I’s … my Firstness thrives …”
He would often
|
|
e e cummings,
typographical innovator
This work, written at age 26, is the most frequently anthologized poem by cumming. Its form, especially its untraditional typography, makes the work easy to recognize as a cummings poem. Also typical of cummings is its unusual approach to a traditional poetic subject.
in Just-
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonman whistles
far
and
wee
|
|
|
|
|
toy with a new concept, then move on. Once he briefly tried out the notion of printing lines backwards -- “srewolf gninrub” instead of “burning flowers,” for example. For a while, he made elaborate preparations for poems by drafting long lists of consonants and consonant-vowel combinations, as well as charting the color wheel.
Inspired in artistic traditions like many finders, cummings modeled writings on works of Ezra Pound, John Bunyan, Andrew Marvell, Percy Blythe Shelley and Dante, and cubist painters. Also like most conceptual innovators, he achieved success at a young age. His “All in green went my love riding,” written at age 22, is just two places behind T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock” in a list of most reprinted poems by poets under age 26.
But, unlike most successful conceptual innovators, he did not have one specific breakthrough work. Like many experimental innovators, he continued working for decades in much the same mold – though without the deepening over time that more successful experimental innovators achieve.
- “Cummings himself never developed. His character, his basic tone was formed at a remarkably early age and remained essentially unchanged throughout his life,” said critic Guy Rotella.
- “The fascinating thing about Cummings is that he is always talking about growth, and always remains the same,” said poet and novelist James Dickey. “Cummings is a daringly original poet, with more virility and more sheer, uncompromising talent than any other living American writer. … (but his) books are all exactly alike, and one is faced with evaluating Cummings as a poet, using the current text simply as a hitherto unavailable source of quotations.”
Following the typical pattern of successful experimental innovators’ work, none of his poems appears in the top 20 list of most-anthologized works, but he is No. 6 on a list of poets on the basis of total poems reprinted.
Also, like many seekers, e e cummings maintained his ability to create outstanding works into middle age. His most frequently reprinted poem – “in Just-” – is from age 26, but a poem from age 46 – “anyone lived in a pretty how town” – is in second place.
|
