Contemporary Literature

Ever since I can remember I've written; & painted or made drawings.

- e.e. cummings

On October 14, 1894, Edward and Rebecca Cummings awaited the birth of a baby boy whose innovative mind would change and influence the way poetry was and still is written throughout the world. Although they had no idea of the success that he would come to, their supportive nature would help Edward Estlin Cummings to explore his very creative and artistic uniqueness. Cummings entered Harvard College and contributed poems to Harvard periodicals. He was exposed to the work of Ezra Pound and many other modern writers and artists who allow for the broadening of cummings' already expanding mind (www.americanpoems.com).

In 1917 cummings was sent to a French detention camp when the person he lived with rose French suspicion with his letters home. His father's continuous efforts made it possible for his release and his first book was an account of his experience and it openly attacks authoritarianism and war. In 1920 he moved to New York where he started to concentrate more on his painting, which he very much delighted in (www.poets.org ).

e.e. cummings' poetry is very famous for its sporadic punctuation, odd spelling, and mind-bending syntax. His mysterious techniques have always puzzled readers; and his favorite topics, war and sex, draw people of all ages to his writing.

Many of cummings' poems reflect on the simplicity of nature and the intensity of love. In the poems "i love you much(most beautiful darling)," and "somewhere i have never traveled," he uses personification and imagery to exemplify the great power that love has.

In the poem, "i love you much(most beautiful darling)" the speaker describes his immense love for a woman. He truly paints us a picture of the great power of love. For instance: "although winter may be everywhere/with such a silence and such a darkness/noone can quite begin to guess/(except my life)the true time of year,"(cummings 45). The speaker shows us through imagery the sadness and gloominess of winter. He goes onto explain how the warmth of the great love that he has in his heart makes him completely oblivious to his surroundings. Cummings has shown us through these lines that love has the power to overcome circumstances and make all seem well. In the third line of the poem the sun is personified. "-sunlight and singing welcome