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Selected Poems
One hundred and fifty-six poems, grouped by theme, are accompanied by drawings, oils, and watercolors by the poet
187 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
E.E. Cummings
330 books3,987 followersEdward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1894. He began writing poems as early as 1904 and studied Latin and Greek at the Cambridge Latin High School.
He received his BA in 1915 and his MA in 1916, both from Harvard University. His studies there introduced him to the poetry of avant-garde writers, such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound.
In 1917, Cummings published an early selection of poems in the anthology Eight Harvard Poets. The same year, Cummings left the United States for France as a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I. Five months after his assignment, however, he and a friend were interned in a prison camp by the French authorities on suspicion of espionage (an experience recounted in his novel, The Enormous Room) for his outspoken anti-war convictions.
After the war, he settled into a life divided between houses in rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village, with frequent visits to Paris. He also traveled throughout Europe, meeting poets and artists, including Pablo Picasso, whose work he particularly admired.
In 1920, The Dial published seven poems by Cummings, including "Buffalo Bill ’s.” Serving as Cummings’ debut to a wider American audience, these “experiments” foreshadowed the synthetic cubist strategy Cummings would explore in the next few years.
In his work, Cummings experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, abandoning traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression. Later in his career, he was often criticized for settling into his signature style and not pressing his work toward further evolution. Nevertheless, he attained great popularity, especially among young readers, for the simplicity of his language, his playful mode and his attention to subjects such as war and sex.
The poet and critic Randall Jarrell once noted that Cummings is “one of the most individual poets who ever lived—and, though it sometimes seems so, it is not just his vices and exaggerations, the defects of his qualities, that make a writer popular. But, primarily, Mr. Cummings’s poems are loved because they are full of sentimentally, of sex, of more or less improper jokes, of elementary lyric insistence.”
During his lifetime, Cummings received a number of honors, including an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1958, and a Ford Foundation grant.
At the time of his death, September 3, 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
source: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/e-...
He received his BA in 1915 and his MA in 1916, both from Harvard University. His studies there introduced him to the poetry of avant-garde writers, such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound.
In 1917, Cummings published an early selection of poems in the anthology Eight Harvard Poets. The same year, Cummings left the United States for France as a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I. Five months after his assignment, however, he and a friend were interned in a prison camp by the French authorities on suspicion of espionage (an experience recounted in his novel, The Enormous Room) for his outspoken anti-war convictions.
After the war, he settled into a life divided between houses in rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village, with frequent visits to Paris. He also traveled throughout Europe, meeting poets and artists, including Pablo Picasso, whose work he particularly admired.
In 1920, The Dial published seven poems by Cummings, including "Buffalo Bill ’s.” Serving as Cummings’ debut to a wider American audience, these “experiments” foreshadowed the synthetic cubist strategy Cummings would explore in the next few years.
In his work, Cummings experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, abandoning traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression. Later in his career, he was often criticized for settling into his signature style and not pressing his work toward further evolution. Nevertheless, he attained great popularity, especially among young readers, for the simplicity of his language, his playful mode and his attention to subjects such as war and sex.
The poet and critic Randall Jarrell once noted that Cummings is “one of the most individual poets who ever lived—and, though it sometimes seems so, it is not just his vices and exaggerations, the defects of his qualities, that make a writer popular. But, primarily, Mr. Cummings’s poems are loved because they are full of sentimentally, of sex, of more or less improper jokes, of elementary lyric insistence.”
During his lifetime, Cummings received a number of honors, including an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1958, and a Ford Foundation grant.
At the time of his death, September 3, 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
source: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/e-...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 459 reviews
May 8, 2012
"since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;"
It's a stroke of luck that this is the first E.E. Cummings book I'd get my hands on, seeing as it contains small introductions by Richard S. Kennedy. Without those introductions I would have been lost.
Honestly.
As much as I have relished and soaked myself in Cummings' poetry, I could as easily have drowned and never been found. I am thankful I didn't.
There are some of his poems I simply don't get, and some it took me very long to decipher. To the untrained eye some of what he writes is absolute gibberish. And some I'm not sure I'll ever train my eye well enough to make sense of, which is why I'm only giving this otherwise amazing book 4 stars. I don't really dig having my poetry-readings resemble a National Treasure movie.
BUT, when I get E.E. Cummings (sometimes more easily than others) I love him, and I think his style and his insights are works of genius. I am particularly in love with how he uses the words themselves and these incredible grammatical distortions as living things - not just tools, to make his stories and sentences come to life. The words - even devoid of meaning - tell a story. Every comma, and parenthesis, tells a story.
It also struck me how his writing reminded me, in places, of my own. Especially when it comes to using parenthesis'. I fucking love a good parenthesis. It is the one grammatical device I am emotionally attached to (it has a very special meaning for me). And the way it is used by Cummings is heavenly.
So I recommend this book. The style is singular and perhaps you won't like it or understand anything at first, but I beg you to keep going - embrace it - keep your head above the water and swim like hell, you will reach land and it will be worth it. He had an extraordinary mind and a way with words I am inadvertently taken with.
Here, have a few examples, and be convinced!:
"pity this busy monster,manunkind,
not"
(manunkind is the most magnificent play on words)
or
"nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands"
a favourite line of mine, I love the idea of the rain having small hands - perhaps then getting soaked is an embrace?
These don't even begin to touch the variety or beauty and wit of the poems in this book - there's a very wide selection, both in themes and in style, so if you feel you want to get to know E.E. Cummings (a pursuit I can only recommend) this is a good place to start.
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;"
It's a stroke of luck that this is the first E.E. Cummings book I'd get my hands on, seeing as it contains small introductions by Richard S. Kennedy. Without those introductions I would have been lost.
Honestly.
As much as I have relished and soaked myself in Cummings' poetry, I could as easily have drowned and never been found. I am thankful I didn't.
There are some of his poems I simply don't get, and some it took me very long to decipher. To the untrained eye some of what he writes is absolute gibberish. And some I'm not sure I'll ever train my eye well enough to make sense of, which is why I'm only giving this otherwise amazing book 4 stars. I don't really dig having my poetry-readings resemble a National Treasure movie.
BUT, when I get E.E. Cummings (sometimes more easily than others) I love him, and I think his style and his insights are works of genius. I am particularly in love with how he uses the words themselves and these incredible grammatical distortions as living things - not just tools, to make his stories and sentences come to life. The words - even devoid of meaning - tell a story. Every comma, and parenthesis, tells a story.
It also struck me how his writing reminded me, in places, of my own. Especially when it comes to using parenthesis'. I fucking love a good parenthesis. It is the one grammatical device I am emotionally attached to (it has a very special meaning for me). And the way it is used by Cummings is heavenly.
So I recommend this book. The style is singular and perhaps you won't like it or understand anything at first, but I beg you to keep going - embrace it - keep your head above the water and swim like hell, you will reach land and it will be worth it. He had an extraordinary mind and a way with words I am inadvertently taken with.
Here, have a few examples, and be convinced!:
"pity this busy monster,manunkind,
not"
(manunkind is the most magnificent play on words)
or
"nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands"
a favourite line of mine, I love the idea of the rain having small hands - perhaps then getting soaked is an embrace?
These don't even begin to touch the variety or beauty and wit of the poems in this book - there's a very wide selection, both in themes and in style, so if you feel you want to get to know E.E. Cummings (a pursuit I can only recommend) this is a good place to start.
January 28, 2013
"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
I have always been a little intimidated by E. E. Cummings' poetry. Just one look at one of his futuristic experiments with syntax and punctuation was more than enough to convince me that he was too difficult for me to read.
But as it turned out it was silly of me to give up on him. I just needed the right guidance to his authorship which this edition happily provided me with. Though I can't claim to understand all of his poems, I have attained a greater and deeper understanding of his writing and themes.
Of course some of the poems can only be defined as cryptic; almost equal to the riddles of the Sphinx, and therefore require a tremendous effort and several careful re-readings. But the thing is, when you finally do understand his use of words, parentheses and fragments, you will be completely overwhelmed by the shining, shimmering and bright magnificence of his writing.
"time is a tree (this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough"
I have been teary-eyed, breathless and left in a deep trance as I read through these pages. I have been frustrated and puzzled, but in the end I mostly felt grateful. Grateful that I made the effort and took the time to let the words speak for themselves. 'Cause they really do have a lot to say.
Cummings had a peculiar way with words and even punctuation. There is not one letter or even a single comma that doesn't have a significant meaning. Even the use of 'i' instead of 'I' holds a great purpose.
And also, I would like to add that E. E. Cummings probably wrote some of the most beautiful love poems of all-time. Soft and delicate with a sincere tone of wholeness. Just read 'somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond" and you'll see. I believe that poem is capable of melting any heart.
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
I have always been a little intimidated by E. E. Cummings' poetry. Just one look at one of his futuristic experiments with syntax and punctuation was more than enough to convince me that he was too difficult for me to read.
But as it turned out it was silly of me to give up on him. I just needed the right guidance to his authorship which this edition happily provided me with. Though I can't claim to understand all of his poems, I have attained a greater and deeper understanding of his writing and themes.
Of course some of the poems can only be defined as cryptic; almost equal to the riddles of the Sphinx, and therefore require a tremendous effort and several careful re-readings. But the thing is, when you finally do understand his use of words, parentheses and fragments, you will be completely overwhelmed by the shining, shimmering and bright magnificence of his writing.
"time is a tree (this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough"
I have been teary-eyed, breathless and left in a deep trance as I read through these pages. I have been frustrated and puzzled, but in the end I mostly felt grateful. Grateful that I made the effort and took the time to let the words speak for themselves. 'Cause they really do have a lot to say.
Cummings had a peculiar way with words and even punctuation. There is not one letter or even a single comma that doesn't have a significant meaning. Even the use of 'i' instead of 'I' holds a great purpose.
And also, I would like to add that E. E. Cummings probably wrote some of the most beautiful love poems of all-time. Soft and delicate with a sincere tone of wholeness. Just read 'somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond" and you'll see. I believe that poem is capable of melting any heart.
April 19, 2013
Another collection I wish I could give 5 stars to. Cummings was truly a wordsmith and I was in awe by several of his beautiful poems. However, at times I felt as though I was reading Finnegan’s Wake; some of the poems were just a bit too crazy and nonsensical.
And as for favourites, here’s mine:
“some ask praise of their fellows
but i being otherwise
made composure curves
and yellows, angles or silences
to a less erring end)
myself is sculptor of
your body’s idiom:
the musician of your wrists;
the poet who is afraid
only to mistranslate
a rhythm in your hair,
(your fingertips
the way you move)”
And as for favourites, here’s mine:
“some ask praise of their fellows
but i being otherwise
made composure curves
and yellows, angles or silences
to a less erring end)
myself is sculptor of
your body’s idiom:
the musician of your wrists;
the poet who is afraid
only to mistranslate
a rhythm in your hair,
(your fingertips
the way you move)”
April 12, 2017
Such a disappointment, since there are moments of poetic brilliance scattered here and there and it is evident he was a brilliant man. If I owned this copy, I'd have highlighted them so that I could share some of those gems. This is the first time I have read a collection of his poems--hitherto I've just read one here or there and usually liked those. True, e e cummings was doing new things with poetry, but I have read better poets, or at least poets I liked better, who were also brilliant. Also, to be honest, some of the sections were things I never like, such as a long section of satirical poetry and a section of erotica. But my chief problem was because in his exploration of new poetry techniques some got overused and often distracted from his point more than helped, even though as someone who spent a great deal of time in poetry for a number of years (way back well before the internet) I could see those points.
I will also admit that when I ordered this book from the library I wrote ee cummings in a brain fart when I wanted to read Ogden Nash--two very different poets. I have never read a collection of Ogden Nash, either, and am not sure how that will go when I someday do that, but hopefully better.
I will also admit that when I ordered this book from the library I wrote ee cummings in a brain fart when I wanted to read Ogden Nash--two very different poets. I have never read a collection of Ogden Nash, either, and am not sure how that will go when I someday do that, but hopefully better.
Read
July 12, 2026Քամինգսի անունը միշտ լսել էի, բայց առիթ չէր եղել ծանոթանալու իր պոեզիային: Հետաքրքիր պոետ էր, իր ժամանակի համար` նաև նորարար: Դեռևս 1900-ականների սկզբներին կիրառել է տեխնիկաներ, որ մեր օրերում պոստմոդեռն կկոչեինք: Ընդհանուր տպավորությունս այն է, որ լեզվի հետ փորձարկում է արել իր բոլոր բանաստեղծություններում: Նաև շատ զավեշտալի էին քաղաքական սատիրաները:
January 2, 2016
The Greatest American Poet of the 20th Century.
That's all.
That's all.
December 29, 2016
Reading this collection was like watching an impressive fireworks show!The greatest moments of excitement did not come instantaneously at the first encounter with the poems –it took me some time to see beautiful images and feel vibrations of meanings penetrating my heart. The brief introductions included at the beginning of each 12 sections and E E Cummings’ sketches are portals towards the labyrinthic universe of each of the poems . So much delight to spend some time inside!
To me, the most beautiful poem from the entire collection is the one for his mother ( from whom he inherited his poetic gift)
"if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have
one. It will not be a pansy heaven nor
a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but
it will be a heaven of blackred roses
my father will be(deep like a rose
tall like a rose)
standing near my
(swaying over her
silent)
with eyes which are really petals and see
nothing with the face of a poet really which
is a flower and not a face with
hands
which whisper
This is my beloved my
(suddenly in sunlight
he will bow,
& the whole garden will bow)
I also liked these ones:
“the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
………………………..
...the Cambridge ladies do not care,above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy”
Now i lay(with everywhere around)
“…………
now i lay me down(in a most steep
more than music)feeling that sunlight is
(life and day are)only loaned:whereas
night is given(night and death and the rain
are given;and given is how beautifully snow)
now i lay me down to dream of(nothing
i or any somebody or you
can begin to begin to imagine)
something which nobody may keep.
now i lay me down to dream of Spring”
since feeling is first
“since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
– the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says
we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis”
i like my body when it is with your
“………
… And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new”
To me, the most beautiful poem from the entire collection is the one for his mother ( from whom he inherited his poetic gift)
"if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have
one. It will not be a pansy heaven nor
a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but
it will be a heaven of blackred roses
my father will be(deep like a rose
tall like a rose)
standing near my
(swaying over her
silent)
with eyes which are really petals and see
nothing with the face of a poet really which
is a flower and not a face with
hands
which whisper
This is my beloved my
(suddenly in sunlight
he will bow,
& the whole garden will bow)
I also liked these ones:
“the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
………………………..
...the Cambridge ladies do not care,above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy”
Now i lay(with everywhere around)
“…………
now i lay me down(in a most steep
more than music)feeling that sunlight is
(life and day are)only loaned:whereas
night is given(night and death and the rain
are given;and given is how beautifully snow)
now i lay me down to dream of(nothing
i or any somebody or you
can begin to begin to imagine)
something which nobody may keep.
now i lay me down to dream of Spring”
since feeling is first
“since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
– the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says
we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis”
i like my body when it is with your
“………
… And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new”
January 15, 2008
I cannot read 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' aloud without crying. I think it's one of the most perfect poems ever written. Everything he wrote in the height of his career in the 30's and 40's is pretty much terrific. It's a shame that he lost it later on and grew cynical and complacent, but I guess he earned it. These are some of my favorite poems to teach, if for nothing other than confounding the students with the diction.
May 11, 2014
Who could resist this? Not me, obviously.
August 23, 2023
jak cummings pisal ‚umysl jest swoim wlasnym pieknym wiezniem’ i ‚malpia czaszke z usmiechem…’ to chyba anielica mu pioro po papierze prowadzila
June 7, 2021
Short but a super interesting collection of poetry.
I've never read Cummings before, and it was certainly interesting. There were time during his more experimental poems that literally had me going:
I couldn't understand it for the life of me. And then there were other times when his writing was beautiful. I just wasn't in the mood for poetry, which resulted in me absentmindedly flipping through this one. I was very bored, unfortunately. But nice writing overall!
I've never read Cummings before, and it was certainly interesting. There were time during his more experimental poems that literally had me going:
I couldn't understand it for the life of me. And then there were other times when his writing was beautiful. I just wasn't in the mood for poetry, which resulted in me absentmindedly flipping through this one. I was very bored, unfortunately. But nice writing overall!
June 18, 2011
Well, he gave us the perfect line: cut, edgy, bold; like a shining diamond. He was more modern than the modern poets today. Yes, that's the truth. And, of course he was wonderful painter, artist. What else do we need? In times when almost everyone wrote like they wrote 200 years ago he showed us that there is another way to put the lines, another way to go at the subject; you can just cut it in half and to hell with it. One of the best avant-gard poets and he was guarding his style with his massive work, you know. So read, you all, Edward Estlin Cummings, just to know that there is still some beauty in the poetry today; that not all of it is academic and dry as bacon. That was all. Until the next book, until the next Word!
May 7, 2014
Some poems did not catch my interest despite their linguistic acrobatics, but for the most part, this was an interesting collection with many memorable poems.
Read
August 9, 2025Been a hot minute since I first read this! It's still a mixture of gorgeousness and tediousness, as I remembered. I'll insert two of my favorite gorgeous bits--
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes.
and also
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other:then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis.
The ghost of Walt Whitman was seriously speaking through him in those last two lines!
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes.
and also
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other:then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis.
The ghost of Walt Whitman was seriously speaking through him in those last two lines!
January 26, 2016
He's so weird. I love him. This is why I read poetry-- I don't feel like I'm supposed to get all of it. I don't want to constantly read things that I think I could have written. Sometimes it's nice, when a writer reaches into your soul and pulls it out on paper, but e.e. cummings shows me a whole new picture, one I have never seen before, and it's muddled and confusing but it fills me with awe. I didn't get a lot of this book. I wasn't meant to. But it stretches and redefines the limits of what poetry is, to me, and the parts I get I carry in my heart (haha! get it!).
a favorite excerpt:
and in a mystery to be,
(when time from time will set us free)
forgetting me,remember me
a favorite excerpt:
and in a mystery to be,
(when time from time will set us free)
forgetting me,remember me
February 26, 2024
avant-garde love and nature poetry my beloveds
favourites:
here’s a little mouse
but if a living dance upon dead minds
you shall above all things be glad and young
when faces called flowers float out of the ground
now all the fingers of this tree (darling)
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
favourites:
here’s a little mouse
but if a living dance upon dead minds
you shall above all things be glad and young
when faces called flowers float out of the ground
now all the fingers of this tree (darling)
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
September 20, 2025
three stars purely because of lack of much enjoyment idk about the literary merit. i did understand a reference to e.e. cummings i saw in an instagram comment last night though so maybe it was all worth it
April 20, 2013
I've loved the poem 'carry your heart' for years and known I love Cummings because of that. I've been on a bit of a poetry binge so decided to get this book and see if I liked more of his work.
I really do enjoy it.
The way he used language and syntax, shaping it to his own meaning and expression is beautiful.
But it's not easy. There are little intros to the sections which help explain a lot about some of the poems thank god. I like to understand. To work out the layers and meanings and these really helped. I think you could spend hours on these and find more and more, which I haven't.. yet. Hopefully I will appreciate the poems even further then.
So many little lines, turns of phrase or just words leap out at you and grab on. I find I don't always fully grasp the whole poem but there are some lines that I keep going back to.
Things like:
the power of your intense fragility
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
reaped their sowing and went their came, sun moon stars rain
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
Now I'm writing this I want to go read it again. It it more confusing than not, but when you work it out the reward is wonderous. You feel like you deserve to understand the beauty and the humour he's portraying after suffering over a passage or a turn of phrase for a while.
It's beautiful and this copy is a lovely selection
I really do enjoy it.
The way he used language and syntax, shaping it to his own meaning and expression is beautiful.
But it's not easy. There are little intros to the sections which help explain a lot about some of the poems thank god. I like to understand. To work out the layers and meanings and these really helped. I think you could spend hours on these and find more and more, which I haven't.. yet. Hopefully I will appreciate the poems even further then.
So many little lines, turns of phrase or just words leap out at you and grab on. I find I don't always fully grasp the whole poem but there are some lines that I keep going back to.
Things like:
the power of your intense fragility
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
reaped their sowing and went their came, sun moon stars rain
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
Now I'm writing this I want to go read it again. It it more confusing than not, but when you work it out the reward is wonderous. You feel like you deserve to understand the beauty and the humour he's portraying after suffering over a passage or a turn of phrase for a while.
It's beautiful and this copy is a lovely selection
August 18, 2014
I got to know E.E. Cummings through Youtube, YES, he was among certain poets Tom Hiddleston read for. He read May I Feel Said He; a really dirty poem. So yep, I got my hands on Cummings as soon as I could, and I was happy that his other poems were as dirty and erotic as my first impression of him.
E.E Cummings is hard to resist, and this collection gives a great insight into his unique poetry as he doesn't follow any traditional rule or pattern, he makes his own words and rules. Thematically speaking, Cummings focuses on love, mostly and life and he's good at both. Although, sometimes the poems are hard to interpret and you can get lost trying to follow his thoughts, but he manages to get you back to track after a hell of a ride.
"So far as I am concerned," Cummings once declared, "poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality….Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else."
The rebellious and distinct sounds of E.E Cummings are a great reminder of how important individuality is, he is able to send tremendous feelings in such brief words. He is always mentioned in films -Hanna and Her Sisters- and he has made an influence in poetry. Read him.
E.E Cummings is hard to resist, and this collection gives a great insight into his unique poetry as he doesn't follow any traditional rule or pattern, he makes his own words and rules. Thematically speaking, Cummings focuses on love, mostly and life and he's good at both. Although, sometimes the poems are hard to interpret and you can get lost trying to follow his thoughts, but he manages to get you back to track after a hell of a ride.
"So far as I am concerned," Cummings once declared, "poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality….Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else."
The rebellious and distinct sounds of E.E Cummings are a great reminder of how important individuality is, he is able to send tremendous feelings in such brief words. He is always mentioned in films -Hanna and Her Sisters- and he has made an influence in poetry. Read him.
July 14, 2017
OK, I know it's kind of cheating when I put a poetry collection on my shelf, thereby adding it to my reading challenge, but on a normal basis I would read poetry books by flipping randomly to a page, read one or two poems, and then set it back down, perhaps picking it back up weeks later. That's why I never add poetry to my GR shelf. But E.E. Cummings' collection is the only poetry book I've actually read cover to cover, marking each poem that resonated deeply within me (the Contents page is now near full with highlights).
I read them all within a single day, and then spent the next few days rereading them and falling more deeply in love. His poems aren't all easily accessible nor simple; a lot of them require further squinting and that pen-in-between-your-teeth struggle when interpreting them, but I found that not so much frustrating as greatly engaging. The amount of attention and detail in his craft is amazing. I'm not quite sure how to describe his avant-garde style, but it is so unique and uncopiable and just very Cummings, and it manages to evoke so much in so little.
If I had to choose a favourite poetry book to carry with me to my grave, it would be this one; I'm sorry Glück, Neruda, Sexton, Eliot… E.E. Cummings just gets me like no one else does.
I read them all within a single day, and then spent the next few days rereading them and falling more deeply in love. His poems aren't all easily accessible nor simple; a lot of them require further squinting and that pen-in-between-your-teeth struggle when interpreting them, but I found that not so much frustrating as greatly engaging. The amount of attention and detail in his craft is amazing. I'm not quite sure how to describe his avant-garde style, but it is so unique and uncopiable and just very Cummings, and it manages to evoke so much in so little.
If I had to choose a favourite poetry book to carry with me to my grave, it would be this one; I'm sorry Glück, Neruda, Sexton, Eliot… E.E. Cummings just gets me like no one else does.
March 13, 2008
Part of a 2020 Pandemic Project: using poets' repetitions to make something i'm now calling repoesy.
(now)
up attractive. Feet begin
As if (yours) bells (mine) wind
Clover bells (up) riding
(Bells) riding mountain utters
Dreams (so that) as simple (Boom
Down) begin (to fathers)
Are dancing (down) again and
You (look) (said) (kiss has been) (found)
Holy alone. The trees stand
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
if you want to make your own...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
again and| {or |and again| }
are dancing|
as if|
as simple|
attractive|
begin to|
begin|
bells|
bells|
bells|
boom|
clover|
down|
down|
dreams|
fathers|
feet|
has been found|
holy alone|
kiss|
look|
mine|
mountain|
now|
riding|
riding|
said|
so|
that|
the trees stand|
up|
up|
utters|
wind|
you|
yours|
March 11, 2016
This was not my cup of tea. I don't love poetry generally and I found most of this to be nonsensical. If you're the type of person who enjoys sitting and reading poems, spending time interpreting them and appreciating variances in form and verse etc., you might enjoy this. For me, it was more of a headache than anything else. Some verses and poems were entertaining, and I can see that E.E. Cummings was thought-provoking, experimental, and thoughtful, but it's just not for me.
October 2, 2026
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
We were actually meant to read 100 Selected Poems for book club, but I picked up this edition instead—admittedly, purely because I preferred this cover. But what a lucky choice it was, because if it hadn’t been for the introduction and commentary by Cummings’ biographer Richard S. Kennedy included here, I fear that his poetry would’ve gone almost entirely over my head.
This slim volume includes 156 poems selected, ordered, and categorized by Kennedy, spanning Cummings’ entire career, from his earliest work to his late sonnets, arranged in twelve thematic but also roughly chronological sections. The way Kennedy grouped them didn’t only make the collection feel more cohesive, it also made it a lot more accessible thanks to the context he provided, and it helped deepen my understanding, and mitigate some of the poems’ obscurity. Truthfully, without the introductions or even chapter headings, there were some poems that are so cryptic, I could not have told you what they are about even in the broadest of strokes, so I really appreciated it (leaving aside some unintentionally hilarious/mortifying commentary such as Cummings having had his ”first complete sexual experience with a waitress in a couscous restaurant”).
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
From spring to winter, joy to lament, youth to old age, this collection is a journey that demonstrates how Cummings’ voice evolved, and how diverse his output was, from poems that recall nursery-rhymes, to the loveliest nature poems (my favorites), graphic erotic poems, and political satires; it’s a great primer to tackle what seemed to me a truly intimidating body of work.
With that said, a lot of Cummings’ work is still beyond me, and this was a challenging read. I often didn’t know what was going on in a poem—sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t. I don’t read much poetry, but when I do, I do so for the beauty of the language, the flow of words, the turns of phrase—even when a poem puzzled as a whole, I usually could find a line or two that dazzled. Words that are birdsong, a sunset, a summer breeze.
in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems
Cummings’ poems are hard for me because they are so experimental, so avant-garde, they don’t lend themselves to be read aloud: They push the boundaries of language and grammar in such a way that they are elusive riddles on a page, pieces of a puzzle for the eye and mind to assemble—they must be seen. Perhaps, more than a poet, he ought to be called a letter-artist. I didn’t know that he was an artist before reading this (the collection includes some of his drawings and paintings), and knowing that now, his playful, cubist approach to language makes more sense. Fragmented words scattered across a page with syntax so unconventional you may feel like these language gymnastics are nothing but a nonsensical word salad typed by someone who was suffering a stroke—but somehow that’s the charm of it? My enjoyment grew as my comfort with his voice and style did, but even still, a lot of the time they leaned too abstract for my taste; experimentation that veered into eccentric, pretentious territory. A lot of these poems didn’t speak to me, but whenever a line resonated... it spoke loudly.
(existing’s tricky:but to live’s a gift)
—————
Part of the September 2026 selection for ...Like a Good Book Club
September 13, 2022
Amazing collection of poetry, one of my favorites that I’ve come across. Some great word tricks, unique uses of space on the page and how words/punctuation look, and just amazing meditations on various topics ranging from making fun of writers to the fear of death/aging. All of his eccentricities make for one of the most fun and moving poets I’ve found. (His odd hatred for socialism was off-putting, but I’ll let that slide I guess).
June 1, 2021
I loved this collection! Some of the poems were just too insane to even try to comprehend without looking up outside sources, but I did appreciate the beginnings of the chapters having a short description of what was to come. 3.5!
January 27, 2019
Extraordinary. I never thought I’d like this sort of free form poetry but it is quite something to experience this collection of E E Cumming’s work! Especially the short introductions at the start of each chapter were helpful to better understand exactly what he was expressing.
February 15, 2024
Do you believe in always, the wind said to the rain
I am too busy with
my flowers to believe, the rain answered
I am too busy with
my flowers to believe, the rain answered
May 15, 2020
good stuff, even when i feel like i’ve lost my grasp of the english language. in terms of compilation, well-organized, and let me tell you, he’s got some DEVASTATING satire
January 6, 2026
yeah no one knows what you said
January 10, 2018
your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
Hays. Nakakakilig.
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
Hays. Nakakakilig.
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