What do you think?
Rate this book
Tulips & Chimneys
Fresh and candid, by turns earthy, tender, defiant, and romantic, Cummings's poems celebrate the uniqueness of each individual, the need to protest the dehumanizing force of organizations, and the exuberant power of love.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
97 people are currently reading
2135 people want to read
About the author
E.E. Cummings
369 books3,948 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-...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
March 12, 2023
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and taste and smell
and hearing and sight keep hitting and chipping with sharp fatal
tools
in an agony of senual chisels i perform squirms of chrome and ex-
ecute strides of cobalt
nevertheless i
feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming
something a little different, in fact
myself
Hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks of scarlet bellowings.
March 13, 2012
I've had this for ten years and this is the first time I've read it. If only I read this earlier in life . . . The first twenty pages or so are gorgeous, but spent too much time in my head and didn't make it into my guts, while the end, the sonnets, especially those last few, are breathtaking. Literally, I couldn't breathe. Whenever I think I'm pushing the boundaries of the way I use language, I need only to flip open this book for a wallop in the jaws, that says, "nice try, back to the drawing board."
August 24, 2021
be with me in the sacred witchery
of almostness which May makes follow soon
on the sweet heels of passed afterday,
clothe thy soul’s coming merely
Ultimately I failed to connect with such careening verse. I do like these pocket editions of Cummings, this one simply didn't click but would likely be worth a return.
of almostness which May makes follow soon
on the sweet heels of passed afterday,
clothe thy soul’s coming merely
Ultimately I failed to connect with such careening verse. I do like these pocket editions of Cummings, this one simply didn't click but would likely be worth a return.
May 9, 2022
ok……. king of being horny!
July 19, 2007
It's like gorging on bright blue pastels, and then gargling vanilla vodka and Pop Rocks, while listening to rhythms of an unintelligible reading of the Iliad. Oh, and he likes to objectify women :(
May 21, 2012
your little voice
Over the wires came leaping
and i felt suddenly
dizzy
With the jostling and shouting of merry flowers
wee skipping high-heeled flames
courtesied before my eyes
or twinkling over to my side
Looked up
with impertinently exquisite faces
floating hands were laid upon me
I was whirled and tossed into delicious dancing
up
Up
with the pale important
stars and the Humorous
moon
dear girl
How i was crazy how i cried when i heard
over time
and tide and death
leaping
Sweetly
your voice
Over the wires came leaping
and i felt suddenly
dizzy
With the jostling and shouting of merry flowers
wee skipping high-heeled flames
courtesied before my eyes
or twinkling over to my side
Looked up
with impertinently exquisite faces
floating hands were laid upon me
I was whirled and tossed into delicious dancing
up
Up
with the pale important
stars and the Humorous
moon
dear girl
How i was crazy how i cried when i heard
over time
and tide and death
leaping
Sweetly
your voice
February 15, 2016
in the rain-
darkness, the sunset
being sheathed i sit and
think of you
*
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing
*
a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think i too have known
autumn too long
(and what have you to say,
wind wind wind—did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
*
the mind is its own beautiful prisoner.
darkness, the sunset
being sheathed i sit and
think of you
*
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing
*
a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think i too have known
autumn too long
(and what have you to say,
wind wind wind—did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
*
the mind is its own beautiful prisoner.
January 14, 2010
I loved this! Cummings has a great sense of ironic humor and a mastery of cadence. Here's my favorite stanza:
Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down
on it
Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down
on it
September 2, 2019
Experimental syntax. Anything else? Tulips is fairly romantic in its view of nature and love. Chimneys is more modern in its view of the city and sex.
January 26, 2020
His Realities, Unrealities and Actualities sonnets are the most beautiful in this collection. They will be poems I cherish dearly. Such beautiful work.
This is also my first exposure to Cummings' work and those sonnets went straight up with my favourite poems.
The sonnets are so intimate and for some corny reason I thought that one day I'd really like to read them aloud to a lover.
I wish I could quote them all here.
This is also my first exposure to Cummings' work and those sonnets went straight up with my favourite poems.
The sonnets are so intimate and for some corny reason I thought that one day I'd really like to read them aloud to a lover.
I wish I could quote them all here.
April 28, 2016
A quick ode to E.E. with ampersands & all( built on the sturdy body of his poem*XV):
come poetry to my crumbling soul
which with nonfiction has conversed in vain,
O noiselessly take thy rhythmic toll,
for iambic feet this frantic heart is fain;
try me with thy accents which have seduced
the acoustic meatus of the deaf & dead,
feed gentility me earwormperused
by whom the quickening tug of time is fed:
& if i like not what thou singest me
to him let me complain, whose page is set
evolving poetgods struggle to be free
with the astounding everlasting bet —
but if i like, i'll post in goodreaders hands
what no man feels, no woman understands.
I loved E.E. Cummings since my youth. He was a model for seduction, for using poems to stir young girls to action (Cummings poems + Ed Weston peppers + Cherry Slurpee + Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was the aphrodisiakon potion recipe of my youth). He framed for me the ability to bend words, grammar, and meter to one's own function. He inspired sonnets, songs, solicitations. I recently read his novel The Enormous Room and since it IS national poetry month and it seems a dense number of poems from E.E. Cummings's T&C deal with spring and April, this gave me an excuse to go back to his Firmage-edited Complete Poems, 1904-1962 (which before I've used to find favorites, but never read cover to cover).
So, at the notquitebeginning of April, I decided to read E.E. Cummings from beginning to end. Every book (well perhaps not every every), every poem. 'Tulips & Chimneys' (published originally as 'Tulips and Chimneys'). Cummings's original title was ignored by the publisher, who changed the ampersand to the word "and". Bastard. That is what happens when you are young, and your sway is thin. So, my next piece of Cummings will be '& [And]' which collected other of his poems that weren't originally included in Tulips and Chimneys, but later added to Tulips & Chimneys. If that is a bit confusing, that is ok. It is the words that matter and the meter (and I guess too the ampersand). The meaning will make itself clear soon & enough.
All in all, I like this first collection. It showed Cummings blossoming as an artist and poet. It shows his experimental approach, influenced by other modern artists such as Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Stravinsky, and Ezra Pound. It is fun reading his early stuff in sequence, as sequences go, because the readeryou starts to see this thing called E.E. Cummings become hetoHE. His first pieces seem a bit dilettante and thesaurus-heavy, but by the end, youreader see the boybecome the manIS. The artist has bloomed. There is confidence and a voice. It reminded me, in a narrow way, of reading Dickens' The Pickwick Papers: a first pieceglimpse that shows all the evidence of greatness but with the pregnant and heavy stretch marks of growth.
December 9, 2012
Let’s Tear It Down!
Deconstruction is easy. Whenever someone takes a stand, a myriad of critics file out of the woodwork like termites scoping a new meal. Whether it is art, philosophy, theology, political theory, or a position on parenting, the easiest response is a critique—objections to an argument’s premises in order to render the entire idea void.
And Put It Back Together
While I appreciate critical thinking and its ability to sharpen thought, I am inspired by the people who put a stake in the ground and provide concrete definition for a way of life.
The Aims of Poetry
As I have ventured into some poetry recently, I’ve become interested in the ways deconstruction relates to poetry. Classically, poetry involves two major aspects: 1. Rhythm—the number of syllables included on each line and 2. Rhyme—the ways in which words relate to each other.
Classic poetry, therefore, feels incredibly formal and expected, no matter the quality of the content.
Deconstructing Poetry
But does poetry need this structure? To find an answer to that question, I read Tulips & Chimneys by the father of post-modern poetry, E. E. Cummings.
Simply put, Cummings defenestrates every principle of classic poetic form. Consider this example:
With odd spacing, unconventional line breaks, a refusal to capitalize correctly, and irregular punctuation, Cummings cares little for rules. In fact, the lack of structure creates difficulty when reading, almost as if Cummings challenges the reader to understand the visual component of the text as a contributor to the art form of poetry.
A Salty Dog
Thematically, Cummings confirms his adoration of the feminine form and his salty nature. In a more conventional passage, he ponders:
This passage is but an example of Cummings’ tendency to lyrically ponder the beauty of the feminine and the virtues of sexuality.
Additionally, consider this passage:
Once again, Cummings readily admits to his licentious lifestyle. His poetry, to a certain extent, flows from a blunt and honest place. It’s pretty clear he is no choir boy.
How Can We Replace What We Tore Down?
Despite these themes, the importance of Tulips & Chimneys lies in its formatting. Cummings deconstructs poetry in this work. He forces the reader to question the definition of poetry and the way he or she ought to interact with the words on the page. Cummings’ content holds meaning and, therefore, Tulips & Chimneys is not a futile exercise. But the book feels firmly encamped on the side of criticism. No matter the importance of deconstruction in any aspect of life, I always pine for a reconstruction. What can we put in place of what we tore down? Tulips & Chimneys offers no answer on that note.
Originally published at http://www.wherepenmeetspaper.com
Deconstruction is easy. Whenever someone takes a stand, a myriad of critics file out of the woodwork like termites scoping a new meal. Whether it is art, philosophy, theology, political theory, or a position on parenting, the easiest response is a critique—objections to an argument’s premises in order to render the entire idea void.
And Put It Back Together
While I appreciate critical thinking and its ability to sharpen thought, I am inspired by the people who put a stake in the ground and provide concrete definition for a way of life.
The Aims of Poetry
As I have ventured into some poetry recently, I’ve become interested in the ways deconstruction relates to poetry. Classically, poetry involves two major aspects: 1. Rhythm—the number of syllables included on each line and 2. Rhyme—the ways in which words relate to each other.
Classic poetry, therefore, feels incredibly formal and expected, no matter the quality of the content.
Deconstructing Poetry
But does poetry need this structure? To find an answer to that question, I read Tulips & Chimneys by the father of post-modern poetry, E. E. Cummings.
Simply put, Cummings defenestrates every principle of classic poetic form. Consider this example:
“the
sky
was
can dy lu
minous
edible
spry
pinks shy
lemons
greens coo l choc
olate
s” (60).
With odd spacing, unconventional line breaks, a refusal to capitalize correctly, and irregular punctuation, Cummings cares little for rules. In fact, the lack of structure creates difficulty when reading, almost as if Cummings challenges the reader to understand the visual component of the text as a contributor to the art form of poetry.
A Salty Dog
Thematically, Cummings confirms his adoration of the feminine form and his salty nature. In a more conventional passage, he ponders:
“If to me there shall appear
than a rose more sweetly known,
more silently than a flower,
my lady naked in her hair—
i for those ladies nothing care
nor any lady dead and gone” (23).
This passage is but an example of Cummings’ tendency to lyrically ponder the beauty of the feminine and the virtues of sexuality.
Additionally, consider this passage:
“eyes to noone in particular she
gasped almost
loudly
i’m
So
drunG
K,dear” (71).
Once again, Cummings readily admits to his licentious lifestyle. His poetry, to a certain extent, flows from a blunt and honest place. It’s pretty clear he is no choir boy.
How Can We Replace What We Tore Down?
Despite these themes, the importance of Tulips & Chimneys lies in its formatting. Cummings deconstructs poetry in this work. He forces the reader to question the definition of poetry and the way he or she ought to interact with the words on the page. Cummings’ content holds meaning and, therefore, Tulips & Chimneys is not a futile exercise. But the book feels firmly encamped on the side of criticism. No matter the importance of deconstruction in any aspect of life, I always pine for a reconstruction. What can we put in place of what we tore down? Tulips & Chimneys offers no answer on that note.
Originally published at http://www.wherepenmeetspaper.com
December 6, 2021
This is a stunning debut from Edward Estlin Cummings, published in his late 20s. While the publisher would not originally publish all the poems from the original Tulips & Chimneys manuscript, Cummings thought 'to hell with them' and eventually had them all published in the end anyway.
And more times that not, Cummings nails it - whether the poem is a portrait, a satire, or a love sonnet.
Even at this young age, he already displays a stunning and precocious understanding of his craft and future career in poetry. In the original manuscript, there were about 153 poems (if I counted them correctly), of which I selected about 50 favourites. That is a pretty good batting rate - better than most. I recommend starting here, for several reasons. This is the best way to sample Cummings, and decide whether you want to read him more or not. Later on in his life, by the time of his final works, 95 Poems and the posthumously published 73 Poems, Cummings will have honed this style down to a fine art, and not only that, while he sounds jaded and bitter and horny at times in these early works, later on he has come to accept what life has thrown at him, and in spite of it all, he is still a firm believer in LOVE, in a completely non-corny way.
What was the most surprising thing for me, is that even though Cummings is no doubt a modernist of sorts (being a close friend of Ezra Pound's etc.), and undoubtedly iconoclastic, at heart, he is also a dye-in-the-wool romantic. I could detect the influence of Keats within some of the lines.
Highly recommended, especially for people new to Cummings, like myself.
And more times that not, Cummings nails it - whether the poem is a portrait, a satire, or a love sonnet.
Even at this young age, he already displays a stunning and precocious understanding of his craft and future career in poetry. In the original manuscript, there were about 153 poems (if I counted them correctly), of which I selected about 50 favourites. That is a pretty good batting rate - better than most. I recommend starting here, for several reasons. This is the best way to sample Cummings, and decide whether you want to read him more or not. Later on in his life, by the time of his final works, 95 Poems and the posthumously published 73 Poems, Cummings will have honed this style down to a fine art, and not only that, while he sounds jaded and bitter and horny at times in these early works, later on he has come to accept what life has thrown at him, and in spite of it all, he is still a firm believer in LOVE, in a completely non-corny way.
What was the most surprising thing for me, is that even though Cummings is no doubt a modernist of sorts (being a close friend of Ezra Pound's etc.), and undoubtedly iconoclastic, at heart, he is also a dye-in-the-wool romantic. I could detect the influence of Keats within some of the lines.
Highly recommended, especially for people new to Cummings, like myself.
April 8, 2017
As a life-long (or middle-school on) e.e. cummings fan, I am always surprised by how much of his poetry I don't really like. In this first collection (1923), I found several poems to be florid and overdone. For example, "Epithalamion" is filled with classical references I can't get myself to care about. BUT, of course, there are the poems filled with poignancy and sheer loveliness. Cummings' early poetry has themes of love, sex, and death--which, in my opinion, are three of the four main topics of poetry. There's a little about God, the fourth main topic, but not much. This collection includes the frequently anthologized "all in green went my love riding," "in Just-," "Tumbling-hair," "O sweet spontaneous,""Buffalo Bill 's," "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls": not bad for a first collection. Cummings was 29 and had been an ambulance driver in France during WWI, imprisoned by the French on suspicion of spying, and then on his release, drafted by the US Army, serving for 11 months. I suspect that Bob Dylan owes something to this poet/painter, but I'm just guessing. Both view words (and for cummings, punctuation) as something like paint or clay.
December 30, 2018
10 stars out of 5
Brilliant
No one can write like Cummings.
Brilliant
No one can write like Cummings.
January 22, 2019
I don't get it.
I'm definitely not some poetry connoisseur expert, and openly admit that with few exceptions, I really don't "get" poetry. But I continue to try to learn more about it and keep reading different poets to expand my horizons. I saw this book posted by one of my favorite literary instagram accounts (the shop Obvious State), and wanted to give it a try since I had never read anything by E.E. Cummings, though I see (and love) quotes attributed to him all over the internet.
Some of the poems in here were lovely. But, there were some (most) that I could barely read, because there's weird capitalization or breaking words up in the middle across multiple lines or stringing words together without putting spaces in between them. It hurt my eyes. Also, he apparently seems to be the person who started the fad of random spacing and hitting "return" at random places that is uber popular among the tumblr poet crowd, so not a fan since I personally hate that.
Could this be the best poetry collection of all time objectively by poetry experts? Sure. Maybe. I have no idea. I won't pretend that I'm a scholar in this area and can speak to the objective quality of the metaphors and cadence and whatever else. But as a regular reader who is still getting a feel for the genre, this is a big "Nope" for me. But, because some of it was okay and I was able to get through it all without completely hating everything about it, I'll give it an extra star.
I'm definitely not some poetry connoisseur expert, and openly admit that with few exceptions, I really don't "get" poetry. But I continue to try to learn more about it and keep reading different poets to expand my horizons. I saw this book posted by one of my favorite literary instagram accounts (the shop Obvious State), and wanted to give it a try since I had never read anything by E.E. Cummings, though I see (and love) quotes attributed to him all over the internet.
Some of the poems in here were lovely. But, there were some (most) that I could barely read, because there's weird capitalization or breaking words up in the middle across multiple lines or stringing words together without putting spaces in between them. It hurt my eyes. Also, he apparently seems to be the person who started the fad of random spacing and hitting "return" at random places that is uber popular among the tumblr poet crowd, so not a fan since I personally hate that.
Could this be the best poetry collection of all time objectively by poetry experts? Sure. Maybe. I have no idea. I won't pretend that I'm a scholar in this area and can speak to the objective quality of the metaphors and cadence and whatever else. But as a regular reader who is still getting a feel for the genre, this is a big "Nope" for me. But, because some of it was okay and I was able to get through it all without completely hating everything about it, I'll give it an extra star.
April 4, 2009
ee cummings is one of my favourite poets. i love the style of his poems, the games he plays with words and the fact that every time i pick him up the poems are fresh and tripping off the tongue.
this book moves from his early poems through the development of his later style, the subtle sexuality blooming and the breaking down of language to recreate it in a whole new pattern.
the design of the book, (it's oversize, and uses a typewriter style font), frames each poem as it might have originally appeared on the page when first written. The poems sit awkward and unbalanced as the words delicately float above some common expectation of alignment.
it is a beautiful book. if you are a big cummings fan, this is a must-have. (as you can probably tell from my review)
this book moves from his early poems through the development of his later style, the subtle sexuality blooming and the breaking down of language to recreate it in a whole new pattern.
the design of the book, (it's oversize, and uses a typewriter style font), frames each poem as it might have originally appeared on the page when first written. The poems sit awkward and unbalanced as the words delicately float above some common expectation of alignment.
it is a beautiful book. if you are a big cummings fan, this is a must-have. (as you can probably tell from my review)
April 20, 2010
"... and you will be the poem i do not write"
December 31, 2016
"keď človek zachcel s vervou ešte väčšou
seba zničiť s celým svetom
z bude vzal bolo najdúc však len prečo
rozmlátil ho hneď na preto"
(str85)
seba zničiť s celým svetom
z bude vzal bolo najdúc však len prečo
rozmlátil ho hneď na preto"
(str85)
June 23, 2021
fun to read out loud
April 7, 2020
Čo zmôže slovenčina. Cummings je taká kultovka; v časoch predtým, než každý vedel všetko, o ňom spievali Živé kvety a Woody Allen ho vpašovával do filmov, preto reagovať na jeho namedrop bývalo sprisahaneckým žmurknutím, ktoré otváralo dvere. A možno to tak stále ešte je, kniha bola v antikvariáte dvakrát drahšia než podobné tituly. Či aj v nej zozbierané básne majú schopnosťou ohúriť a podporiť status autorovej persóny, to neviem. Vilikovského doslov, myslím, je o dosť hodnotnejší než preklady. Nič proti ich úrovni, študenti anglistiky ich poznajú už zo skrípt, povyrábaného je tam dosť a dosť. Len slovenčina ide svojou syntetickou povahou proti modulárne analytickej angličtine, a práve na nej cummings stavia. Je to ako hrad z kociek, ktorý keď rozbijete, dá sa z toho poskladať všeličo iné a výsledok má potenciál byť rovnako dobrý alebo aj lepší, lebo kocky sú rovné, hladké, prispôsobivé. Písať cummingsovým štýlom v slovenčine je ako rozhrabať upečenú štrudľu a skladať z nej jablká a orechy a americký apple pie - úsmevne tragické, at best.
November 10, 2020
This is a collection of poems written before 1920, but each one reminds you how ahead of their time they were. By which I mean, most of these poems are written in a very experimental way, playing around with punctuations, spaces, parentheses and even basic grammar (some downright read like txts a t33n@ger wud send).
I was reading cummings alongside Sharon Olds, and I think both are unique in how they deftly guide you to experience the visceral/so-called 'disgusting' aspects of life in remarkably delicate ways.
In this vast collection he writes about everything, really, but does gravitate around the twin suns of nature (hence tulips) and love (hence...chimneys?). If nothing else, his wordplay is at the very least evocative of the places and things he describes: brothels, Paris, New York City, spring, death etc.
The poems are somewhat hit-or-miss, though: you either get them or you don't. In fact, some of his poems made me wonder if anyone apart from him really gets what they mean. But those that do click are worth the readings and rereadings (and the f i v e s t a r s).
I was reading cummings alongside Sharon Olds, and I think both are unique in how they deftly guide you to experience the visceral/so-called 'disgusting' aspects of life in remarkably delicate ways.
In this vast collection he writes about everything, really, but does gravitate around the twin suns of nature (hence tulips) and love (hence...chimneys?). If nothing else, his wordplay is at the very least evocative of the places and things he describes: brothels, Paris, New York City, spring, death etc.
The poems are somewhat hit-or-miss, though: you either get them or you don't. In fact, some of his poems made me wonder if anyone apart from him really gets what they mean. But those that do click are worth the readings and rereadings (and the f i v e s t a r s).
January 23, 2018
Cummings me mostró lo que de verdad se puede hacer con la lengua inglesa.
A caballo entre las vanguardias y el modernismo, "Tulips & Chimneys" recoge las primeras incursiones líricas publicadas del enorme poeta norteamericano. La diferencia entre, por ejemplo, "Epithalamion" y "Chansons Innocentes" (la del extraordinario dominio de la forma y la experimentación más exacerbada) nos dan una muestra del enorme rango que Cummings dominaba incluso al principio de su carrera. Me hizo recordar ese dicho de Picasso, "cuando tenía siente pintaba como Miguel Ángel"...
Cummings ha sido uno de mis más gratos descubrimientos, y espero que en algún momento le sea otorgado su muy merecido lugar en los estanteros de los lectores hispanoparlantes junto con Pound, Williams, Eliot y Yeats (todos justamente traducidos).
A caballo entre las vanguardias y el modernismo, "Tulips & Chimneys" recoge las primeras incursiones líricas publicadas del enorme poeta norteamericano. La diferencia entre, por ejemplo, "Epithalamion" y "Chansons Innocentes" (la del extraordinario dominio de la forma y la experimentación más exacerbada) nos dan una muestra del enorme rango que Cummings dominaba incluso al principio de su carrera. Me hizo recordar ese dicho de Picasso, "cuando tenía siente pintaba como Miguel Ángel"...
Cummings ha sido uno de mis más gratos descubrimientos, y espero que en algún momento le sea otorgado su muy merecido lugar en los estanteros de los lectores hispanoparlantes junto con Pound, Williams, Eliot y Yeats (todos justamente traducidos).
August 24, 2025
My mom sent me this when I was living in Switzerland and, apparently, reading heavy and dense and complex topics I had been relaying to her over Facetime one day. My copy still wears a neon sticky note "Just wanted to send some lighter reading LOL <3 mom"
Lighting reading indeed! E.E. Cummings is always a joy to my heart. As the introduction describes, the collection "... is a rejection of social forces which hinder the expression of that uniqueness, especially those forces which promote groupiness, conformity, imitation, artificiality. It values whatever is instinctively human, especially feeling and imagination."
Lighting reading indeed! E.E. Cummings is always a joy to my heart. As the introduction describes, the collection "... is a rejection of social forces which hinder the expression of that uniqueness, especially those forces which promote groupiness, conformity, imitation, artificiality. It values whatever is instinctively human, especially feeling and imagination."
July 9, 2020
I've read so little poetry in recent years that I'm hardly comfortable rating or reviewing an iconic writer like Cummings. Instead, I will notate my favorite poems and passages from this anthology.
Surprised to find Old English kennings in Chansons Innocentes: Just-spring, mud-luscious, puddle-wonderful
Amores I (Your Little Voice)
La Guerre I (Humanity I Love You) is humorous but haunting, especially the fifth stanza
Alliteration in the line, "O crazy daddy of death dance cruelly for us"
Seven Poems VII (Who Knows If the Moon's) brings to mind the Fifth Dimension song about the beautiful balloon
And, of course, the alluring I Like My Body When It Is with Your.
Surprised to find Old English kennings in Chansons Innocentes: Just-spring, mud-luscious, puddle-wonderful
Amores I (Your Little Voice)
La Guerre I (Humanity I Love You) is humorous but haunting, especially the fifth stanza
Alliteration in the line, "O crazy daddy of death dance cruelly for us"
Seven Poems VII (Who Knows If the Moon's) brings to mind the Fifth Dimension song about the beautiful balloon
And, of course, the alluring I Like My Body When It Is with Your.
October 25, 2023
Beluu felicitaciones felicitaciones ahí estuve viendo por la tele que es ley loca es ley wachita es ley bueno nada jaj me pone muy contento no me imagino las ganas de festejar que deben tener ustedes debe ser como para nosotros no sé la Copa América una onda así eh nada salgan a festejar diviértanse ahora descompriman un poco ya está demasiada lucha por un tiempo es momento de descansar un poco no? salgan a gozar bueno cualquier cosa jeje estoy disponible estoy disponible hasta el jueves jeje después ya entro en parciales y cosas aburridas chau linda
July 29, 2023
"may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know"
This was One of my favorite passages from the book. An excerpt that perfectly captures the essence of Cummings' poetry - celebrating the beauty of simplicity and the wonders of the world that often go unnoticed.
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know"
This was One of my favorite passages from the book. An excerpt that perfectly captures the essence of Cummings' poetry - celebrating the beauty of simplicity and the wonders of the world that often go unnoticed.
December 13, 2019
TIL that I don't like all of e.e.cummings poems. I do not like his earliest works, the really, really, really long love poems in particular. But I'd never read his sonnets before this, and was so happy to discover them. All in all, I'm glad I read this and got to know his body of work better.
May 2, 2024
Tumbling-hair
picker of buttercups
violets
dandelions
And the big bullying daisies
through the field wonderful
with eyes a little sorry
Another comes
also picking flowers
picker of buttercups
violets
dandelions
And the big bullying daisies
through the field wonderful
with eyes a little sorry
Another comes
also picking flowers
Read
July 15, 2025Cummings here writes about love/desire/passion like a European (derogatory). This collection is pretty uneven, repetitive, and tedious. But it was his first poetry collection so you can’t expect it to be fully realized like some of his later work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews