Collected Poems

by E.E. Cummings

Librarian note: pages were hand counted from table of contents to last poem.

This selection from Cummings' first six books of poetry - Tulips and Chimneys (1923), XLI (1925), & (And) (1925), Is 5 (1926), W (Viva) (1931), No Thanks (1935) - also contains some additional poems and an introduction.

Later volumes by Cummings include: 50 Poems (1940); 1 X 1 (1941); Poems: 1923-1954, the first complete edition of all the poems up to 1954 from all his published collections of verse (1955); 95 Poems, poems written since 1954 (1958); and 73 Poems, poems written since 1958 (1963).

"E.E. Cummings was unique among the poets of his time because he was equally superb in satire and in sentiment. He was merciless toward pretense and pomposity and he was unsparing of those who think war is a good thing; at the same time he had the finest lyric gift, particularly on the theme of love. I consider him to be on of the most moving love poets of all time." - Mark Van Doren

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, American

324 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1938

About the author

Edward 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-...

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance

There were times when I found myself duly touched "the jagged meadow of my soul" but all-too-often I didn't care as much for the experimentation--it is difficult to admit that. Despite the artful exploration the underlying vision is optimistic, even carnal. I loved the phonetic trawling of idiom, akin to Dos Passos in capturing the common man, albeit in lower case. This was a bulky, indifferent, collection, in terms of both portability and context.

I am interested in reading a biography of Cummings.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"this is the passing of all shining things" e.e. cummings

There's no one like Cummings. He's the poet of spring, innocence,
and death. His poetry is visual, grammatical, and sensual. Not all his poems are clear, but they are always fascinating. I recommend him to everyone. At his best, he's unbeatable. Read "may my heart always be open", or "This is the garden", or "love is a place", and see if you don't feel the same way I do.

[David]

The most comprehensible part of this collection of poems was cummings' introduction. He exuded passion discussing the boring mainstream of "mostpeople" and contrasted himself and his readers as curious, deep, and emotional people. This introduction was the highlight of the collection because it tempered his freewheeling style with an essay's structure.

Many of the other poems were difficult to decode. He writes so loosely, creating new words, peppering parentheses throughout his prose, and splicing words apart on the page that many of the poems were too abstract. He discussed women and love affairs mostly as trifles- sweet and fleeting. His political poems were too lightweight. He had a knack for describing emotional states but never got behind them so I felt always in the "now" of emotion but couldn't sink in and explore.

I prefer his work when Facebook friends quote him because an entire book of e.e. cummings seems too self-indulgent, like eating too many Oreos.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have seen her a stealthily frail
flower walking with its fellows in the death
of light, against whose enormous curve of flesh
exactly cubes of tiny fragrance try;
i have watched certain petals rapidly wish
in the corners of her youth; whom, fiercely shy
and gently brutal, the prettiest wrath
of blossoms dishevelling made a pale
fracas upon the accurate moon . . . .
Across the important gardens her body
will come towards me with its hurting sexual smell
of lilies . . . . beyond night's silken immense swoon
the moon is like a floating silver hell
a song of adolescent ivory.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

e e is sublime & entirely unique. i wrote in small case letters for a while in college after first reading him.

[Hoppie · Rating 4 out of 5]

the introduction is one of my favorite pieces of writing. the poems are devastating.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just might be my all time favorite poet. This is all.

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved a very few of the 22 new poems added to this collection. Most of the rest are cummings typical b.s. "Look at me, I can break up words." Feh.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked cummings first because he eschewed capital letters.

He's still fun.

[Johannah A Classy Rebel Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... it’s hard to explain e e cummings. He is a man of too many spaces, periods, semi colons and smashed words. He enjoys writing about death, rain, small hands, mice, crumbs and too many women. While I did find some poems and phrases enjoyable, I could have spent my time reading a better book instead. Unless you are an English major or e e cummings devotee, stay away from this book and you will definitely thank me in the end.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a closet poetry fan and E.E. Cummings is one of my favorite poets. This collection of 315 poems captures the exuberance of youth. love, the change of seasons and nature. The poems are playful and a full sensory experience. I enjoyed this collection.

[Mike]

ee.fckin.(ummings is ab
so
lutely(batshit)crazy
yetsumhow
carves.delicate ly
sorrowful
bliss, from.thee
depths;of his
soul,like a sWorD
that strikes
the
heart

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this.

[izzy herriott-stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most beautiful poetry book. my heart is very full <3

[rechel · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love him

[Maddy]

Got this book out of the library and the most famous poem was ripped out. I read it on the internet.... It really is the best one

Actually I've known that poem for a long long time because people would always use it as their epigraph in fanfiction or use a line from it as their title, I think they still do that, I think cummings is the #1 most stolen-from for fic titles across all fandoms

I have no evidence to support this

I miss everything, I miss the dumbest stuff, I'm so happy that I've been alive so far

ee cummings loves the moon

[t-rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another favorite Bostonian. Contains many favorites such as Buffalo Bill - the one memorization task I remember from high school. Plus a totally rad introduction.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a fan of ee cummings. He was texting before texting was cool.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cummings is one poet I can keep coming back to for inspiration. This is an excellent collection.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: 13,17,21,73,79,89,95,101,110,176,183,197,214,217,225,277,233,241,269,283,312,315

[Elizabeth Bevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the introduction to this collection. It's as beautiful as the poems. Cummings writing is just lyrical!

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

BCE

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent.