Title: Selected Poems
Author: E.E. Cummings
Publisher: Liveright
Pages: 208
Format: Paperback
Source: Personal purchase
Description:
The one hundred and fifty-six poems here, arranged in twelve sections and introduced by E. E. Cummings's biographer, include his most popular poems, spanning his earliest creations, his vivacious linguistic acrobatics, up to his last valedictory sonnets. Also featured are thirteen drawings, oils, and watercolors by Cummings, most of them never before published.
The selection includes most of the favorites plus many fresh and surprising examples of Cummings's several poetic styles. The corrected texts established by George J. Firmage have been used throughout.
My thoughts:
E.E. Cummings is a poet who is inspired by Picasso's abstract paintings and has tried to carry this technique to poetry. Here's what he had to say about that: "The Symbol of all Art is the Prism," he declared. "The goal is unrealism. The method is destructive. To break up the white light of objective realism into the secret glories which it contains."
Applying Cubism to poetry, Edward Estlin Cummings is also praised as a poet who taught readers how to read his poems. Selected Poems contains 156 of his poems, including the ones that have never been published before. In order for his fans to remember why they love them and for those new to him to better understand what he tries to do with his poems, the book is divided into parts including A Child's World, The Dimensions of Being Human and Love and Its Mysteries.
E.E. Cummings's poems touch the readers' brain as well as their hearts, evoking feelings you may not even know you're capable of. I was rather upset that the book didn't include my favorite, It May Not Always Be So; And I Say, but I forgave them for including I Like My Body When It's With Your.
Here's a fun little trivia as well: Björk has sung and included It May Not Always Be So; And I Say in her 2004 album Medulla:
