E.E. Cummings was the pen
name for Edward Estlin. He was born in 1894 and was raised in Massachusetts.
His father was a Harvard professor which seemed to influence his style of
modern poetry. The inspiration to write was a childhood passion developing into
his unconventional style. His legacy was based on 2,900 poems, as well as art, novels,
plays and essays. Religion was more of a transcendental bias of controversial
issues between spiritual and intellectual beliefs. His views later developing
into a deeper spiritual connection.
l(a
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
Cummings piece l(a is representative
of his unique style breaking traditional poetic format. This descriptive piece
offers a simplistic metaphor of a falling leaf and comparing it to the loneliness
one can experience. Upon ones first
attempt to read this poem is a desire to find meaning in each line as it trails
and spirals the reader downward to discover his illustration and intended
meaning.
E.E. Cummings sounds like a interesting poet. His poem l(a is very different to any other poem I have read. This poem contains only four words: a, leaf, falls, loneliness. The structure of his poem makes it very unique. What is interesting about this poem is someone can read "loneliness" as "oneliness".
ReplyDeleteI think this a really cool poem and I would like to see how some of Cummings other works compare to this unique format. I don't think 'l(a' would be my favorite of his works because it is just so different that I lose some connection to it. I would enjoy his other works because of his deep spiritual connection, which I find to be a very enjoyable topic.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that took me a while to read right. That was pretty cool. Your paragraph about the poem was basically what happened to me when I was thinking about it. Short poem but deep.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really odd poem. It is very simply but difficult to read. now that i read it again i see the "a leaf fall" in parenthesis in side of the word loneliness.
ReplyDelete