Author Description

E. E. Cummings was born in 1894 in Cambridge, MA. From an early age he loved writing poetry. His family spent their summers in New Hampshire. He got both his bachelor's and master's in Arts at Harvard. And then his quiet life changed. When World War I began, he enlisted in the ambulance corp in Paris. He was exposed to the worst that war can do. And then, because of his growing anti-war sentiment, he was held in a military detention camp. He finally was set free. A few years after getting home he published this book of poetry. You can definitely feel the power that the war experience and his time in Paris had on him. He talks quite a lot about death, how life is fleeting, and the way people grab at what life they can. In addition, his skill and education with words shines. He didn't write simple sonnets. He played with language. With punctuation, spelling, and word arrangement to get a feel across. For example: Impressions VI the sky wascan dy luminous ediblespry pinks shylemonsgreens coo l chocolates. un der, a locomo tive s pout ing vi o lets Note that some of his work tends to mention sexual encounters. This was, after all, a young man just out of college exploring the streets of Paris while facing death every day. There is nothing too explicit, but the situations are there. I'd love to hear your thoughts about his poetry! And look for my annotated version, by Lisa Shea, soon. I just need to get a few sections of it finished up.