E.E. Cummings: The Shape and Style of an American Giant

Edward Estlin Cummings was born 14th October 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In High School he studied both Latin and Greek, before going on to earn his Ba and Ma at Harvard University. His earliest poems were published in the 1917 publication aptly titled 'Eight Harvard Poets'. He would go on to be known as one of the most innovative poets of his era.

His unusual approach to form resulted in the formation a distinct personal style, a style that arguably transcended the purpose of the literature itself. One that can often be understood as an artform within itself, without taking anything from the poem.

It is this unique style that would become highly influencial, and poets are still using it today. After reading Cummings, I pick up the work of those that came after and I am made to think of the shapes and sounds of his own work. It begs the question of how many poets are truly conscious of this lineage?

Cummings was also unafraid of bending (often completely breaking) grammatical and linguistic conventions. This helped him shape a style of poetry that forced thought, making the reader consider the purpose of an otherwise 'simple' line with more sincerity. Notably, he would take pronouns and turn them into nouns, or assign his own secret meaning to words - a meaning which could be uncovered if one were to spend more than a cursory reading with the art.

Despite bending and breaking all the rules of poetry, or perhaps because of this, Cummings would become one of the most influencial American poets by the time of his death in 1962.

A chief theme of his work was love. Many of his poems can be read as a lover speaking to his beloved. Coupled with his unique approach to language and form, this makes for an unexpectedly refreshing read, even in today's standards. By breaking the lines and doing away with convention, reading the love poems of E.E. Cummings is an exciting, often breathtaking account of what is such a universal feeling as being in love. In this vein, his work is also a work of unity. It reminds us that we are not alone and that we are of a shared whole. This, I think, is increasingly important in a world which continues to divide itself. A thought which can be easily applied to his own time of writing, the tummultuous first half of the 20th Century.

For Cummings, Love (yes, with a capital L) becomes inseparable with human dignity, or with the higher qualities of human existence itself. Within his words and the form they're encased within, love is revered with an almost biblical fanatacism. One gets the sense that Cummings felt closer to the divine as a result of having loved and been loved in return.