100 Selected Poems

100 Selected Poems
by e. e. cummings

100 Selected Poems
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Book Summary Information

Author: e. e. cummings
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-01-10
ISBN: 0802130720
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Grove Press

Book Reviews of 100 Selected Poems

Book Review: Ranging From Profound to Messy
Summary: 4 Stars

I like to refer to E. E. Cummings as a master of metaphor and incoherency. He may have a list of stupidly random words and phrases like "colon hobby photography" in a poem and then suddenly use a really neat phrase like "pulling all the sky over him with one smile" in the midst of the messy jumble.

But he RARELY becomes more coherent for more than a stanza. Here's one I think is good:

pleasure and pain are merely surfaces
(one itself showing, itself hiding one)
life's only and true value neither is
love makes the little thickness of the coin

And here's one that ain't quite up to it:

nothing may, quite
your my (my your
and) self without,
completely dare
be beautiful

Anyhow, in addition to a large mess, there are many good metaphors in his poems - comparing the sun to a worker striking for a living wage, and death putting on a universe (like a garment I imagine), but his primary trait that sets him apart from other poets seems to be his constant personification of words like when, where, until, most, etc. The punctuation really isn't very noticable.

I like the imagination of Cummings, but sometimes he's just too incoherent for my taste. Although he did say a few things I'd like to keep in mind:

"Deeds cannot dream what dreams can do"
"How should contented fools of fact envision the mystery of freedom?"

These kind of remind me of the Road Song of the Bandar Log from the Jungle Book.

Summary of 100 Selected Poems

E.E. Cummings is without question one of the major poets of this century, and this volume, first published in 1959, is indispensable for every lover of modern lyrical verse. It contains one hundred of Cummings?s wittiest and most profound poems, harvested from thirty-five of the most radically creative years in contemporary American poetry. These poems exhibit all the extraordinary lyricism, playfulness, technical ingenuity, and compassion for which Cummings is famous. They demonstrate beautifully his extrapolations from traditional poetic structures and his departures from them, as well as the unique synthesis of lavish imagery and acute artistic precision that has won him the adulation and respect of critics and poetry lovers everywhere.

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