cummings

1.) I think that Cummings is genius. The woman who he wrote this for most likely melted as soon as she was finished reading it. She went and told all of her friend and Cummings was immediately given the title of “best boyfriend ever”. If E.E. was my friend I would probably momentarily hate him for setting the bar so high. But since we have never met, I will use his smooth tactics in my own life.

2.) E.E. Cummings’ works, “i like my body when it is with your” and “since feeling is first” both involve the emotion of passion. In the first, the writer is passionate about a particular lady, while the latter is about love and connection. Cummings' unique form is evident as soon as the audience sees the title; there are no capitalizations. I believe that there are two explanations for this. One is that Cummings does not believe that the title nor the author is relevant, but the body is what the reader should focus on. This approach draws the reader away from the title and immediately towards the following stanzas; it is more of an introduction to the work than a label. It is from this introduction where the second explanation for his lack of capitalizations is formed. Cummings’ title is the exact same as his first line of his poem. This repetition displays obvious importance in the statement. When reading these two poems there is no possibility of overlooking the main idea of the poem because it is present two times within the first two statements you read of the poem.
Cummings uses his form to assist in explaining the progression of his story. In both poems he begins with a build up of emotion and detail that is continued throughout the body of the poem. This build up accumulates and is finished with a single statement rather than a stanza in both poems; comparable to an instantaneous climax. For example, in the sonnet, “i like my body when it is with your” describes what he likes to do with the woman; he walks you through every step detailing her body and how he yearns for it. Lines 1-12 are clustered as if he is waiting for an eruption; which is set up and delivered in lines 13 and 14. “since feeling is first” is slightly different than “i like my body when it is with your” in the fact that its large stanza is not in the very beginning but it is in the middle stanza. However, this stanza contains the large explanation of his desire of a woman; in this aspect the poems are similar. Prior to “the big finish” Cummings has a stanza containing a large amount of lines detailing his passion for a woman. It is with these large stanzas that Cumming is illustrating that the most important aspect of love is the passion and desire for one another; everything else braches off of this emotion.