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"The Well-Wrought Urn" and e.e. cummings
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"The Well-Wrought Urn" and e.e. cummings
e.e. cummings
The basics of Brooks' stance
e.e. cummings, American poet. 1894-1962
Influenced by many avant-garde artists post WWI
Known for his unique use of punctuation and text as a visual medium.
"The poem communicates so much and communicates it so richly and with such delicate qualifications that the thing communicated is mauled and distorted if we attempt to convey it by any vehicle less subtle than that of the poem itself." (p. 72-73)
Though his works are often visually and textually avant-garde, he has also put out a good deal of "traditional" poetry.
Common themes of his poetry: love, religion, self, sexuality.
"The poet is most truthfully described as a poietes or maker, not as an expositor or communicator (p. 75)"
What would Brooks' think?
i'll tell you a dream i had once
Citations
He would almost definitely list e e cummings as "difficult poetry (p. 76)"
Cleanth Brooks, The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1947)
Cummings, E. E. E.E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 1965. Print.
Still, cummings exemplifies Brooks' claims on the poem as a form of communication that is cheapened by trying to summarize it.
cummings also exemplifies the poet as a "maker", and as one that is more involved with creating and crafting an "organic thing" than an easily digested poem.
Buffalo Bill's
"The theory of communication throws the burden of proof upon the poet, overwhelmingly and at once. The reader says to the poet: 'Here I am, it's your job to "get it across" to me' - when he ought to be assuming the burden of proof himself (p. 76)."