Selected Poems

At some point in my public school career, I must have read a poem or two by e. e. cummings. Wanting to read more poetry in general, I picked this book up because I remember liking the author, even if I could not remember a single poem of his. I was not disappointed. This volume is organized by the poems’ themes, and each chapter has a nice bit of explanation from the editor at the beginning, which was nice for a poetry amateur like me. While I found the Cubist poems incomprehensible, I enjoyed the playful and natural poems, as well as the love poems. The political poems, on the other hand, I did not enjoy, but then I generally do not like political poems. All in all, I enjoyed this book and would like to read more poetry by this author.

Most of Cummings' work is beyond me, but that's not his fault, I believe. I enjoy reading poetry more for the beauty of the language, how a phrase is turned, more so than to understand. And, perhaps I'm a little too dense as well. This little collection provided many lines I could read aloud and hear the birds singing.

E.E. Cummings is recognized on the one hand as the author of some of the most beautiful lyric poems written in the English language, and on the other as one of the most inventive American poets of his time.

No rating because while there are many E.E. Cummings poems I love and quote from memory,
I recently learned that he was an unredeemed racist.

I defy someone to tell me poetry is boring.

my favorite poet of all time. i wish males understood how powerful words like these are to those of the opposite sex ;)

Have to admit being a cummings fan.