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352nd out of 4,698 books
—
31,969 voters
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 extr...more
Paperback, 128 pages
Published
January 10th 1994
by Grove Press
(first published 1954)
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My first Cummings book (it cost me $1.95 many years ago) and still my favorite. There are so many poems in here which I think are good poems. The general critical consensus seems to be that Cummings was second-rate. Well, for me, he is more engaging than many poets that others fawn over. He was an accomplished sonneteer, though you might not recognize all his sonnets for what they are at first, due to his experiments with orthography. He was a fine erotic poet, and an effective political satiris...more
my intro to ee cummings, now can't put him down, always something to cheer, to complain, to trick, to play, to puzzle and some of the best love poems every written in any language (cummings having his own version o English!)
you shall above all things be glad and young.
For if you're young, whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love.
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
that you should ever think, may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.
I'd rather...more
For if you're young, whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love.
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
that you should ever think, may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.
I'd rather...more
May 24, 2011
Sparrow
added it
It's a pleasure to write about e. e. cummings, as it is to read him. (And I believe, as is obvious, in never capitalizing his name. It's like putting "God" in lower case.) The extravagant praise on the back of this book, by Marianne Moore, John Dos Passos, Randall Jarrell, Karl Shapiro, is notably defensive, as if one must apologize for liking cummings -- the way one apologizes for loving Madonna. And there is a definite "pop music" to e. e.: the tender strains of love, and adolescent revolt, sw...more
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For some reason, I had never rated E. E. Cummings. He became the icon for form-twisting poetry, with his name written in lower-case reflecting the way his poems used and abused typography, grammar, and punctuation. I'm a symbol manipulating machine, it's why I'm a computer programmer and why I love to read. But I manipulate symbols within rules, and I love rules: I loved learning the rules of punctuation and spelling and grammar. Knowledge is power, it let me sort the world into right and wrong...more
1 like · like · see review
all ignorance toboggans unto know
and trudges up to ignorance again;
--e. e. cummings
I feel like something just fell of the shelf inside me. I sat down planning to work my through this collection at a ten-a-day pace, and I finished it in two sittings, reading each poem twice or thrice or more along the way. Why/how the hell did I blunder this far forward without reading--really reading--cummings? I mumble-muttered the whole collection aloud to myself, and my tongue will be thanking me for days. D...more
and trudges up to ignorance again;
--e. e. cummings
I feel like something just fell of the shelf inside me. I sat down planning to work my through this collection at a ten-a-day pace, and I finished it in two sittings, reading each poem twice or thrice or more along the way. Why/how the hell did I blunder this far forward without reading--really reading--cummings? I mumble-muttered the whole collection aloud to myself, and my tongue will be thanking me for days. D...more
It's a happy coincidence that I'm kicking off April's reads with poetry. Happy National Poetry Month!
Despite having never played a musical instrument, I spent the majority of my time in college at the school of music (I'd explain my color guard days, but I suspect that very few of my GoodReads friends would "get it" and/or not make fun of me for it). Anyways, for one of my captain auditions, we received a CD with recordings from the music school for the purposes of choreographing a piece to a so...more
Despite having never played a musical instrument, I spent the majority of my time in college at the school of music (I'd explain my color guard days, but I suspect that very few of my GoodReads friends would "get it" and/or not make fun of me for it). Anyways, for one of my captain auditions, we received a CD with recordings from the music school for the purposes of choreographing a piece to a so...more
To be fair, I didn't really have enough patience while reading this book to enjoy the poems like I should have. They aren't the kind of poems you can just stroll through without thinking much about what they mean. I did really enjoy the following poem in its entirety:
little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and...more
little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and...more
As I finished this slim book, I puzzled over how to best explain how it makes me feel. I got this image in my head:
If I were stranded on a deserted island and allowed to take one book with me, this book would be in my top five of final, possible picks. If I picked this book to take with me, when someone found me ten years later, I would still be puzzling over some of the meaning of the poems; I would still be kept comfortably happy, sad, shy, engaged, and peaceful by the texture, the emotion of...more
If I were stranded on a deserted island and allowed to take one book with me, this book would be in my top five of final, possible picks. If I picked this book to take with me, when someone found me ten years later, I would still be puzzling over some of the meaning of the poems; I would still be kept comfortably happy, sad, shy, engaged, and peaceful by the texture, the emotion of...more
Ever since my modern literature class in college, I've kind of had a thing against Cummings. I hated his style. As a grammar nazi, it completely confused me. When the professor suggested that we read the poems aloud, I scoffed. I loved poetry and I never had to read it aloud before so why should I now?
However, that professor was correct.
When I came across this book on one of my lists, I told myself that I could suffer through just 100 poems. I didn't suffer through them at all, though. It was po...more
However, that professor was correct.
When I came across this book on one of my lists, I told myself that I could suffer through just 100 poems. I didn't suffer through them at all, though. It was po...more
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
This collection of E.E. Cummings poems was brilliant. I picked this up because I remember enjoying his poems when I studied them in my poetry class. And I was not disappointed. I feel like his poems are simply the everyday thought of a lyrical genius and instead of letting his thoughts just be forgotten he decided to write them down. Lucky for us. I admire his style it's unique and I...more
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
This collection of E.E. Cummings poems was brilliant. I picked this up because I remember enjoying his poems when I studied them in my poetry class. And I was not disappointed. I feel like his poems are simply the everyday thought of a lyrical genius and instead of letting his thoughts just be forgotten he decided to write them down. Lucky for us. I admire his style it's unique and I...more
Although I have the hardest time with poetry, I enjoyed reading e.e., especially when i came across the word "manUNkind" (my capitalization), i thought that phrasing was magnificent, and well worth pondering over. e.e. seemed to fight for the natural world, the organic and real, and despised the superficial. And honestly, who can blame him? This was printed in the 1920's, and things have only become more commercialized since then.
At any rate, I must admit there was a lot that i missed, though t...more
At any rate, I must admit there was a lot that i missed, though t...more
e. e. cummings is one of my favorite poets, and this collection of his poems is a treat for any fan of his verse. The innovativeness of his language and the freshness of his images are continuously inspiring. It is sometimes hard to believe that most of these poems have been written well over half a century ago - they have all aged remarkably well. This is a testament to the simplicity and the permanence of the themes and ideas that e. e. cummings dealt with, and the original and inimitable way...more
Man I don't even know. This book excites the imagination, sets it wandering, rocketing off into the wildest unexpected corners, with just the mere suggestion of a set of words: puddle-wonderful, watersmooth-silver stallion, a first dream called ocean, the mechanical dawn.
And I like the humor:
Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down
But sometimes it's like these poems feel so strongly, or hate so strongly, or c...more
And I like the humor:
Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down
But sometimes it's like these poems feel so strongly, or hate so strongly, or c...more
I'm not going to review all of the e.e. cummings collections that I own (there are way too many as I have this thing about collecting them). What I will say is that cummings has this totally selfish/creative/lovely/beautiful/erotic way of writing that just gets me every time. There is rarely a poem of his that I've read that I don't like. He's modern and writes very much that way, and I love his playful use of punctuality and grammar as a means of conveying his emotions. If you've never read cum...more
If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,
Life would be delight,—
But things couldn’t go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn’t be I.
If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I’d be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn’t be you.
If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,—
Yet they’d all despair,
For if here was there
We...more
And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,
Life would be delight,—
But things couldn’t go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn’t be I.
If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I’d be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn’t be you.
If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,—
Yet they’d all despair,
For if here was there
We...more
Aug 12, 2011
Paula Tohline Calhoun
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone who reads poetry
Recommended to Paula Tohline by:
College professor
I loved every word, and can recite many. His poems are heartfelt and express so many different emotions, generally using very few words. His characteristic "grammarless grammar," rather than being off-putting, is very absoring, and moves the reader along at a pace synonymous with and appropriate to the subject matter. His is a unique voice in poetry, and his poems have a timeless quality. He will always be read, in much the same way that Shakespear's sonnets are still read centuries after they w...more
Can I just mention how much I love Cummings? Because this man's work is perfection, it really is. The hardest part tends to be picking my favorite pieces. I did manage it, sort of, but I'm sure my favorites would change depending on my mood. In fact, I know they've changed since the last time I read this! Every time I buy a book of poetry, I note the poems that I like the best, and I just had to keep adding poems to the previous list. Which means pretty much half of the poems are my "favorites",...more
may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young
and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile
---
While reading this, I was co...more
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young
and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile
---
While reading this, I was co...more
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What a funny little book this was. Not ha ha funny, but interesting, quirky, odd yet entertaining. ee cummings, who wrote his name in lower case letters, wrote in a unique style all his own. What's unique about his poems is perhaps just that, his odd syntax, random punctuations and made up words. I can just picture the nuns from 8th grade wagging their fingers at him, b/c of his disregard for any kind of rules of writing. He seemed to be in a little world of his own. And many of his poems I didn...more
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I find reviewing poetry like reviewing a color. If your favorite color is blue, it's hard to explain why it appeals to you. Or why blue is better then red. Expressing the inarticulable, the ability to convey a sense of something beyond words through words, for me, is the greatness of a poet.
I first stumbled across cummings in high school in one of those gloss covered, all-encompassing, "LITERATURE" textbooks that public schools are so fond of. And, for whatever reason, e.e. cummings has accompan...more
I first stumbled across cummings in high school in one of those gloss covered, all-encompassing, "LITERATURE" textbooks that public schools are so fond of. And, for whatever reason, e.e. cummings has accompan...more
I've always loved Cummings's unique poetic style, but I particularly like this collection of his work that's been compiled; it's a nice mix of old favorites and poems of his that I haven't read before. Li-Young Lee once said (at my undergraduate college) that the only subjects worthy of poetry are love and death, and this collection precedes that notion by about forty years.
For many, Cummings's poetry is a challenge because of his play with punctuation and, particularly, irregular syntax. But, e...more
For many, Cummings's poetry is a challenge because of his play with punctuation and, particularly, irregular syntax. But, e...more
I know many people that dislike e.e.cummings’ work, but I never was really sure why. When I read this book of selected poems, I understood why, but at the same time, I was in love for the exact same reasons.
His diction is the first thing that pops up at any first-time reader. He mixes words up in a sentence, he puts words together to make one, his line breaks are unpredictable, and he barely has punctuation save for some rare periods and question marks that are also met with parenthesis that don...more
His diction is the first thing that pops up at any first-time reader. He mixes words up in a sentence, he puts words together to make one, his line breaks are unpredictable, and he barely has punctuation save for some rare periods and question marks that are also met with parenthesis that don...more
admittedly, i'm not the biggest cummings fan to ever walk the face of the planet. i haven't spent as much time as i could (or should) analyzing this collection, so my rating is subject to change if/when that ever happens. i can appreciate his method and abstraction, even if i'm far from an expert. following is one of my favourites. i have to smile when i read it, because not only does it offer an explanation as to why he writes the way he does, but also why i appreciate it as much as i do:
"since...more
"since...more
This is the first book of poetry I ever bought, and more or less my personal introduction to poetry. Being weaned on postmodernism and discovering everything that came before it afterwards is a strange experience. I think the painting equivalent would be to study Picasso first, then learn about the guys to whom he was a reaction.
Still great, though. He makes more sense, in a strange way, each time I read him. "my father moved through dooms of love" and "in spite of everything" are in the runnin...more
Still great, though. He makes more sense, in a strange way, each time I read him. "my father moved through dooms of love" and "in spite of everything" are in the runnin...more
she being Brand
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having
thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.
K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and
again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlig...more
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having
thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.
K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and
again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlig...more
Skeptical and fidgety at first since I prefer
contemporary poets.
Not a fan of poems about happy love or the broad meaning of death.
But but the end of this book I was seduced into
if this were a date,
3rd base.
But I'm partial to the beauty of trees which is a recurrent theme in some unconventional ways.
There was also an elephant-child and a poem about slave(ry). For someone who is agnostic when it comes to "love poems" some of his poems make me want to believe.
contemporary poets.
Not a fan of poems about happy love or the broad meaning of death.
But but the end of this book I was seduced into
if this were a date,
3rd base.
But I'm partial to the beauty of trees which is a recurrent theme in some unconventional ways.
There was also an elephant-child and a poem about slave(ry). For someone who is agnostic when it comes to "love poems" some of his poems make me want to believe.
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the...more
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the...more
There must be something miswired in my brain. I do not understand poetry. I understand the individual words, and sometimes the visuals involved. But I just don't get the point the poet is trying to make. Having said that, I do love ee cummings. There is something about the way he uses positive & negative space that conveys the intent and meaning of what he writes. I wish I could express my feelings & thoughts regarding the impact cummings has on me.
My first exposure to cummings and this was probably a seclection of what is considered to be his best poems. At first jarred by the syntactic rule-breaking, by the end of the book I was beginning to understand some reason to his use of words in unorthodox roles. While many of the poems left me with no logical interpretation, many of them were comprehendable and some downright hilarious. This book of poetry came to my attention when the poem "87" was featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almana...more
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Edward Estlin Cummings, popularly known as e.e. cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, and playwright. His body of work encompasses more than 900 poems, several plays and essays, numerous drawings, sketches, and paintings, as well as two novels. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of 20th century poetry, as well as one of the most popular.
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“Love is the whole and more than all.”
—
89 people liked it
“What if a dawn of a doom of a dream
bites this universe in two,
peels forever out of his grave,
and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?”
—
25 people liked it
More quotes…
bites this universe in two,
peels forever out of his grave,
and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?”
Apr 17, 2008 08:15am
Apr 17, 2008 11:46am
Aug 24, 2012 12:50am