Selected Poems by e e cummings 1 star

[Karin]

Such a disappointment, since there are moments of poetic brilliance scattered here and there and it is evident he was a brilliant man. If I owned this copy, I'd have highlighted them so that I could share some of those gems. This is the first time I have read a collection of his poems--hitherto I've just read one here or there and usually liked those. True, e e cummings was doing new things with poetry, but I have read better poets, or at least poets I liked better, who were also brilliant. Also, to be honest, some of the sections were things I never like, such as a long section of satirical poetry and a section of erotica. But my chief problem was because in his exploration of new poetry techniques some got overused and often distracted from his point more than helped, even though as someone who spent a great deal of time in poetry for a number of years (way back well before the internet) I could see those points.

I will also admit that when I ordered this book from the library I wrote ee cummings in a brain fart when I wanted to read Ogden Nash--two very different poets. I have never read a collection of Ogden Nash, either, and am not sure how that will go when I someday do that, but hopefully better.