Tulips & Chimneys Quotes

“in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and          wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and

          the

                    goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles
far
and
wee”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“be with me in the sacred witchery
of almostness which May makes follow soon
on the sweet heels of passed afterday,
clothe thy soul’s coming merely”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“Now is the time when all occasional things close into silence.”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“And still the mad magnificent herald Spring assembles beauty from forgetfulness with the wild trump of April:witchery of sound and odour drives the wingless thing man forth into bright air,for now the red leaps in the maple’s cheek,and suddenly by shining hordes in sweet unserious dress ascends the golden crocus from the dead.”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips and Chimneys

“singing
(though love be a day)
for which girl art thou flowers bringing?”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“alas we were chaste on earth we ghosts”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“never boast your dead beauties,
mine being unto me sweeter
(of whose shy delicious glance
things which never more shall be,
perfect things of faerie,
are intense inhabitants;
in whose warm superlative
body do distinctly live
all sweet cities passed away—
in her flesh at break of day
are the smells of Nineveh,
in her eyes when day is gone
are the cries of Babylon.)”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“The Sky A Silver"

the sky a silver
dissonance by the correct
fingers of April
resolved

into a
clutter of trite jewels

now like a moth with stumbling

wings flutters and flops along the
grass collides with trees and
houses and finally,
butts into the river”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“the handsome moon never spoke ill of the pretty stars”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“Doll’s boy’s asleep
under a stile
he sees eight and twenty
ladies in a line

the first lady
says to nine ladies
his lips drink water
but his heart drinks wine

the tenth lady
says to nine ladies
they must chain his foot
for his wrist ’s too fine

the nineteenth
says to nine ladies
you take his mouth
for his eyes are mine.

Doll’s boy’s asleep
under the stile
for every mile the feet go
the heart goes nine

E.E. Cummings, “Doll’s Boy’s Asleep,” was first published as “Songs V,” Tulips and Chimneys.‎ (Liveright; 2nd Revised ed. edition (August 17, 1996) Originally published 1923.”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“(whose hand my folded soul shall know
while on faint hills do frailly go
The peaceful terrors of the snow,
and before your dead face
which sleeps,a dream shall pass)”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“(haste ere some thrush with silver several tears
complete the perfumed paraphrase of death)”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“O still miraculous May!O shining girl
of time untarnished!O small intimate
gently primeval hands,frivolous feet
divine!O singular and breathless pearl!
O indefinable frail ultimate pose!
O visible beatitude sweet sweet
intolerable!silence immaculate
of god’s evasive audible great rose!”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys

“(whiter than lilies which are born and cease for being whiter than this world)”
― E.E. Cummings, Tulips & Chimneys