1. Poe.e.tryis Cummings e.e. cummings Emily Peters Helaina Christie Justine Boorady Becky Gohsler

2. this is the garden: colours come and go,... (IX) this is the garden:colours come and go, frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing strong silent greens serenely lingering, absolute lights like baths of golden snow. This is the garden:pursed lips do blow upon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing (of harps celestial to the quivering string) invisible faces hauntingly and slow. This is the garden. Time shall surely reap and on Death's blade lie many a flower curled, in other lands where other songs be sung; yet stand They here enraptured,as among The slow deep trees perpetual of sleep some silver-fingered fountain steals the world.

3. Biography • Edward Estlin Cummings • Cambridge Massachusetts • Harvard-met avantgarde poets and artists

4. Inspirations • Joy Farm • Family traditions • World War I • Marriages/ Love

5. Structure • Punctuation • Rhyme • Sound

6. “Enter No” enter no(silence is the blood whose flesh is singing)silence:butunsinging. In spectral such hugest how hush,one dead leaf stirring makes a crash -far away(as far as alive)lies april;and i breathe-move-and-seem some perpetually roaming whylessness- autumn has gone:will winter never come? o come,terribleanonymity;enfold phantom me with the murdering minus of cold -open this ghost with millionary knives of wind- scatter his nothing all over what angry skies and gently (very whiteness:absolute peace, never imaginable mystery) descend

7. Literary Devices • Symbolism • Personification • Metaphors • Alliteration • Similes

8. Impressed Critics • “Cummings's innovations in other forms and media are less sure and significant, but he is nonetheless a refreshing influence.”-Paul Christensen • “He wants us to let the images and sounds flood into us in intuitive sequence.”- Norman Freidman • “Further, spacing of key words allows puns which would otherwise be impossible. Some devices, such as the use of lowercase letters at the beginnings of lines … allow a kind of distortion that often re-enforces that of the syntax … All these devices have the effect of jarring the reader, of forcing him to examine experience with fresh eyes.”-Bethany K. Dumas

9. Un-impressed Critics • ‘Cummings’ consistent attitude in all of his work was “condemning mankind while idealizing the individual.”- David Penberthy • “His later poems included an abundance of second-rate imitations.”- James Dickey • “His later, more conservative poetry came under attack for anti-Semitism, a charge that is still debated.” –enotes • “Cummings’ style did not change or develop much through out his career, and he has been faulted by some for poor artist growth.- Michael Webster