624a 10/14/24
Today’s #DickinsonDaily post has nothing to do with Emily Dickinson (although I do mention her once a little bit later on). Instead, today’s post is in celebration of E. E Cummings’ 130th birthday!
To celebrate Cummings I started with Google and typed in “what are some little known facts about E. E. Cummings.”
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624b 10/14/24
Six categories and facts popped up, but my first here today was not among them. I’m going to start with an obvious trivia question about the poet – and that is, what does E. E. stand for? Do you know?
E. E. stands for Edward Estlin.
Now here are the six categories/facts that popped up in Google (my comments are in parentheses).
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624c 10/14/24
1. Early life
Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. His father was a minister and professor at Harvard, where Cummings attended and earned his BA and MA.
2. Visual art
Cummings was a visual artist who continued to paint and draw throughout his life. (NOTE: A painting by Cummings hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art – see below.)
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624d 10/14/24
3. Persona
The persona "ee cummings" was created by both Cummings and his readers. Cummings treated the persona with ambivalence and amusement, and there's no evidence that he intended to be known by that name. (That’s right – most scholars of the poet present his name as E. E. Cummings vs. “ee cummings”).
4. The "i"
Cummings's use of a lowercase "i" in his poetry was an expression of humility and childhood. He felt that the English language's...
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624e 10/14/24
...capitalization of only the first-person pronoun was egotistical. (I was surprised that this one popped up as it is not a “little known fact.”)
5. Ambivalence
Cummings was ambivalent about his father and Harvard, casting off their earnestness, moralism, and Puritanism while still attending his father's university. (Of course, who did this sound like to me – but Emily Dickinson.)
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624f 10/14/24
6. Advice to audiences
Before one of his plays, Cummings advised audiences to relax and let the work "strut its stuff". He wanted audiences to experience the work, rather than analyze or understand it.
If you want to know more about Cummings, check out my plog (poetry blog) site entry linked below – at the bottom of the page are several links to other sites with more facts about the poet! Here’s the link:
https://www.thedickinson.net/plog-poetry-blog/october-14th-2024
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624g 10/14/24
HappE.E. Birthday, Edward Estlin Cummings!
Just a reminder: I'll be travelling, so I'll be taking a break with my #DickinsonDaily posts. This is the final post until 10/23/24.
Fin.
