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There are some who perceive E. E. Cummings as to have dashed upon the ground the beautiful and finely crafted goblet of poetry, resulting in meaningless words upon pages like shards of glass randomly strewn about. In reality, a close examination will reveal that E. E. Cummings’ works are intricate puzzles meticulously fashioned and created. Each puzzle piece has meaning and significance and each is intentionally positioned to paint a picture, not just in the mind’s eye of the reader, but also physically across the page. Cummings’ inventive and nontraditional techniques and methods of writing poetry add new dimensions to literary expression that enhance the poems and act to further promote the ideas they were meant to convey
Research yields multiple reasons why Cummings decided to branch off and experiment with diverse methods of writing. Unsettled by the stifling rules that surrounded the poetry writing of his day, he knew there must be a better method that would enhance the reader’s experience. Furthermore, Cummings was not the type of person to settle for anything less than what he considered as achievable. He was determined to search and experiment until the right techniques were found.
“Poetry is what’s different” (qtd. in Kennedy 24). This simple statement was made one day when Cummings was asked to define poetry. The deep river from which this idea streamed was from the Waters of Individuality. Cummings believed that “to conform to the behavior of the group or to the rules of society is to suppress that essential self and thus to fail at living and to forfeit one’s right to respect” (Kennedy 53). He wanted to stick out from the crowd- to be creative, to be unique… to be distinct. Cummings recognized the possibilities that could arise from experimenting with different ways in which to write poetry and he was not going to let the group mentality direct the path he chose.
Cummings held a very strict standard when it came to art. Art...