What do we call this short E. E. Cummings masterpiece? ‘l(a’, after its first line? ‘loneliness (a leaf falls)’? But that violates the careful syntax of Cummings’ own poem. ‘a leaf falls on loneliness’? But that separates the two things that need to be kept together. ‘l(a leaf falls)oneliness’ then? […]
The poem with the opening line ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ is one of E. E. Cummings’ (or perhaps that should be, following the poet’s own self-styling, e. e. cummings’) best-known poems. But like much of his poetry, ‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ presents a number […]
The best E. E. Cummings poems selected by Dr Oliver Tearle E. E. Cummings – or, following the American poet’s own idiosyncratic way of styling himself, ‘e. e. cummings’ – was one of the greatest and most original voices in twentieth-century American poetry. He also wrote some of the most […]