FOREWARD, is 5 in
General
F O R E W A R D
On the assumption that my technique is either complicated or original
or both, the publishers have politely requested me to write an intro-
duction to this book.
At least my theory of technique, if I have one, is very far from
original; nor is it complicated. I can express it in fifteen words, by
quoting The Eternal Question And Immortal Answer of burlesk, viz.
"Would you hit a woman with a child?--No, I'd hit her with a brick."
Like the burlesk comedian, I am abnormally fond of that precision
which creates movement.
If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter
very little--somebody who is obsessed by Making. Like all obsessions,
the Making obsession has disadvantages; for instance, my only interest
in making money would be to make it. Fortunately, however, I should
prefer to make almost anything else, including locomotives and roses.
It is with roses and locomotives (not to mention acrobats Spring
electricity Coney Island the 4th of July the eyes of mice and Niagara
Falls) that my "poems" are competing.
They are also competing with each other, with elephants, and with
El Greco.
Ineluctable preoccupation with The Verb gives a poet one priceless
advantage: whereas nonmakers must content themselves with the
merely undeniable fact that two times two is four, he rejoices in a
purely irresistible truth (to be found, in abbreviated costume, upon
the title page of the present volume).
E.E. CUMMINGS
By
e.e. cummings
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Other poems by e.e. cummings:
- !blac... (1)
- "Gay" is the captivating cognomen
- (and i imagine... (XII)
- (Me up at does)
- (will you teach a... (12)
- )when what hugs stopping earth than silent is... (
- 1(a... (a leaf falls on loneliness)
- 2 little whos
- a light Out)
- a man who had fallen among thieves
- a pretty a day
- a total stranger one black day
- all ignorance toboggans into know
- All in green went my love riding
- am was.
- anyone lived in a pretty how town
- as freedom is a breakfastfood
- because i love you)last night
- between the breasts
- but if a living dance upon dead minds
- but the other
- dead every enourmous piece
- Doveglion
- dying is fine)but Death
- ecco a letter starting"dearest we"
- enter no
- Epithalamion
- Fame Speaks
- fl... (2)
- flotsam and jetsam
- FOREWARD, is 5
- gee i like to think of dead
- guilt is the cause of more disorders
- hate blows a bubble of despair into
- Humanity i love you
- I Am A Beggar Always
- i am a little church
- i am so glad and very
- i carry your heart with me
- i go to this window
- i have found what you are like
- i like my body when it is with your
- i shall imagine life
- i sing of Olaf glad and big
- i thank you God for most this amazing
- if i have made,my lady,intricate
- if I should sleep with a lady called death
- if there are any heavens my mother will
- if you like my poems let them
- in a middle of a room
- in Just-
- in spite of everything
- in time of daffodils
- into the strenuous briefness
- INTRODUCTION from New Poems
- it is at moments after I have dreamed
- it may not always be so
- Jehovah buried,Satan dead,
- l(a
- lily has a rose
- listen... (III)
- Little Tree
- love is a place... (58)
- maggie and milly and molly and may
- Marianne Moore (35)
- may i feel said he
- may my heart always be open to little... (19)
- moan... (7)
- mrs... (15)
- my father moved through dooms of love
- my love is building a building... (XII)
- my mind is... (XXV)
- my sweet old etcetera... (X)
- n(o)w...
- next to of course god america i... (III)
- nobody loses all the time (X)
- nobody loved this... (4)
- nothing false and possible is love... (XXXIV)
- Now i lay(with everywhere around)... (44)
- now is a ship... (9)
- now what were motionless move(exists no... (89)
- O sweet spontaneous
- of all the blessings which to man... (IV)
- Of Nicolette
- once like a spark... (XXIV)
- ordinary wind is winding(cold face blush
- Picasso... (XXIII)
- pity this busy monster,manunkind... (XIV)
- Poem, Or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal
- proud of his scientific attitude... (13)
- r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
- red-rag and pink-flag... (11)
- Seeker Of Truth
- she being Brand... (XIX)
- silence... (40)
- since feeling is first... (VII)
- six... (21)
- Skating (4)
- Snow
- Sometimes I Am Alive Because With
- somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
- speaking of love(of... (LV)
- spoke joe to jack... (10)
- Spring is like a perhaps hand
- spring omnipotent goddess Thou
- suppose... (VIII)
- supposing i dreamed this)... (IX)
- the boys i mean are not refined
- the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
- the Noster was a ship of swank... (8)
- the way to hump a cow is not... (14)
- there is a here and... (19)
- this evangelist... (XXIX)
- this is the garden: colours come and go,... (IX)
- Thy fingers make early flowers of... (IV)
- Tumbling-hair/ picker of buttercups/ violets... (V
- up into the silence the green... (41)
- voices to voices,lip to lip... (XXXIII)
- warped this perhapsy... (9)
- what if a much of a which of a wind... (XX)
- when faces called flowers float out of the ground.
- when god lets my body be
- when hair falls off and eyes blur And... (L)
- when life is quite through with... (II)
- when serpents bargain for the right to squirm... (
- who sharpens every dull... (26)
- why did you go... (IV)
- yes is a pleasant country... (XXXVIII)
- yonder deadfromtheneckup graduate... (V)
- you being in love... (XII)
- you said Is (XIII)
- you shall above all things... (22)
- youful... (17)
- your little voice... (I)
