E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition) [Hardcover]

E. E. Cummings (Author), George James Firmage (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1994

This centennial edition of E. E. Cumming's Complete Poems, published in celebration of his birth on October 14, 1894, contains all of the poems published or designated for publication by the poet in his lifetime.

At the time of his death in 1962, E. E. Cummings was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in America. Combining Thoreau's controlled belligerence with the brash abandon of an uninhibited bohemian, Cummings, together with Pound, Eliot, and William Carlos Williams, helped bring about the twentieth-century revolution in literary expression. He is recognized on the one hand as the author of some of the most beautiful lyric poems written in the English language, and on the other as one of the most inventive American poets of his time—in the worlds of Richard Kostelanetz, "the major American poet of the middle-twentieth-century."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) was among the most influential, widely read, and revered modernist poets. His many awards included an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Bollingen Prize. Among his many volumes are The Enormous Room and Tulips & Chimneys.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1136 pages
• Publisher: Liveright; Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition edition (April 17, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871401525
• ISBN-13: 978-0871401526
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 2.2 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > American

More About the Author

E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) was among the most influential, widely read, and revered modernist poets. His many awards included an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Bollingen Prize. Among his many volumes are The Enormous Room and Tulips & Chimneys.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 167 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars life's not a paragraph July 7, 2001

By "jb541"

Format:Hardcover

My story begins with my high school English teacher assigning us to read "since feeling is first".

We studied that poem for an entire week. It's not a long poem, so we really dug our hands in, studying every piece of punctuation, every line break, and discovering things we didn't know could be discovered in writing. By the time we were through, I knew I couldn't stop. This is what poetry could be. I couldn't believe it. For a little while, I practiced writing my name in all lower-case. And while I knew I couldn't be cummings, I knew I still wanted to hang out with him and maybe be his friend.

To me, the whole point of e.e. cummings' works is to show how throwing logic and syntax out the window can help one rediscover how to truly capture an emotion -- and not just capture it, but to interrogate it and become either its best friend or its arch rival. There is not one word in any of cummings' works that does not have a reason to be there. His lack of cohesion is sometimes confusing. But at the same time, it charms you; and while you do feel the need to read and re-read each poem, you don't do it to analyze it - you do it because it elicits a different response each time you do. cummings hangs on just the right word, even the right letter in a word, and you know how you feel at that exact moment.

cummings looks not only at the definition of a word but the shape of the word to impact his meaning. This makes his style so intense and so pure that, in my mind, no other has come close to duplicating it.

cummings will never be the world's favorite poet, he will never be studied and understood and appreciated the way Yeats, Poe, Frost, Whitman, or any other of the "greats" will. Fine.... I think if you can pick up this book and read one poem and set the book down and never read it again, you'll learn more about yourself, humanity, and about what poetry should be than if you spent days laboring over the "greats".

It's been a long while since I left high school, and now I have lots of favorite cummings poems; so many that pages are missing and entire poems are feared lost. So here I am. And then I thought, my God! There are people out there who don't know what this is, that don't know what these words can do to you. So I just wanted to pass along my little story. I need to thank that teacher. I don't think there is a better lesson than "life's not a paragraph / and death, i think, is no parenthesis." Read more ›

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Canonical Cummings Compendium March 30, 2001

By Christopher Wanko

Format:Hardcover

I have a few E.E. Cummings books of poetry, but quickly despaired of every finding them all. This collection is a terrific resource for someone who simply wishes to have all the poems collected in one volume.

Typography was preserved very well (with Cummings this is critical), and I find the order of appearance by date helpful in charting his growth as a poet; the first few poems are radically different from the later ones.

Of course, acquiring his individual issues has its own appeal, but if you simply want to have his work easily at hand, this is your only choice (the indexing at the back is extrememly good at helping you remember a poem by its first lines).

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "what a gently welcoming darkestness" December 15, 2001

By Natalie Mills

Format:Hardcover

ee cummings is a magnificent poet - almost as much of a visual artist as writer. His poems fall and flow and jump and dance, their patterns and punctuation adding so much more to the words and essence of meaning. I have tried reading cummings' work aloud: it never quite works. He has an exceptional turn of phrase, and with one line (give or take a pattern or two) can bring about powerful emotive responses.
This book is fantastic - I had quite a lot of difficulty finding collections of his poetry, and although I'd found a couple of small volumes, this one was exhaustive. I reread it - or at least parts thereof - more often than any other poetry book I own, and always seem to discover another nuance or aspect or pattern that I hadn't seen before. cummings wraps you in words, and the best way I can think of to describe how I feel after reading his works is to steal a quote from one of his poems - "such strangeness as was mine a little while."
Worldwords. And he is the creator of my favourite quotation of all time...
"listen:
there's a hell of a good universe next door:
let's go."
And there is.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection March 22, 2006

By Dan -Son

Format:Hardcover

Like E.E. Cummings? This massive book has every single poem he ever released (not to mention a few hundred that weren't). If you aren't satisfied with buying the individual books, just pay the thirty-somewhat dollars and get every book anthologized in entierety.

A neat feature is not only the arrangment of poems by book release, but also, in the back, an index of all the first lines of all the poems alphabatized and labeled with the respective page number.

It's the complete collection. Spend the extra 20 bucks and get this instead of just 1 book of poems. Your mind will thank you dearly.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful words April 24, 2000

By Julie Lovisa VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

e.e. cummings is a master of the English language. The way he uses words to paint a picture will leave you breathless and touch your heart. These are not poems to be read lightly...you will need to think about what has been written and how, but I think that each poem in its own way will reflect a part of your own life once you figure out exactly what is being said. His combinations of words are unique and beautiful and create a melody of poetry that you will fall in love with. "rain fell(as it will in spring) ropes of silver gliding from sunny thunder into freshness as if god's flowers were pulling upon bells of gold" How could you not want to read this?

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing November 19, 1999

By Jenny Wells

Format:Hardcover

i first heard of e.e. cummings last year at a poetry conference. someone had written this profound poem and told me that his main influence was e.e. cummings, someone i had never read. i checked out one of his books from my school library and was addicted from then on. his style is incredible, his imagery is so marvelous, and his writing is all-together great. the way he used words to paint a gorgeous image has never been matched, and most likely never will. he is one of the most expressive poets ive ever read. some of his work is touching, some hilarious, some full of passion. amazing is the only word i can think of to describe him.