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i--six nonlectures (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

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We learn here from the great Estlin Cummings, if we did not already know, that "Art is a mystery; all mysteries have their source in a mystery-of-mysteries who is love" (note the "who" denoting aliveness, as opposed to "which" denoting undeadness): "and if lovers may reach eternity directly through love herself, their mystery remains essentially that of the loving artist whose way must lie through his art, and of the loving worshipper whose aim is oneness with his god."

For the mature Cummings fan, this volume is a must. It traces the genesis of Cummings as poet and as man. It gives us his opinion (at which sophomores might marvel) that no one should venture free verse until he has MASTERED the sonnet, rondeau, ballade, etc. It gives us a syllabus of poems that he loved in his youth and continued to love in his adulthood: Dante, Swinburne, Shakespeare's 116th sonnet, Charles d'Orleans, Walther von der Vogelweide, Shelley, Keats. There are words of praise for Dante Gabriel Rossetti's sonnets. There are ten of E E Cummings' sonnets included in these lectures (but my copy of "i" contains three significant typographical howlers).

We see the libertarian Cummings, the man who "values freedom" and abominates "the subhuman superstate USSR." We see his almost impenetrable parody of Communism in a snippet of his book EIMI, about a trip to Leninist Moscow. We see bits of the play "Santa Claus," his gleeful proverbs called "jottings," and a few paragraphs in defense of Ezra Pound.

We have in the six nonlectures the heart of a man in love with life and spring and joy and birth and (yes of course) love. "To feel something is to be alive." And woe betide the reader who feels nothing when she or he reads these marvellous pages.

These six "nonlectures" give more insight into ee cummings than anything else I've ever read about or by him (except, perhaps, for the Enormous Room, also a fantastic book). He talks about his family, his beliefs, and colors it all with true cummings style. It's delightful.

Absolutely indispensible for anyone who loves ee cummings-- tells of his history, his family, his dreams and ideas, friendships and schooldays, war and peace, love, life and all the rest.

Very enjoyable transcription of Cumming's lectures which offer much insight to this master's life and work.