The growth of the vision of E.E. Cummings: an analysis of specific themes in the love poetry

Abstract

Throughout the career of E. E. Cummings critics maintained that the poet displayed a lack of growth in his vision. Such a criticism fails in an analysis of the development of specific themes in the love poetry of Cummings. This thesis investigates two major themes from the early love poetry (the volumes of 1923 - c. 1938) and two from the later love poetry (the volumes of c. 1940 - 1963) and proposes a movement of the themes toward affirmation and movement from the concrete to the abstract.

Chapter II clarifies the first early theme, the celebration of a specific lover or love experience and presents those poems which define the speaker's response to the lady's presence, delight in her body, and express the joy of intercourse with her. Chapter III considers the second early theme, the unachievable and temporal nature of love. Death as thief, the fleeting nature of love, the distance of the lady, the persuasion, the sordid love affairs, the sexual jokes, and the satirical tone emerge as variations of this theme.

Chapter IV deals with the first later theme, the affirmation that love is possible and enduring. Emphasized are discussions of love as a concept, celebrations of highest love, and the transcending power of love. Chapter V in explaining the second later theme, the celebration of love as a force within itself, displays poems which define love, dismiss it as a mystery, theorize about love, arrange hyperbolisms to praise the lady, and glorify the lovers' spiritual union.