A poet I like

"One needs to register in general that Cummings' poetry reflects an advanced awareness of the potential significance of boundaries: his poetry frequently gravitates towards the boundaries between self and other, lover, nature, or God, as if the poet is intuitively aware that it is here, in these areas and around these boundaries, that significance and beauty become possible. The sonnet to be studied against this background, reads as follows" - McGinnis, Misty

Personally, I like E.E. Cummings because he is a man who regards friendship very highly and importantly. When his travelling companion, Brown was arrested for writing incriminating letters home, E.E. Cummings did not just run away in fear of being arrested too. However, he refused to separate with his friend. This shows that he really treated friendship very importantly.

I feel that his works mainly focuses on simple yet pleasurable things in life. Like in his very famous poem In Just-, he just writes about spring, where a ballon-man whistles and the bettyandisbel dances and this simple things that happens in life, he is able to so vividly and lively describe them with poetric rythm and rhyme.

Here's a short biography of his life:

Edward Estlin Cummings was born October 14, 1894 in the town of Cambridge Massachusetts. His father, and most constant source of awe, Edward Cummings, was a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Harvard University. In 1900, Edward left Harvard to become the ordained minister of the South Congregational Church, in Boston. As a child, E.E. attended Cambridge public schools and lived during the summer with his family in their summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. (Kennedy 8-9)

E.E. loved his childhood in Cambridge so much that he was inspired to write disputably his most famous poem, "In Just-" (Lane pp. 26-27) Not so much in, "In Just-" but Cummings took his father's pastoral background and used it to preach in many of his other poems. In "you shall above all things be glad and young,"

Cummings preaches to the reader in verse telling them to love with naivete and innocence, rather than listen to the world and depend on their mind. Attending Harvard, Cummings studied Greek and other languages (p. 62). In college, Cummings was introduced to the writing and artistry of Ezra Pound, who was a large influence on E.E. and many other artists in his time (pp. 105-107).

After graduation, Cummings volunteered for the Norton-Haries Ambulance Corps. En-route to France, Cummings met another recruit, William Slater Brown. The two became close friends, and as Brown was arrested for writing incriminating letters home, Cummings refused to separate from his friend and the two were sent to the La Ferte Mace concentration camp. The two friends were finally freed, only due to the persuasion of Cummings' father. This experience proved quite instrumental to Cummings writing; The Enormous Room is Cummings' autobiographical account of his time in the internment camp. E.E. was extremely cautious to attempt to publish The Enormous Room, however after great persuasion by his father, Cummings finally had a copy of the manuscript sent to Boston to be read. (Kennedy p. 213)

Cummings greatest fan, Edward wrote after reading his son's manuscript, "I am sure now that you [E.E] are a great writer, and as proud of it now, as I shall be when the world finds out."

Here are three of his poems:

in Just-

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little lame baloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
baloonMan
whistles
far
and
wee

i am so glad and very by E. E. Cummings
i am so glad and very
merely my fourth will cure
the laziest self of weary
the hugest sea of shore
so far your nearness reaches
a lucky fifth of you
turns people into each
sand cowards into grow
our can'ts were born to happen
our mosts have died in more
our twentieth will open
wide a wide open door
we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so i

i shall imagine life by E. E. Cummings

i shall imagine life
is not worth dying,
if(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain
but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose,roses(you feel
certain)will only smile

I feel that these three poems best expresses that his poetry frequently gravitates towards the boundaries between self and other, lover, nature, or God. He has a very free styled of writing, and his poems are usually shaped in very fitting rhyme and rhythm.

He seemed to be not restricted by language boundaries, and expresses his complicated thoughts in any way he likes. For me, I like poems which are in this manner.. There are beautiful and free, and combine many meanings and thoughts in it.

References:
http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Cummings.htm
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/e__e__cummings/poems/14259
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/e__e__cummings/poems/14206
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings