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Cummings at Silver Lake

~ A weekend of art & music

Cummings at Silver Lake

Tag Archives: Famous American Poets

Lowercaseness

25 Monday May 2015

Posted by FOML in EE Cummings, Poetry

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E. E. Cummings, Famous American Poets, Susan Cheever

In an interview for the Poetry Foundation author Susan Cheever talked about poet E. E. Cummings’ use of lower case letters. What she calls his “lowercaseness”.

“I’m not sure I can make a sweeping statement about lowercaseness. With Cummings, the lowercase “i” is partly because it looks Greek, it’s partly what he got from Sam Ward [a handyman who worked for the Cummings family and who used the lower-case “i” in letters]. We have to assume that Sam Ward used the lowercase “i” because he felt somehow that he was the handyman. I think also Cummings felt that he, Cummings, had to make up in energy and liveliness what he lacked in bulk and sportsmanship and all these masculine attributes that he just didn’t have. I think what he meant by the lowercase “i” was a sort of humble playfulness.

I don’t want to say he was a humble guy. Obviously, no poet is a humble guy. I mean, one of the big questions in his life is why did he leave Harvard so angrily. “The Cambridge Ladies” is an angry poem about Cambridge, where he grew up and where he stayed until he was 23. So when he left Cambridge, it was a real breakup. One of the reasons he left is that uppercaseness of Cambridge. I think the uppercaseness of Cambridge, especially when Cummings was there… in 1916 and 1917, was really harsh.”

Lowercaseness
Susan Cheever on E. E. Cummings and the state of biography.
by Claire Luchette
Originally Published: April 8, 2014
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/247534#article

What is the key to reading E.E. Cummings poetry?

23 Saturday May 2015

Posted by FOML in EE Cummings, People, Poetry

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E. E. Cummings, Famous American Poets

E. E. Cummings, the famous American poet, author and painter, confounded editors and typesetters with his punctuation, spacing, run-on and made up words, and seemingly strange rules of capitalization. He often signed his work ee cummings, and rarely capitalized the letter “i”.

Former high school English teacher, Silver Lake resident and Cummings expert, the author is also the great-niece of Frank Lyman, a frequent subject of Cummings’ poetry and prose.

“Cummings often arranges the lines of his poems in seemingly strange ways:

un(bee)mo

vi
n(in)g
are(th
e)you(o
nly)

asl(rose)eep

(Cumming Complete Poems 691)

The key is to read everything within the parentheses first, then to begin again at the top with the remaining words: Bee in the only rose, unmoving. Are you asleep? If that is all he meant to say, why didn’t he write it that way? He wants us to discover the bee for ourselves as perhaps a bee surprised him when he peered into the heart of a rose. Why the “only” rose? Because our attention is completely focused at the moment on one particular blossom, it is as though no other rose exists. Why isn’t the bee moving? Is he dead? Is  he sleeping the sleep of the sated?”

-From Nobody-But-Himself by Carol L. Batchelder in SPRING, the Journal of the E.E. Cummings Society, New Series Number 6, October 1997.

Open the window on E.E. Cummings

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by FOML in EE Cummings, Events, Music, Poetry, Silver Lake

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E. E. Cummings, Famous American Poets, Joy FArm, Madison Historical Society

The Friends of Madison Library open the window on E.E. Cummings at Silver Lake with a Weekend of Celebration.

Join us for a weekend of art, music, poetry and history exploring the relationship between the American poet and artist, E E Cummings, and the people and town of Madison, New Hampshire. Friday night will feature a “nonlecture”, art show, Cummings’ poetry set to music and discussion. On Saturday visit 8 local sites, including the Cummings’ Family Collection at the Madison Historical Society and the poets’ beloved “Joy Farm”.

Tickets include both the Friday night events and the Saturday tour. Box lunches will be available for sale at the Madison Library on Saturday. Tickets are $20 per person or $15 if purchased before June 30, 2015. All proceeds benefit the non-profit Friends of Madison Library.

Joy Farm will host an afternoon tea with limited seating by separate additional ticket purchased in advance. Tickets for the tea are an additional $10.

Poetry at the Post Office

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by FOML in EE Cummings, Silver Lake

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E. E. Cummings, Famous American Poets, Silver Lake Post Office

CummingsForever-2012-single-BGv1

In 2012 the USPS issued a sheet of American Poet stamps commemorating ten famous poets of the 20th century. One of these poets was Edward Estlin (E.E.) Cummings.

Many current residents of Madison, New Hampshire remember seeing Estlin and Marion Morehouse on their way to and from the Silver Lake train depot, which housed the Silver Lake Post Office. Arriving in his 1929 open top Ford, Marion would drop off and pick up packages, which presumably contained poetry book manuscripts, while Estlin stood by the road and looked out at the lake. He always wore a long driving coat and white gloves.

Although the lobby has been re-arranged, the train depot is still the local post office for Silver Lake.

Depot

At the head of the lake stands a memorial to the Reverend Edward Cummings, Estlin’s father, and Walter Kennett.

IMG_0088IMG_0082

Cummings at Silver Lake WeekendJuly 10, 2015
What an incredible E.E. Cummings at Silver Lake Weekend! Thanks to all who came and supported the Friends of Madison Library.

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