Okay, after having e.e. cummings’ complete works for three weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that that man was completely delusional. Oh, sure, I found a couple of his poems that were very cool, Little Tree being one of them, but honest to god, that man was odd. No, I did not mean to rhyme there.
A bit cracked in the head?
There is something about writers, and I am one to talk, but there are certain writers whom I think are just not all there. The funny thing is, the writing world, academic world, and hoity toity world regard them as brilliant. Seriously? What is it that makes someone brilliant? You can’t understand a word they are saying? Is that what determines what a great writer/poet is?
Sure, I have my own ‘insane’ writers. I am a huge fan of Emily Dickinson. Most of the time you really can’t understand what she is saying, but there are brief moments you feel you do. However, can you really understand any writer? For what they write, and this is especially true if they are long dead, is it possible to actually know what they are or were saying? Do we really know what Shakespeare was talking about in his Sonnets? And only after going through some of them recently have I wondered at his sexual orientation. You are reading one of the greatest love story writers around, and you are left to wonder, well, was he straight or not? Because I’m sorry, but some of those sonnets are not to a woman. I’m sorry, being a writer, and a woman who loves men, I don’t think I could wax poetic about a woman….
Just saying.
I just wonder why we tout these authors as great when in all reality, do we really even know what they were saying? And I’m not talking sayings and word phrasing that was used commonly 200 years ago. Sir Walter Scott is coming to mind and his Lady of the Lake. Some of it really doesn’t make a ton of sense, but once you pull out the glossary at the back of the book, you get the just of it.
Before or after you go crazy?
But e.e. cummings? I’m still wondering on his love of the parentheses and capital letters at random points, not counting all the word sp-
lits. Yes, that split was supposed to be there to make a point. Maybe I should add in a few space-less words.
The reason I was adventuring into the world of that poet was because of one of his poems I heard, and then he was mentioned in Poemcrazy : Freeing Your Life With Words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge. Ms. Wooldridge quite enjoys e.e. cummings work. But then, if you read any of her work, you can kind of see why…. Now I love Poemcrazy. I just got my copy in the mail today. Yay. But there is a lot in the book I just shake my head at and go, “I do not want to be the crazy lady poet.” I don’t want to be weird.
Oh well. This is my own take on it. Hopefully I haven’t offended anyone by critisizing these authors. But if I have, well it just goes with the territory. I’m sure there are a ton of people who do not like Emily Dickinson and Sir Walter Scott. That’s quite alright.
Signing off
~Kate
Kate's Bookshelf 
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