Theme for May 2000

". . . while a genuine critic must obey the rules of mental decency, and clothe his personal idiosyncracies in collectively acceptable generalities, an authentic ignoramus remains quite indecently free to speak as he feels."

e. e. cummings, in six nonlectures

Cummings uttered this rule of rebellion in his Charles Eliot Norton lectures -- he called them "nonlectures" -- at his alma mater Harvard in 1961. Following that lead, these pages present views and discussions on the poetry and prose of cummings in a "noncritical" style which strives to be indecently free and authentic.
How indecent? One way is to take the "intentional fallacy" or any other kind of critical objectivity, and throw it in the recycling bin. At heart this is a fan page: a piece of virtual homage to the Work and the Man and the way they have inspired me. My single concession to postmodern criticism is to use the term "cummings persona" to refer to the speaker in most poems, parodies excepted.
Another of my indecent methods is to studiously avoid discussions of style, which are precisely where mostpeople's "criticism" of Cummings stops short. The amazing Cummings style is a necessary but by no means sufficient key to the experience of his poetry, and these pages have made a mission of discussing Cummings themes: Romantic themes, anti-intellectual themes, Nature and transcendence, love and sensual experience -- all the best stuff.

Theme for May - July 2000: Cummings Values

In past issues I've talked a lot about Cummings' values wherever they surfaced in his poems. These include poems expressing romantic values, transcendental values, iconoclastic and individualistic values, and so on. This month I'll finish my discussion of Richard Kennedy's seven fundamental Cummings values, wrapping it up by trying to wrap my mind around "recognition of reality".

In keeping with my three-poem-per-month limit imposed by Liveright publishers, I'll match each value with a poem and discuss the first three in May, the second three in June, and then maybe the last in a whole month to itself. Please click on the links above to read some values-based noncriticism.

Site Resources and Acknowledgements

Some "real" criticism in the form of my academic papers from graduate school also lives in these pages. Please use the papers freely, attributing "Henrique Estuardo Guillermo, Gypsy Viking" as the author.
Links to other cummings pages live on the Bibliography and Links page, where both criticism and web-based noncriticism can be found. Also, on the left frame of the menu page, you will find the King of All Content Links, with hundreds of cummings poems posted in a long list. Lastly, my "Cool Site" award -- thanks Netscape Open Directory -- links to twelve cummings sites.
Lastly, I am grateful for the permission of Liveright publishers to reproduce three poems here, together with my noncritical commentary. Copyright (c) by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Eric Gilmore