Long Beach, NY, 1927 via Shorpy
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
-e.e. cummings
17 comments:
Deborah, Have you ever read cumming's, The Boys I Mean Are Not Refined?
No image on my end.
Return To Sender
An iodine smell rose out of the sea:
I did not find myself in that alien whiff;
Rather instantly sensed a threat deadly:
Every-time I'll take meadows over that gift.
Odd rhyme scheme: AA BC DD BC EE FF (with some slant rhyme).
People are often thrown off by cummings' eccentric punctuation, letter-casing and line breaks and miss the structure in his poetry -- he wrote many standard sonnets for instance.
The "Complete Poems" of e.e. cummings sits in my special bookcase along with the other books which changed my life.
This is one of his later poems: the tenth poem of his collection, "95 Poems," which came out in 1958. cummings died in 1962.
I can't think of another American poet in the 20th century who bridged the avant-garde and the sentimental and reached so many people.
Thanks, deborah.
I have now, Nick :)
Still no image, April? Go to shorpy.com and scroll down to the beach pic.
Is that yours, ricpic? Excellent.
Creeley! So glad to see you. I don't know much Cummings at all, but my favorite is 'anyone lived in a pretty how town.' It's among my very favorite poems. Maggie and Milly is a sweet, dear little poem, but Anyone is transcendent. I will look into his work more thoroughly. Do you have a favorite?
Natalie Merchant "sings" it. For five long minutes.
Ugh. She does have a beautiful voice, though. It will be a big hit among the people who will not realize it's from a poem.
It will be a big hit among the people who will not realize it's from a poem.
And you'd know this how?
The song was recorded 4 years ago, with several people/commenters who liked it making note of the fact that it was from a poem.
Once again, poetry is about invitation. Not only is this one inviting blog readers into consideration, it also invited a song, a singer and listeners to engage. Not a bad gig for a word arrangement.
Deborah: I love "anyone lived in pretty how town" -- it is one of his great poems -- but for me his ultimate was this sonnet:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Deborah: You'd like at least half of his "100 Selected Poems." Or just browse the cummings archives you can find on the net.
Don't be too hard on Natalie Merchant either. She was the singer from 10,000 Maniacs and you'd probably like half of their first album too, if you don't already.
I'd read cummings in high school ("Buffalo Bill's defunct...") and had my interest piqued, but it was the following erotic poem which blew the top of my head off. I shared it with a friend and it became his standard college seduction poem.
she being Brand
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff I was
careful of her and (having
thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.
K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch (and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell) next
minute i was back in neutral tried and
again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning) just as we turned the corner of Divinity
avenue i touched the accelerator and give
her the juice,good
(it
was the first ride and believe I we was
happy to see how nice and acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens I slammed on
the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
breaks Bothatonce and
brought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.
stand-
;Still)
"breaks"? Must be some of that poetic licentious I heard of.
Creeley, I like Merchant a lot, and am most familiar with her Nineties stuff, like Thank You. A singular voice.
Thanks for the recommendation, I will begin there.
The sonnet is very nice. I will muse upon it...'doubt unimaginable you?'
The erotic poem is nicely done, but I'll join in with killjoy Sixty and ask if flooding the carburetor is conducive to making her go :)
The Katherine Hepburn/Jimmy Stewart bit is classic, and speaks directly to this subject.
LOL Sixty, very good.
Where is the photo of Abe Vigoda?
Yep, that should be "brakes" not "breaks". Serves me right for copying the text from NPR.Yep, that should be "brakes" not "breaks". Ser
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