[New-Poetry] cummings haters

[Joseph Duemer]

Have you people read Cummings? He is entirely grammatical. He makes
interesting, intentional substitutions of one part of speech for another,
but none of his work would makes sense without readers' innate understanding
of grammar. To say that Cummings is ungrammatical is to misunderstand both
Cummings & grammar. Cummings, buy the way, was steeped in the traditions of
Anglo-American poetry & in particular the very exacting tradition of the
sonnet. To read Cummings without knowing this is to completely miss what he
is about. I defy anyone to post a single sentence from Cummings that is not
grammatical.

On 12/28/06, Suzanne Baran <screwzbaran at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> WELL SAID!!!!
>
> On 12/28/06, Alexander Dickow <alexdickow9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Lo,
> > "In less, of course, you meant"
> > I see you are an expert in perfect grammar.
> > I find your remarks about Cummings sort of
> > presumptuous, since I think what he did opened up many
> > possibilities that have yet to be exhausted. Although
> > not a rabid fan of Cummings, I find the alternative
> > position -- "you should respect grammar" to be rather
> > repulsive for all kinds of reasons, at least insofar
> > as it becomes a "position". _Write your English good_
> > if you want, but don't discourage others from building
> > their _style_ in whatever sense they wish.
> > What's certainly most vexing to me -- perhaps I'm
> > alone on this -- is your rather tactless remarks to
> > Raven, which look like flaming to me. Others here have
> > succeeded in offering criticism in a both
> > uncompromising and much more kind fashion, Lo.
> > Keep reading, keep writing, Raven.
> > Amicalement,
> > Alex
> >
> > www.alexdickow.net/blog/
> >
> >   les mots! ah quel désert à la fin
> >   merveilleux. -- Henri Droguet
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "The reader, the thinker, the flaneur, are types of illuminati just as
> much as the opium eater, the dreamer, the ecstatic. … Not to mention that
> most terrible drug - ourselves - which we take in solitude."  - Walter
> Benjamin
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>


-- 
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
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