[New-Poetry] cummings, grammaticality

[Suzanne Burns]

Excellent thread, and Joseph I really agree with your insights about
Cummings especially.  His innovation was absolutely anchored in a very
sophisticated knowledge of how language works and how far you can bend and
push it.  He opened up a new level of experimentation, of possibility.  I
just wanted to add one thing....

The idea that such knowledge stifles "creativity" is one of the most
> pernicious misconceptions of American culture.


This is the sort of idea I might expect to hear from a high school freshman
who has no knowledge or experience and has never formally studied
literature, maybe on the first day of class.  That this has become a common
position in our culture (The Dead Poets Society school of thought perhaps?)
makes me want to reach for my Laphroaig (and it is not even 9am on this
coast).

I love it when poets bend grammar to a particular purpose-- but I like to
see them do it from a position of knowledge.  They should know what they are
bending and why.  It should mess with the reader's expectations.  Startle
and awaken.  Making the common grammatical mistake of using "less" instead
of "fewer", for example, is not experiment.  That's just sloppiness and
frankly makes me wonder if the writer actually reads.

When I stayed at the Vermont Studio Center  I remember a sign by the coffee
machines that summed this up nicely:  "Leaving empty coffee pots on active
burners does not qualify as an installation!"


Suzanne Burns



-- 
"Start with your identity, which is a combination of your assets and what
your friends mean when they discuss 'the trouble with you,' polish that, and
you have style."

--Quentin Crisp
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