E.E. Cummings

Biography:

Edward Estlin Cummings was born at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1894. He started to write poems at the young age of 10. Cummings studied Latin and Greek at the Cambridge Latin High School. He received his bachelor's and his master's in 1916, both from Harvard. On his death in his death in 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States. He is buried in Boston, Massachusetts.


Cummings experimented with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax, leaving behind traditional methods of writing and structures to create a new mean of poetic expression. 

9.
there are so many tictoc clocks everywhere telling people what toctic time it is for tictic instance five toc minutes toc past six tic Spring is not regulated and does not get out of order nor do its hands a little jerking move over numbers slowly we do not wind it up it has no weights springs wheels inside of its slender self no indeed dear nothing of the kind. (So,when kiss Spring comes we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss lips because tic clocks toc don't make a toctic difference to kisskiss you and to kiss me)

Reaction:
I did not fully understand the poem because of the words such as "tic" and "toc" and the stanza with the word "kiss" thrown in a bunch of times. After a second read, i realized that those words were just thrown in between the words. For example, the last stanza should be read as:

"(So,when Spring comes we'll kiss each other on the lips because clocks don't make a difference to you and to me)"

Meaning:

I think the poem means that time does not matter when you are with the one you love.

Technique:
Cummings used a series of breaks and put in unneeded words into the stanzas to make a reader have to read it a second time to fully understand the poem's meaning. 

Tour by Carol Snow

Tour

Carol Snow

Near a shrine in Japan he'd swept the path
and then placed camellia blossoms there.

Or -- we had no way of knowing -- he'd swept the path
between fallen camellias.

Response: When I first read this poem I did not understand what the poet was trying to say until I read it for a second time. I liked the way he picked a location that seemed peaceful, the shrine in Japan. It really adds to the "feel" of the poem.

Meaning: To me, this poem means that there are always different ways to look upon different situations. For example, in this poem, the poet stated one way was to look at the situation was that the man swept a path, and then put the blossoms down, and the other, was that he swept the path through the fallen blossoms. 

Technique: The poet did not use any real type of rhyming or meter to this poem. It just naturally flows due to the short lines and breaks between them. The setting of the scene really adds to the calm feeling given off by this short poem.