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Structure

The document discusses the poem "since feeling is first" by E.E. Cummings. It summarizes that Cummings evokes the urgency of life and love driven by death. He states his resolution at the beginning of the poem. Cummings rebels against confining emotion with strict grammar and writing rules, instead using unconventional formatting and punctuation to mirror sensory feelings rather than following reason or being understood intellectually.

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Mohamed Multhazim
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21 views

Structure

The document discusses the poem "since feeling is first" by E.E. Cummings. It summarizes that Cummings evokes the urgency of life and love driven by death. He states his resolution at the beginning of the poem. Cummings rebels against confining emotion with strict grammar and writing rules, instead using unconventional formatting and punctuation to mirror sensory feelings rather than following reason or being understood intellectually.

Uploaded by

Mohamed Multhazim
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SLrucLure

SLanzalc poem
Syllables have no meLer or paLLern Lhey are mlxed up
ln llne 3 fool ls sLressed around unsLressed syllables
ulfflculL Lo scan and lnLerpreL
Long senLences chopped wlLh en[ambmenL

Cummings evokes the urgency of life and love that is drive by impending
death
Cummings states his resolution at the very beginning of "since feeling is first
Emotion to Cummings cannot be confined within periods and commas, which to him are denotations of
a cold, and unfeeling system of rules. He further chooses not to follow established rules for capitalizing
beginnings of sentences, lines, and proper names. Cummings rebels against those who confine their
emotion to their rigid academic format. To verbally pit his resistance to rules against traditional
conformity, Cummings repeatedly jumps back and forth between the concrete imagery of grammar
and the more abstract language of emotion. Because "life is not a paragraph (15), he resists the
order and cohesion found in the prescriptive writing rules that dictate how he can or cannot express
himself. Since life is not one "topic sentence, developed with unity, coherence, and emphasis
(Gill 107), it cannot be regulated as such.
Cummings places reason as the antithesis of feeling,
Rather than be understood, Cummings wanted to be felt.

through his atypical placement of words he attempts to mirror the cadence of the senses.

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