Relating to EE Cummings Poetry :: Biography Biographies Essays

Relating to EE Cummings' Poetry It's not necessarily easy to read. And it's probably harder to understand. But the poetry of ee cummings has made a nitch in our society of innovative minds and experimental art that we cannot argue. Whether we like it, hate it, or throw it down in frustration, we have to appreciate the door this poet has opened for so many generations of writers and stylists. We picked "my sweet old etcetera" because if was the simplist poems to understand, and there's a lot we could say about it (and we each had a 750 word responce paper ahead of us to think about.) "my sweet old etcetera" begins by describing the folks back home and their conversations of know-it-all nothingness. He describes how they share their righteous opinions about a war they know very little about. He uses the word "etcetera" throughout the poem as some people today use the phrase "blah blah blah" to trail the ends of their sentences. Come on, you know you say it. I know I do all the time..."my story is going to be about chasing dreams, and hopefulness, da da da da da." This poem discribes how hypocritical we all are. How we can talk about something that's happening a million miles away as if we know all, when we really can't possibly know anything about it. After reading it over and over again, I find that I can relate to this poem in one way. Last year, I had my first taste of being away from home. Back home, everyone was so proud of what I had accomplished--going so far away to follow my dreams. They knew without a doubt that I was going to be successful. They knew without a doubt that I was happy, that I was driven. They said so all the time. But what they didn't talk about were my everyday mistakes and misfortunes. They didn't mention that I no longer took center stage--that I rarely ever performed in town. they seems to pass over that awful semester of sociology and my first heartbreaks away from home. They didn't talk about it because in the long run, they knew all of that didn't matter.