DV:
Yes, Richard Kennedy in the 1994 Cummings biography Dreams in the Mirror
spends much time on the Greek influence. In fact C majored in Greek at
Harvard and was mentored by a prof of Greek while there.
Frost also studied at Harvard, but much earlier than Cummings. But
coincidentally at the time Cummings' father was a professor there. And
Frost, too, was "into" Greek.
I feel at such a loss in this regard. I took 3 years of Latin and many years
of French, but much of the latter was repetitive, so I'm not advanced in
languages at all.
Thanks for the link -- I'll check it out.
I find it fascinating that both Frost & Cummings were on the poets'
"circuit," reading from their poetry to SRO crowds in their late years. Many
of those "fans" like both poets. Yet the poets themselves seemed to hold the
other in disdain (there's that word again). Cummings said of "Stopping by
Woods...," "It's this side of platitude." Even Cummings was unable or
unwilling to see the depth of Frost's poetry, or envied the wealth Frost
accumulated by his writing, which C failed to do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dirceu Villa" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 4:18 PM
Subject: cummings and Frost
> Dear Kate,
>
> I don't think cummings and Frost are opposed like
> the urban X farm thing. Frost wasn't even worried
> about a new idiom for poetry, he wasn't concerned with
> that MAKE IT NEW motto (and that's why he got so upset
> about Pound's review that said:"he paints the thing as
> he sees it"). On the other hand, e.e.cummings was much
> of an ancient Greek lyrical poet; consider what it
> means in the beginning of the 20th century. Yet, some
> critics today find cummings only a common lyrical poet
> with an odd English (sic) typescript. They can't see
> the Greek element of his unusual conception of rhythm.
>
> By the way, I'm sending you a link:
>
> http://www.ubu.com/feature/sound/feature_cummings.html
>
> with some of his poems read by himself, which I think
> are pretty illustrative.
> Best regards,
> Dirceu Villa.
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email!
> http://mail.yahoo.com/
>
|
