O SWEET SPONTANEOUS

  O SWEET SPONTANEOUS 

Edward Estlin Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings was born  at home n Cambridge , Massachusetts , October 14 , 1894 . He began writing poems as early as 1904 and studied Latin and Greek at the Cambridge Latin High school . he received his  B . A . in 1915 and his M . A . in 1916 , both Harvard . His studies there introduced him to avant  garde writers , such as Gertrude stein and Ezra  Pound .

In 1917 , Cumming published an early selection of poems in the anthology Eight Harvard Poets .the same year ,Cummings left the United States for France as a volunteer  ambulance driver in World War I . five months after his assignment ,however , he and a friend were interned in a prison camp by the French authorities on suspicion of espionage (an experience recounted in his novel ,The enormous room ) for his outspoken anti -war  convictions 

After the war , he settled into a life divided between house in rural Connecticut and Greenwich village, with frequent visits to Paris .He also traveled  throughout  Europe ,meeting poets and artists , including  Pablo Picasso, whose work he particularly admired .

In 1920 ,the Dial published  seven poems by Cummings ,including " Buffalo Bills " . Serving as Cummings ' debut to a wider American audience ,these "experiments " foreshadowed the synthetic cubist strategy Cummings would explore in the next few years .

In his work ,Cummings experimented radically with form ,punctuation ,spelling and syntax abandoning traditional techniques and structure to create a new , highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression .later in his career ,he was often criticized for settling into his signature style and not pressing his work towards further evolution . Nevertheless , he attained great popularity , especially among  young readers , for the simplicity of his language , his playful mode and his attention to subjects such as war and sex .

During his lifetime ,Cummings received a number of honours , including an Academy of American poets fellowship ,two Guggenheim fellowships, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard , the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1958 , and  a ford Foundation grant .

At the time of his death , September  3 , 1962 , he was the second most widely read poet in the United  States , after Robert Frost . He is buries in forest Hills Cemetery in Boston Massachusetts .