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Sunday, April 28, 2013

in Just-spring / E.E. Cummings


from Chansons Innocentes

I

in Just-
spring      when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame baloonman

whistles      far      and wee

and eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old baloonman whistles
far       and       wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
       the
             goat-footed

baloonMan       whistles
far
and
wee

~~
E.E. Cummings (1894-1962), 1920
from The Dial, May 1920

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

E.E. Cummings biography

"In just-spring" read by E.E. Cummings. Courtesy sufanxphile.

2 comments:

  1. I've been waiting to blog this one. Cummings died in 1962, meaning that his poetry went into the public domain in Canada this past January, so I've been looking forward to addding him to the other poets represented there this year; but I wanted to start with "In Just-spring," which is one of my favorites.

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  2. E. E. Cummings... I've always told myself, "Gave me permission not to use punctuation and capital letters." This was freeing. I've since learnt there are ways to simulate punctuation, for instance, the pause at the end of a line happens without a comma... or sometimes I use a '...'. But I'm still learning. And doin' my own thang. I love the video George Dance, I'd love to try this one day. Cathleen Harvea

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