Saturday, February 14, 2009

Arty-Farty Weekend : e.e. cummings

Today, Valentine's Day, it's traditional to speak of lurrrve. Who better to lend his voice than e.e.cummings?
(Heart illustration ,left, is by Erté)





A multi-tasking artist was e.e. cummings. Though best-known as a poet, he was a prolific painter, as well as novelist. There's a gallery of his paintings HERE , from which I've borrowed one or two as examples.


"Whimsical and experimental, E.E. Cummings was a popular American poet of the early 20th century. Cummings' first published work was his 1922 novel The Enormous Room, based on his time in a French prison camp during World War I. He became more widely known as an avant garde poet, thanks to his unconventional use of typography, syntax and sometimes scandalous (at the time) choices of words and topics. He had a fondness for scattering words unevenly across a page, and liked to spell his own name as e.e. cummings, leading generations of college students to remember him as the guy who didn't capitalize his own name. "
From Answers.com

There, in a very small nutshell, is the biography of e e cummings. It's a small nutshell, but it pinpoints the salient parts of his personality which can be cearly seen in his natal chart :

Born 14 October 1894 in Cambridge Massachusetts, at 7pm.




The key to this is Mercury conjunct Uranus in Scorpio - look at the adjectives in the bio above - avant garde, unconventional, uneven (Uranus), scandalous at the time (Scorpio) - in relation to his mode of writing (Mercury). It's classic. Love it!

There are a couple of oppositions - Sun and Moon, Mars and Saturn, close enough to blend into one big opposition Sun/Saturn in Libra opp. Moon/Mars in Aries. A broad interpretation of a complex aspect could be: a restless soul, charming but determined, not always at ease within himself.




Venus, planet of the Arts in its home sign of Libra trines imaginative Neptune and powerful Pluto in Gemini, boosting creativity.






With natal Venus, planet of love and the Arts at home in Libra in the chart of e.e.cummings, in 5th house of pleasures, and in trine with Pluto and Neptune in communicative Gemini - creative eroticism rules! As this is a family blog, I've restricted myself to a couple of his milder works.

I've chosen poems which are not too cummings-ish and peculiarly Uranian in their layout. The limitations of Blogger (and me) would tend to send lines and verses all over the place where mr. cummings never intended.

So.....



love is a place by e.e.cummings

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds


AND
i carry your heart with me by e.e.cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


More biography HERE

HAVE A LOVELY VALENTINE'S DAY Y'ALL !

12 comments:

  1. Every day is Valentine's Day with you.

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  2. Awwww....thank you kind sir, likewise, I'm sure.....
    Now that reminds me of a song from "Mary Poppins", and it ends..

    Your sweet gentility is crystal clear!
    Oh, it's a jolly holiday with you, anyjazz....
    A jolly, jolly holiday with you!"

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  3. T~
    May your skies be filled with love
    And the earth sing softly between your toes.
    XO
    WWW

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  4. WWW - Thank you my friend.....
    Shine on, don't forget to be awesome - and stay on the starry side! :-)

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  5. Seeing my favorite e.e. poem makes me wonder why I haven't given it to my wife - and tried to pass it off as my own! A wonderful, wonderful piece of verse.

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  6. TNPOTUS...Awww - you guys are going all squishy today... :-)
    That's a sweet thought - with a less well-read woman than
    Mrs. TNPOTUS you could well get away with it.

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  7. I never knew he painted.

    HAPPY (bit late) VALENTINE'S DAY!

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  8. Thanks Michelle! It was a happy day, though punctuated by allergic sneezes and sniffles -my nose doesn't like this peculiar weather !

    I hope yours was happy, too. :-)

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  9. I don't know much about this guy, but the other theme - love. Well, a different matter.

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  10. I love e.e. cummings poetry and did not know about the paintings. Thanks for posting. I also love Erte - have a bunch of books of his art.

    Another late Valentine wish to you.

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  11. AN ~~~ His poetry is well worth investigating. You've obviously investigated love already, very successfully! :-)

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  12. Adele Aldridge - Hi Adele ~~~ Me too - on both counts.

    They both have something special to offer, and were prolific in their output, so lots to see and read. I never tire of either. :-)

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