e. e. cummings Quotes - Page 7

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I was too tired to think. I merely felt the town as a unique unreality. What was it? I knew -- the moon's picture of a town. These streets with their houses did not exist, they were but a ludicrous projection of the moon's sumptuous personality. This was a city of Pretend, created by the hypnotism of moonnight. -- Yet when I examined the moon she too seemed but a painting of a moon and the sky in which she lived a fragile echo of color. If I blew hard the whole shy mechanism would collapse gently with a neat soundless crash. I must not, or lose all.

e. e. cummings

Tired, Unique, Moon

E.E. Cummings (2015). “The Enormous Room”, p.46, Xist Publishing

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Take the so-called standard of living. What do most people mean by "living"? They don’t mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science, in its finite but unbounded wisdom, has succeeded in selling their wives.

e. e. cummings

Mean, People, Wife

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love is thicker than forget more thinner than recall more seldom than a wave is wet more frequent than to fail it is most mad and moonly and less it shall unbe than all the sea which only is deeper than the sea love is less always than to win less never than alive less bigger than the least begin less littler than forgive it is most sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher than the sky

e. e. cummings

Winning, Love Is, Sea

e. e. cummings (2014). “100 Selected Poems”, p.66, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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Private property began the instant somebody had a mind of his own.

e. e. cummings

Wisdom, Mind, Politics

E. E. Cummings, Richard Kostelanetz, John M. Rocco (1999). “AnOther E.E. Cummings”, p.276, W. W. Norton & Company

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(and from my thighs which shrug and pant a murdering rain leapingly reaches the upward singular deepest flower which she carries in a gesture of her hips)

e. e. cummings

Rain, Flower, Gestures

E. E. Cummings (1994). “Selected Poems”, p.81, W. W. Norton & Company

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...losing through you what seemed myself, i find selves unimaginably mine; beyond sorrow's own joys and hopings very fears yours is the light by which my spirit's born: yours is the darkness of my soul's return... you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.

e. e. cummings

Soulmate, Stars, Moon

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we're anything brighter than even the sun

e. e. cummings

Sun, Brighter

E. E. Cummings (1983). “Hist Whist: And Other Poems for Children”, p.14, W. W. Norton & Company

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Now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened.

e. e. cummings

Nature, Eye, Poetry

"Selected Poems".

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...and down they forgot as up they grew.

e. e. cummings

Grew

e. e. cummings (2014). “100 Selected Poems”, p.54, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you (trees are their roots and wind is wind) trust your heart if the seas catch fire (and live by love though the stars walk backward) honour the past but welcome the future (and dance your death away at this wedding) never mind a world with its villains or heroes (for god likes girls and tomorrow and the earth)

e. e. cummings

Girl, Dream, Stars

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Tumbling-hair picker of buttercups violets dandelions And the big bullying daisies through the field wonderful with eyes a little sorry Another comes also picking flowers

e. e. cummings

Bullying, Sorry, Flower

E. E. Cummings (1996). “Tulips and Chimneys”, p.30, W. W. Norton & Company

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may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile

e. e. cummings

Love Yourself, Heart, Sunday

e. e. cummings (2014). “100 Selected Poems”, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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Every artist's strictly illimitable country is himself. An artist who plays that country false has committed suicide; and even a good lawyer cannot kill the dead. But a human being who's true to himself - whoever himself may be - is immortal; and all the atomic bombs of all the antiartists in spacetime will never civilize immortality.

e. e. cummings

Suicide, Country, Artist

"I: Six Nonlectures". Book by E. E. Cummings, 1953.

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Writingis an art; and artistsare human beings. As a human being stands, so a human being is

e. e. cummings

Art, Humans, Human Beings

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if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have
one. It will not be a pansy heaven or
a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but
it will be a heaven of blackred roses
my father will be(deep like a rose
tall like a rose)
standing near my
swaying over her
(silent)
with eyes which are really petals and see
nothing with the face of a poet really which
is a flower and not a face with
hands
which whisper
This is my beloved my
(suddenly in sunlight
he will bow,
and the whole garden will bow)

e. e. cummings

Mother, Father, Flower

E. E. Cummings (2013). “Like a perhaps hand: Poems. Gedichte”, p.28, C.H.Beck

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maggie and milly and molly and may went down to the beach (to play one day) and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and milly befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles and may come home with a smooth rounded stone as small as a world and as big as alone. for whatever we loose (like a you or a me) it is always ourselves we find in the sea.

e. e. cummings

Beach, Stars, Home

E. E. Cummings (1983). “Hist Whist: And Other Poems for Children”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

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since feelings come first, who cares about the syntax of things?

e. e. cummings

Feelings, Who Cares, Syntax

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nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility

e. e. cummings

Small Hands, Fragility, World

E. E. Cummings (1997). “ViVa”, p.57, W. W. Norton & Company

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So, when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks tock don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me.

e. e. cummings

Spring, Kissing, Differences

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True wars are never won.

e. e. cummings

War

"1 x 1". Book by E. E. Cummings, 1944.

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hopes dance best on bald men's hair

e. e. cummings

Hope, Men, Hair

E. E. Cummings (1994). “Selected Poems”, p.11, W. W. Norton & Company

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May my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if its sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young

e. e. cummings

Sunday, Men, Fearless

E. E. Cummings (2007). “Selected Poems”, p.26, W. W. Norton & Company

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Damn everything but the circus! ...damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won't get into the circle, that won't enjoy. That won't throw it's heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence.

e. e. cummings

Heart, Circles, Inward

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The sensual mysticism of entire vertical being.

e. e. cummings

Sensual, Vertical, Mysticism

E. E. Cummings (1996). “Tulips and Chimneys”, p.103, W. W. Norton & Company

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There are certain things in which one is unable to believe for the simple reason that he never ceases to feel them. Things of this sort - things which are always inside of us and in fact are us and which consequently will not be pushed off or away where we can begin thinking about them - are no longer things; they, and the us which they are, equals A Verb; an IS.

e. e. cummings

Life, Believe, Simple

E.E. Cummings (2015). “The Enormous Room”, p.162, Xist Publishing

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Born: October 14, 1894
Died: September 3, 1962
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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