Read Some E.E. Cummings Today

Every once in a while, I read something that makes me fall in love with literature all over again. The past two weeks, my American Literature class has been studying Modernism. We've analyzed Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and E.E. Cummings. Pretty much every story I assign I preface with, "Oh guys, this is my favorite." Generally they roll their eyes and tell me I say that about everything we read. Maybe someday they'll feel the same about at least one piece of literature. 

I'm a huge fan of Fitzgerald and fully plan on naming my child -- wait, at least my pet -- after him or his wife, Zelda. His rich diction along with superb characterization make me hungry for reading more. We completed his short story "Winter Dreams" last week, and I had a student tell me, "I've always thought I like Fitzgerald, but mostly because of the movie The Great Gatsby. Now I really know that I like him." How cool is that?!? (Side note: The new movie with Leonardo DiCaprio is not worth watching.)

On Thursday, I asked the students to read through poems written by E.E. Cummings, annotate one, and bring it to class on Friday to share. Now, if you know much about Cummings, his playful way with words is kind of fun to decode. Most of his poems relate to war and sex. With that said, it was quite interesting to see what they shared. Some students chose the shortest poem they could find, others tried to shock me with something seemingly inappropriate, and all of them did an excellent job of "reading between the lines." As we read through the poems and discussed them as a group, one student said, "What if these poets don't have really any meaning behind their work, and they're just sitting around laughing at people like us dissecting every word." I must say that I've thought about this a time or two, but my teacher-self responded with, "Yeah, but that's what's so cool about literature. We can all think whatever we want, and we're all right. No one really knows what Ezra Pound was thinking when he wrote the 14 word poem "In a Station of the Metro." We are all granted the right to decide that for ourselves."

I spent some more time reading E.E. Cummings this morning, falling in love with the wonder behind his words, structure, and off-beat style. I hope my students can see the greatness of literature, and if all else fails, at least have an appreciation for how it has and will continue to impact all of us.