Edward Estlin Cummings

“ It seemed to me that i had first of all really made quite a mistake in being at all born, seeing that i was wifeless and only half awake, cursed with pimples, correctly dressed, cleanshaven above the nombril, and much to my astonishment much impressed by having once noticed (as an infantile phenomenon) George Washington almost incompletely surrounded by well-drawn icecakes beheld being too strong, in brief: an American, if you understand that i mean what i say i believe my most intimate friends would never have gathered. ”

“ I
after all white horses are in bed
will you walking beside me, my very lady,
if scarcely the somewhat city
wiggles in considerable twilight
touch (now) with a suddenly unsaid
gesture lightly my eyes? ”

“ So this is Paris.
i will sit in the corner and drink thinks and think drinks,
in memory of the Grand and Old days:
of Amy Sandburg
of Algernon Carl Swinburned,
Waiter a drink waiter two or three drinks
what’s become of Mæterlink
now that April’s here?
(ask the man who owns one
ask Dad, He knows) . ”

“ II
touching you i say (it being Spring
and night) “let us go a very little beyond
the last road—there’s something to be found”
and smiling you answer “everything
turns into something else, and slips away. . . .
(these leaves are Thingish with moondrool
and i’m ever so very little afraid”)
and i’m ever so very little afraid”) i say
“along this particular road the moon if you’ll
notice follows us like a big yellow dog. You
don’t believe? ”

“ Cats which move smoothly from neck to neck of bottles, cats
smoothly willowing out and in between bottles,who step smoothly
and rapidly along this pole over five squirming
mice; or leap through hoops of fire, creating smoothness.
People stare, the drunker applaud
while twilight takes the sting out of the vermilion
jacket of nodding hairy Jaqueline who is given a mouse
to hold lovingly,
our lady whatdoyouthink of this? ”

“ Of Evil sold 69 carloads before
publication the girl who goes wrong you
know (whereas when i lie down i cough too
much) . How did the traffic get so jammed?
bedad it is the famous doctor who inserts
monkeyglands in millionaires a cute idea n’est-ce pas? ”

“ Wiggin’s harm in is, extinguishing the spitoon by a candle furnished by courtesy of the management on Thursdays, opposite which a church perfectly upright but not piano item:a watermelon causes indigestion to William Cullen Longfellow’s negro son, Henry Wadsworth Bryant. ”

“ TWO
X
16 heures
l’Etoile
the communists have fine Eyes
some are young some old none
look alike the flics rush
batter the crowd sprawls collapses
singing knocked down trampled the kicked by
flics rush (the
Flics, tidiyum, are
very tidiyum reassuringly similar,
they all have very tidiyum
mustaches, and very
tidiyum chins, and just above
their very tidiyum ears their
very tidiyum necks begin)
very tidiyum necks begin) let us add ”

“ Inexpressible itchings to be photographed with Lord Rothermere playing with Lord Rothermere billiards very well by moonlight with Lord Rothermere.
A crockodile eats a native, who in revenge beats it insensible with a banana, establishing meanwhile a religious cult based on consubstantial intangibility.
Personne ne m’aime et j’ai les mains froides.
Royal Highness said “peek-a-boo” and thirty tame fleas left the prettily embroidered howdah immediately
Thumbprints of an angel named Frederick found on a lightning-rod, Boston, Mass. ”

“ IX
even if all desires things moments be
murdered known photographed, ourselves yawning willaskourselves
ou sont les neiges. . . . some
guys talks big
about Lundun Burlin an gay Paree an
some guys claims der never was
nutn like Nooer Leans Shikahgo Sain
Looey Noo York an San Fran dictaphones
wireless subways vacuum
cleaners pianolas funnygraphs skyscrapers an safetyrazors
sall right in its way kiddo
but as fer i gimme de good ole daze. . . . ”

“ VII
lis
-ten
you know what i mean when
the first guy drops you know
everybody feels sick or
when they throw in a few gas
and the oh baby shrapnel
or my feet getting dim freezing or
up to your you know what in water or
with the bugs crawling right all up
all everywhere over you all me everyone
that’s been there knows what
i mean a god damned lot of
people don’t and never
never
will know,
they don’t want ”

“ VIII
will out of the kindness of their hearts a few philoso-
⁠phers tell me
what am i doing on top of this hill at Calchidas, in the
⁠sunlight?
down ever so far on the beach below me a little girl in
⁠white spins,tumbles; rolling in sand.
across this water,crowding tints:browns and whites
⁠shoving,the dotting millions of windows of thou-
⁠sands of houses—Lisboa. Like the crackle of a
⁠typewriter,in the afternoon sky.
goats and sheep are driven by somebody along a curve
⁠of road which eats into a pink cliff back and up
⁠leaning out of yellowgreen water. ”

“ XI
because
you go away i give roses who
will advise even yourself, lady
in the most certainly (of what we
everywhere do not touch) deep
things;
things; remembering ever so
tinily these, your crisp
eyes actually shall contain new faeries ”

“ In theex qui site
morning,
morning, her sureLyeye s sit-ex actly her sitsat a surely!little,
roundtable amongother; littleexactly round. tables,
Her
Her .eyes
THREE
VI
candles and
Here Comes a glass box
which the exhumed
hand of Saint Ignatz miraculously
inhabits. (people tumble
down. people crumble to their
knees. people
begin crossing people) and ”