Context
The Cummings family lived in a large house, which was in a fantastic location. This family house was located in the shadows of Harvard. This family was really close; both the parents of Cummings believed that Cummings would become famous. This tells us that both his parents had this belief in Cummings, which was a major encouragement towards his poetry. Cummings often complained that his father did not understand his unique personality, but both the parents were equally loving and they were financially supportive, all this help, which he received, was a major help towards his poetry and his work. Cummings attended a private school, but was unsuccessful and he later moved to the Agassiz school. Due to his parents’ wealth he was able to study poetry and write short poems at a young age. (13)
The return
SEE, they return; ah, see the tentative
Movements, and the slow feet,
The trouble in the pace and the uncertain
Wavering!
See, they return, one, and by one,
5
With fear, as half-awakened;
As if the snow should hesitate
And murmur in the wind,
and half turn back;
These were the “Wing’d-with-Awe,”
10
inviolable.
Gods of that wingèd shoe!
With them the silver hounds,
sniffing the trace of air!
Haie! Haie!
15
These were the swift to harry;
These the keen-scented;
These were the souls of blood.
Slow on the leash,
pallid the leash-men!
This poem above was not written by E E Cummings, this is a poem, which stimulated him the most. This poem is called the return, written by the pound. He stated that this poem affected him due to the lack of meter and he took liberties with word spacing. This poem did not only change his life in also changed his writing style. This poem encouraged him to experiment with typography and spacing. Therefore he avoids using capital letters and uses punctuation in rare cases. (13)