Friday, May 27, 2011

the dirt on cummings' marriage to Elaine

All the gossip about who cummings' relationship with his wife Elaine.  Is this relevant to our study of his work?
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3 comments:

  1. Michelle GoodwinMay 28, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    I think that his cheating might have contributed to the idea of life being meaningless. Because he saw love as something that people don't respect, well Elaine didn't. A lot of his poetry involves growing up, and by the article he wasn't nearly "old" enough to take care of his daughter. Every relationship plays into a poem in some way shape or form, even if it can't be identified right away.

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  2. Marissa ParkerJune 2, 2011 at 11:31 AM

    I thought it was really interesting that even after he and Elaine got married they still didn't live together and he didn't see his own daughter very often. I think that might be why he writes about love in many different ways. To him, it isn't this once-in-a-lifetime, all powerful thing; its more something to just play around with. From the article I also got the sense that he didn't really respect most women, especially when the author talked about how he disaproved of his Elaine's lifestyle and when he ignores his wife Marion's request that he doesn't see Nancy. This might have contributed to all his poems that seem to be more about sex or lust than actual love.

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  3. Kristen Silva-RoblesJune 2, 2011 at 9:01 PM

    I think that Cummings seems almost like a Gatsby to me in that both are very much aware that there is a social class and that because of their low position in it they aren't quite happy with themselves. Also it seems that Cummings sees love as a game. From the article i get that Cummings didn't put up much of a fight when Elaine asked him for a divorce. Also the fact that Elaine neglects to share Nancy breaks Cummings, although later on it's seen that he wasn't a great father since he even refused to be called father by Nancy. He becomes bitter and confused about love which is what he writes about in some of his poems, such as "since feeling is first"

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