Thursday, May 19, 2011

E. E. Cummings or e e cummings?

To capitalize or not?  The debate rages on... without extensive research, but knowing his poetry, what do you think on the issue?
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6 comments:

  1. SimoneMay 19, 2011 at 8:22 PM

    It's a name, right? So..... wouldn't it make sense to have it capitalized? Why would people debate over something like this?

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  2. samlee2.25May 19, 2011 at 8:47 PM

    As it says on that website in the link, he used capital letters when writing things besides poetry (Like "I" in his letters, as opposed to "i" in his work). I think in his work, he uses it to create emphasis on certain words or for names and things, but since this isn't poetry and it's his own name in real life, it should be capitalized...

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  3. Shannon SwansonMay 19, 2011 at 9:41 PM

    I think that in regards to ee cummings it should be used under certain circumstances. When speaking formally like when on the cover of a book it should be EE Cummings. But in reviews I think that it depicts some forms of his personal writing style.

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  4. Dylan Robbins-KelleyMay 20, 2011 at 6:26 PM

    I feel his name definitely should be capitalized as that's what his name legally is. According to his wife he never had it legally changed, so I see no reason why he should be referred to as ee cummings. I feel like once he died the authority on what he should be referred to was sort of passed on to his wife, and she prefers the capitalized version. One's name does not have to reflect their work. it is only a name.

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  5. RyleeMay 22, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    I feel that poetry is such an intense type of writing that it often reflects a writer to who they identify themself as. Every person wants that sense of individuality and it seems that cummings does this by not going with the norm and uses lowercase letters for his name. Maybe he doesnt want to be professional but wants his own style. If he wrote this way before he died i feel that it should stay that way. I believe poetry isnt about etiquitte in the writing world but more about expressing emotions and creating charcter for the writer. I vote for e.e cummings original way of spelling it.

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  6. AnonymousMay 23, 2011 at 1:17 AM

    I think it should be ee cummings. cummings was trying to change the world of poetry by his particular capitalization and punctuation, and he chose his name as such. We still refer to Dr. Suess as Dr. Suess and George Sand as George Sand, even though those are both names created by their wearers. These authors all made choices to create an identity based on their names, and in a lot of ways, their work is reflected by those created identities rather than their own. ee cummings might have been born EE Cummings, but as a poet he was ee cummings, so his work should be labelled as such.
    -Anais

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