[ { "slug": "amores-i", "title": "Amores I", "first_line": "consider O", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "consider O\nwoman this\nmy body.\nfor it has\n\nlain\nwith empty arms\nupon the giddy hills\nto dream of you,\n\napprove these\nfirm unsated\neyes\nwhich have beheld\n\nnight’s speechless carnival\nthe painting\nof the dark\nwith meteors\n\nstreaming from playful\nimmortal hands\nthe bursting\nof the wafted stars\n\n(in time to come you shall\nremember of this night amazing\nesctasies slowly,\nin the glutted\n\nheart fleet\nflowerterrible\nmemories\nshall\n\nrise,slowly\nreturn upon the\n red elected lips\n\nscaleless visions)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-i.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-ii", "title": "Amores II", "first_line": "there is a", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "there is a\nmoon sole\nin the blue\nnight\n\n amorous of waters\ntremulous,\nblinded with silence the\nundulous heaven yearns where\n\nin tense starlessness\nanoint with ardor\nthe yellow lover\n\nstands in the dumb dark\nsvelte\nand\nurgent\n\n (again\nlove i slowly\ngather\nof thy languorous mouth the\n\nthrilling\nflower)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-iv", "title": "Amores IV", "first_line": "if i believe", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "if i believe\nin death be sure\nof this\nit is\n\nbecause you have loved me,\nmoon and sunset\nstars and flowers\ngold crescendo and silver muting\n\nof seatides\ni trusted not,\n one night\nwhen in my fingers\n\ndrooped your shining body\nwhen my heart\nsang between your perfect\nbreasts\n\ndarkness and beauty of stars\nwas on my mouth petals danced\nagainst my eyes\nand down\n\nthe singing reaches of\nmy soul\nspoke\nthe green-\n\ngreeting pale-\ndeparting irrevocable\nsea\ni knew thee death.\n\n and when\ni have offered up each fragrant\nnight,when all my days\nshall have before a certain\n\nface become\nwhite\nperfume\nonly,\n\n from the ashes\nthen\nthou wilt rise and thou\nwilt come to her and brush\n\nthe mischief from her eyes and fold\nher\nmouth the new\nflower with\n\nthy unimaginable\nwings, where dwells the breath\nof all persisting stars", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-iii", "title": "Amores III", "first_line": "as is the sea marvelous", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "as is the sea marvelous\nfrom god’s\nhands which sent her forth\nto sleep upon the world\n\nand the earth withers\nthe moon crumbles\none by one\nstars flutter into dust\n\nbut the sea\ndoes not change\nand she goes forth out of hands and\nshe returns into hands\n\nand is with sleep....\n\nlove,\n the breaking\n\nof your\n soul\n upon\nmy lips", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-v", "title": "Amores V", "first_line": "the glory is fallen out of", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the glory is fallen out of\nthe sky the last immortal\nleaf\nis\n\ndead and the gold\nyear\na formal spasm\nin the\n\ndust\nthis is the passing of all shining things\ntherefore we also\nblandly\n\ninto receptive\nearth,O let\nus\ndescend\n\ntake\nshimmering wind\nthese fragile splendors from\nus crumple them hide\n\nthem in they breath drive\nthem in nothingness\nfor we\nwould sleep\n\nthis is the passing of all shining things\nno lingering no backward-\nwondering be unto\nus O\n\nsoul,but straight\nglad feet fearruining\nand glorygirded\nfaces\n\nlead us\ninto the\nserious\nsteep\n\ndarkness", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-v.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-vi", "title": "Amores VI", "first_line": "i like", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "i like\nto think that on\nthe flower you gave me when we\nloved\n\n the far-\ndeparted mouth sweetly-saluted\nlingers.\n if one marvel\n\nseeing the hunger of my\nlips for a dead thing,\ni shall instruct\nhim silently with becoming\n\nsteps to seek\nyour face and i\nentreat,by certain foolish perfect\nhours\n\n dead too,\nif that he come receive\nhim as your lover sumptuously\nbeing\n\nkind\n because i trust him to\nyour grace,and for\nin his own land\n\nhe is called death.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-vii", "title": "Amores VII", "first_line": "O Distinct", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "O Distinct\nLady of my unkempt adoration\nif i have made\na fragile certain\n\nsong under the window of your soul\nit is not like any songs\n(the singers the others\nthey have been faithful\n\nto many things and which\ndie\ni have been sometimes true\nto Nothing and which lives\n\nthey were fond of the handsome\nmoon never spoke ill of the\npretty stars and to\nthe serene the complicated\n\nand the obvious\nthey were faithful\nand which I despise,\nfrankly\n\nadmitting i have been true\nonly to the noise of worms.\nin the eligible day\nunder the unaccountable sun)\n\nDistinct Lady\nswiftly take\nmy fragile certain song\nthat we may watch together\n\nhow behind the doomed\nexact smile of life’s\nplacid obscure palpable\ncarnival where to a normal\n\nmelody of probable violins dance\nthe square virtues and the oblong sins\nperfectly\ngesticulate the accurate\n\nstrenuous lips of incorruptible\nNothing under the ample\nsun,under the insufficient\nday under the noise of worms", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "amores-viii", "title": "Amores VIII", "first_line": "your little voice\n Over the wires came leaping", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "your little voice\n Over the wires came leaping\nand i felt suddenly\ndizzy\n With the jostling and shouting of merry flowers\nwee skipping high-heeled flames\ncourtesied before my eyes\n or twinkling over to my side\nLooked up\nwith impertinently exquisite faces\nfloating hands were laid upon me\nI was whirled and tossed into delicious dancing\nup\nUp\nwith the pale important\n stars and the Humorous\n moon\ndear girl\nHow i was crazy how i cried when i heard\n over time\nand tide and death\nleaping\nSweetly\n your voice", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/amores-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "chansons-innocentes-i", "title": "Chansons Innocentes I", "first_line": "in Just-", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "in Just-\nspring when the world is mud-\nluscious the little\nlame balloonman\n\nwhistles far and wee\n\nand eddieandbill come\nrunning from marbles and\npiracies and it’s\nspring\n\nwhen the world is puddle-wonderful\n\nthe queer\nold balloonman whistles\nfar and wee\nand bettyandisbel come dancing\n\nfrom hop-scotch and jump-rope and\n\nit’s\nspring\nand\n the\n\n goat-footed\n\nballoonMan whistles\nfar\nand\nwee", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-i.txt" }, { "slug": "chansons-innocentes-ii", "title": "Chansons Innocentes II", "first_line": "hist whist", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "hist whist\nlittle ghostthings\ntip-toe\ntwinkle-toe\n\nlittle twitchy\nwitches and tingling\ngoblins\nhob-a-nob hob-a-nob\n\nlittle hoppy happy\ntoad in tweeds\ntweeds\nlittle itchy mousies\n\nwith scuttling\neyes rustle and run and\nhidehidehide\nwhisk\n\nwhisk look out for the old woman\nwith the wart on her nose\nwhat she’ll do to yer\nnobody knows\n\nfor she knows the devil ooch\nthe devil ouch\nthe devil\nach the great\n\ngreen\ndancing\ndevil\ndevil\n\ndevil\ndevil\n\n wheeEEE", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "chansons-innocentes-iii", "title": "Chansons Innocentes III", "first_line": "Tumbling-hair\n picker of buttercups\n violets", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Tumbling-hair\n picker of buttercups\n violets\ndandelions\nAnd the big bullying daisies\n through the field wonderful\nwith eyes a little sorry\nAnother comes\n also picking flowers", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/chansons-innocentes-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "epithalamion", "title": "Epithalamion", "first_line": "Thou aged unreluctant earth who dost", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "1.\n\nThou aged unreluctant earth who dost\nwith quivering continual thighs invite\nthe thrilling rain the slender paramour\nto toy with thy extraordinary lust,\n(the sinuous rain which rising from thy bed\nsteals to his wife the sky and hour by hour\nwholly renews her pale flesh with delight)\n—immortally whence are the high gods fled?\n\nSpeak elm eloquent pandar with thy nod\nsignificant to the ecstatic earth\nin token of his coming whom her soul\nburns to embrace—and didst thou know the god\nfrom but the imprint of whose cloven feet\nthe shrieking dryad sought her leafy goal,\nat the mere echo of whose shining mirth\nthe furious hearts of mountains ceased to beat?\n\nWind beautifully who wanderest\nover smooth pages of forgotten joy\nproving the peaceful theorems of the flowers\n—didst e’er depart upon more exquisite quest?\nand did they fortunate fingers sometime dwell\n(within a greener shadow of secret bowers)\namong the curves of that delicious boy\nwhose serious grace one goddess loved too well?\n\nChryselephantine Zeus Olympian\nsceptred colossus of the Pheidian soul\nwhose eagle frights creation,in whose palm\nNike presents the crown sweetest to man,\nwhose lilied robe the sun’s white hands emboss,\nbetwixt whose absolute feet anoint with calm\nof intent stars circling the acerb pole\npoises,smiling,the diadumenos\n\nin whose young chiseled eyes the people saw\ntheir once again victorious Pantarkes\n(whose grace the prince of artists made him bold\nto imitate between the feet of awe),\nthunderer whose omnipotent brow showers\nits curls of unendured eternal gold\nover the infinite breast in bright degrees,\nwhose pillow is the graces and the hours,\n\nfather of gods and men whose subtle throne\ntwain sphinxes bear each with a writhing youth\ncaught to her brazen breasts,whose foot-stool tells\nhow fought the looser of the warlike zone\nof her that brought forth tall Hippolytus,\nlord on whose pedestal the deep expels\n(over Selene’s car closing uncouth)\nof Helios the sweet wheels tremulous—\n\nare there no kings in Argos,that the song\nis silent,of the steep unspeaking tower\nwithin whose brightening strictness Danæ\nsaw the night severed and the glowing throng\ndescend,felt on her flesh the amorous strain\nof gradual hands and yielding to that fee\nher eager body’s unimmortal flower\nknew in the darkness a more burning rain?\n\n2.\n\nAnd still the mad magnificent herald Spring\nassembles beauty from forgetfulness\nwith the wild trump of April:witchery\nof sound and odour drives the wingless thing\nman forth into bright air,for now the red\nleaps in the maple’s cheek,and suddenly\nby shining hordes in sweet unserious dress\nascends the golden crocus from the dead.\n\nOn dappled dawn forth rides the pungent sun\nwith hooded day preening upon his hand\nfollowed by gay untimid final flowers\n(which dressed in various tremulous armor stun\nthe eyes of the ragged earth who sees them pass)\nwhile hunted from his kingdom winter cowers,\nseeing green armies steadily expand\nhearing the spear-song of the marching grass.\n\nA silver sudden parody of snow\ntickles the air to golden tears,and hark!\nthe flicker’s laughing yet,while on the hills\nthe pines deepen to whispers primeval and throw\nbackward their foreheads to the barbarous bright\nsky,and suddenly from the valley thrills\nthe unimaginable upward lark\nand drowns the earth and passes into light\n\n(slowly in life’s serene perpetual round\na pale world gathers comfort to her soul,\nhope richly scattered by the abundant sun\ninvades the new mosaic of the ground\n—let but the incurious curtaining dusk be drawn\nsurpassing nets are sedulously spun\nto snare the brutal dew,—the authentic scroll\nof fairie hands and vanishing with dawn).\n\nSpring,that omits no mention of desire\nin every curved and curling thing,yet holds\ncontinous intercourse—through skies and trees\nthe lilac’s smoke the poppy’s pompous fire\nthe pansy’s purple patience and the grave\nfrailty of daisies—by what rare unease\nrevealed of teasingly transparent folds—\nwith man’s poor soul superlatively brave.\n\nSurely from robes of particoloured peace\nwith mouth flower-faint and undiscovered eyes\nand dim slow perfect body amorous\n(whiter than lilies which are born and cease\nfor being whiter than this world)exhales\nthe hovering high perfume curious\nof that one month for whom the whole year dies,\nrisen at length from palpitating veils.\n\nO still miraculous May!O shining girl\nof time untarnished!O small intimate\ngently primeval hands,frivolous feet\ndivine!O singular and breathless pearl!\nO indefinable frail ultimate pose!\nO visible beatitude sweet sweet\nintolerable!silence immaculate\nof god’s evasive audible great rose!\n\n3.\n\nLover,lead forth thy love unto that bed\nprepared by whitest hands of waiting years,\ncurtained with wordless worship absolute,\nunto the certain altar at whose head\nstands the clear candle whose expecting breath\nexults upon the tongue of flame half-mute,\n(haste e’er some thrush with silver several tears\ncomplete the perfumed paraphrase of death).\n\nNow is the time when all occasional things\nclose into silence,only one tree,one\nsvelte translation of eternity\nunto the pale meaning of heaven clings,\n(whose million leaves in winsome indolence\nsimmer upon thinking twilight momently)\nas down the oblivious west’s numerous dun\nmagnificence conquers magnificence.\n\nIn heaven’s intolerable athanor\ninimitably tortured the base day\nutters at length her soft intrinsic hour,\nand from those tenuous fires which more and more\nsink and are lost the divine alchemist,\nthe magus of creation,lifts a flower—\nwhence is the world’s insufferable clay\nclothed with incognizable amethyst.\n\nLady at whose imperishable smile\nthe amazed doves flicker upon sunny wings\nas if in terror of eternity,\n(or seeming that they would mistrust a while\nthe moving of beauteous dead mouths throughout\nthat very proud transparent company\nof quivering ghosts-of-love which scarcely sings\ndrifting in slow diaphanous faint rout),\n\nqueen in the inconceivable embrace\nof whose tremendous hair that blossom stands\nwhereof is most desire,yet less than those\ntwain perfect roses whose ambrosial grace,\ngoddess,thy crippled thunder-forging groom\nof the loud lord of skipping mænads knows,—\nhaving Discordia’s apple in thy hands,\nwhich the scared shepherd gave thee for his doom—\n\nO thou within the chancel of whose charms\nthe tall boy god of everlasting war\nreceived the shuddering sacrament of sleep,\nbetwixt whose cool incorrigible arms\nimpaled upon delicious mystery,\nwith gaunt limbs reeking of the whispered deep,\ndeliberate groping ocean fondled o’er\nthe warm long flower of unchastity,\n\nimperial Cytherea,from frail foam\nsprung with irrevocable nakedness\nto strike the young world into smoking song—\nas the first star perfects the sensual dome\nof darkness,and the sweet strong final bird\ntranscends the sight,O thou to whom belong\nthe hearts of lovers!—I beseech thee bless\nthy suppliant singer and his wandering word.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/epithalamion/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/epithalamion.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/epithalamion.txt" }, { "slug": "impressions-i", "title": "Impressions I", "first_line": "the sky a silver", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the sky a silver\ndissonance by the correct\nfingers of April\nresolved\n\n into a\nclutter of trite jewels\n\nnow like a moth with stumbling\n\nwings flutters and flops along the\ngrass collides with trees and\nhouses and finally,\nbutts into the river", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-i.txt" }, { "slug": "impressions-ii", "title": "Impressions II", "first_line": "writhe and", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "writhe and\ngape of tortured\n\n perspective\n rasp and graze of splintered\n\nnormality\n crackle and\n sag\n of planes clamors of\n collision\n collapse As\n\npeacefully,\nlifted\ninto the awful beauty\n of sunset\n\n the young city\nputting off dimension with a blush\nenters\nthe becoming garden of her agony", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "impressions-iii", "title": "Impressions III", "first_line": "i was considering how", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "i was considering how\nwithin night’s loose\nsack a star’s\nnibbling in-\n\nfin\n-i-\ntes-\ni\n-mal-\nly devours\n\ndarkness the\nhungry star\nwhich\nwill e\n\n-ven\ntu-\nal\n-ly jiggle\nthe bait of\ndawn and be jerked\n\ninto\n\neternity. when over my head a\nshooting\nstar\nBur s\n\n (t\n into a stale shriek\nlike an alarm-clock)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "impressions-iv", "title": "Impressions IV", "first_line": "the hours rise up putting off stars and it is", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the hours rise up putting off stars and it is\ndawn\ninto the street of the sky light walks scattering poems\n\non earth a candle is\nextinguished the city\nwakes\nwith a song upon her\nmouth having death in her eyes\n\nand it is dawn\nthe world\ngoes forth to murder dreams....\n\ni see in the street where strong\nmen are digging bread\nand i see the brutal faces of\npeople contented hideous hopeless cruel happy\n\nand it is day,\n\nin the mirror\ni see a frail\nman\ndreaming\ndreams\ndreams in the mirror\n\nand it\nis dusk on earth\n\na candle is lighted\nand it is dark.\nthe people are in their houses\nthe frail main is in his bed\nthe city\n\nsleeps with death upon her mouth having a song in her eyes\nthe hours descend,\nputting on stars....\n\nin the street of the sky night walks scattering poems", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "impressions-v", "title": "Impressions V", "first_line": "stinging", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "stinging\ngold swarms\nupon the spires\nsilver\n\n chants the litanies the\ngreat bells are ringing with rose\nthe lewd fat bells\n and a tall\n\nwind\nis dragging\nthe\nsea\n\nwith\ndream\n\n-S", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/impressions-v.txt" }, { "slug": "la-guerre-i", "title": "La Guerre I", "first_line": "the bigness of cannon", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the bigness of cannon\nis skilful,\n\nbut i have seen\ndeath’s clever enormous voice\nwhich hides in a fragility\nof poppies....\n\ni say that sometimes\non these long talkative animals\nare laid fists of huger silence.\n\nI have seen all the silence\nfilled with vivid noiseless boys\n\nat Roupy\ni have seen\nbetween barrages,\n\nthe night utter ripe unspeaking girls.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-i.txt" }, { "slug": "la-guerre-ii", "title": "La Guerre II", "first_line": "O sweet spontaneous", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "O sweet spontaneous\nearth how often have\nthe\ndoting\n\n fingers of\nprurient philosphers pinched\nand\npoked\n\nthee\n,has the naughty thumb\nof science prodded\nthy\n\n beauty .how\noften have religions taken\nthee upon their scraggy knees\nsqueezing and\n\nbuffeting thee that thou mightest conceive\ngods\n (but\ntrue\n\nto the incomparable\ncouch of death thy\nrhythmic\nlover\n\n thou answerest\n\nthem only with\n\n spring)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/la-guerre-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "of-nicolette", "title": "Of Nicolette", "first_line": "dreaming in marble all the castle lay", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "dreaming in marble all the castle lay\nlike some gigantic ghost-flower born of night\nblossoming in white towers to the moon,\nsoft sighed the passionate darkness to the tune\nof tiny troubadours,and(phantom-white)\ndumb-blooming boughs let fall their glorious snows,\nand the unearthly sweetness of a rose\nswam upward from the troubled heart of May;\n\na Winged Passion woke one by one\nthere fell upon the night,like angel’s tears,\nthe syllables of that mysterious prayer,\nand as an opening lily drowsy-fair\n(when from her couch of poppy petals peers\nthe sleepy morning)gently draws apart\nher curtains,and lays bare her trembling heart,\nwith beads of dew made jewels by the sun,\n\nso one high shining tower(which as a glass\nturned light to flame and blazed with snowy fire)\nunfolding,gave the moon a nymphlike face,\na form whose snowy symmetry of grace\nhaunted the limbs of as music haunts the lyre,\na creature of white hands,who letting fall\na thread of lustre from the castle wall\ngilded,a drop of radiance,to the grass—\n\nshunning the sudden moonbeam’s treacherous snare\nshe sought the harbouring dark,and(catching up\nher delicate silk)all white,with shining feet,\nwent forth into the dew:right wildly beat\nher heart at every kiss of daisy-cup,\nand from her cheek beauteous colour went\nwith every bough that reverently bent\nto touch the yellow wonder of her hair.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/of-nicolette/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/of-nicolette.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/of-nicolette.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-ii", "title": "Orientale II", "first_line": "lean candles hunger in", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "lean candles hunger in\nthe silence a\nbrown god\nsmiles between greentwittering\n\nsmokes from broken eyes\na sound\nof strangling breasts and bestial\ngrovelling\n\nhands rasps the purple\ndark-\nness\na\n\nworshipper\nprostrate within twitching shadow\nlolls\n\nsobbing\n\nwith lust", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-i", "title": "Orientale I", "first_line": "i spoke to thee", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "i spoke to thee\nwith a smile and thou didst not\nanswer\nthy mouth is as\na chord of crimson music\n Come hither\nO thou,is life not a smile?\n\ni spoke to thee with\na song and thou\ndidst not listen\nthine eyes are as a vase\nof divine silence\n Come hither\nO thou,is life not a song?\n\ni spoke\nto thee with a soul and\nthou didst not wonder\nthy face is as a dream locked\nin white fragrance\n Come hither\nO thou,is life not love?\n\ni speak to\nthee with a sword\nand thou art silent\nthy breast is as a tomb\nsofter than flowers\n Come hither\nO thou,is love not death?", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-i.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-iii", "title": "Orientale III", "first_line": "my love", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "my love\nthy hair is one kingdom\n the king whereof is darkness\nthy forehead is a flight of flowers\n\nthey head is a quick forest\n filled with sleeping birds\nthy breasts are swarms of white bees\n upon the bough of thy body\nthy body to me is April\nin whose armpits is the approach of spring\n\nthy thighs are white horses yoked to a chariot\n of kings\nthey are the striking of a good minstrel\nbetween them is always a pleasant song\n\nmy love\nthy head is a casket\n of the cool jewel of thy mind\nthe hair of thy head is one warrior\n innocent of defeat\nthy hair upon thy shoulders is an army\n with victory and with trumpets\nthy legs are the trees of dreaming\nwhose fruit is the very eatage of forgetfulness\n\nthy lips are satraps in scarlet\n in whose kiss is the combining of kings\nthy wrists\nare holy\n which are the keepers of the keys of thy blood\nthy feet upon thy ankles are flowers in vases\n of silver\n\nin thy beauty is the dilemma of flutes\n\n thy eyes are the betrayal\nof hells comprehended through incense", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-iv", "title": "Orientale IV", "first_line": "listen", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "listen\nbeloved\ni dreamed\n it appeared that you thought to\n escape me and become a great\n lily atilt on\n insolent\n waters but i was aware of\n fragrance and i came riding upon\n a horse of porphyry into the\n water i rode down the red\n horse shrieking from splintering\n foam caught you clutched you upon my\n mouth\nlisten\nbeloved\n i dreamed in my dream you had\n desire to thwart me and became\n a little bird and hid\n in a tree of tall marble\n from a great way i distinguished\n singing and i came\n riding upon a scarlet sunset\n trampling the night easily\n from the shocked impossible\n tower i caught\n you strained you\n broke you upon my blood\nlisten\n beloved i dreamed\n i thought you would have deceived\n me and become a star in the kingdom\n of heaven\n through day and space i saw you close\n your eyes and i came riding\n upon a thousand crimson years arched with agony\n i reined them in tottering before\n the throne and as\n they shied at the automaton moon from\n the transplendent hand of sombre god\n i picked you\nas an apple is picked by the little peasants for their girls", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-v", "title": "Orientale V", "first_line": "unto thee i", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "unto thee i\nburn incense\nthe bowl crackles\nupon the gloom arise purple pencils\n\nfluent spires of frangrance\nthe bowl\nseethes\na flutter of stars\n\na turbulence of forms\ndelightful with indefinable flowering,\nthe air is\ndeep with desirable flowers\n\ni think\nthou lovest incense\nfor in the ambigious faint aspirings\nthe indolent frail ascensions,\n\nof thy smile rises the immaculate\nsorrow\nof thy low\nhair flutter the level litanies\n\nunto thee i burn\nincense,over the dim smoke\nstraining my lips are vague with\nectasy my palpitating breasts inhale the\n\nslow\nsupple\nflower\nof thy beauty,my heart discovers thee\n\nunto\nwhom i\nburn\nolbanum", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-v.txt" }, { "slug": "orientale-vi", "title": "Orientale VI", "first_line": "the emperor", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "1.\n\nthe emperor\nsleeps in a palace of porphyry\nwhich was a million years building\nhe takes the air in howdah\nof jasper beneath saffron\numbrellas\nupon an elephant\ntwelve feet high\nbehind whose ear\nsits always a crowned\nking twir-\nling an\nankus of\nebony\nthe fountains of the emperor’s\npalace run sunlight and\nmoonlight and the emperor’s\nelephant is a thousand years old\n\nthe harem of\nthe emperor\nis carpeted with\ngold cloth\nfrom the\nceiling(one\ndiamond timid\nwith nesting incense)\nfifty\nmarble\npillars\nslipped from immeasurable\nheight,fall,fifty,silent\n\nin the incense is tangled a cool moon\nthere are thrice-three-hundred\ndoors carven of chalcendony and\nbefore every door a naked\neunuch watches\non their heads turbans of a hundred\ncolours\nin their hands scimitars like windy torches\neach\nis\nblacker than oblivion\n\nthe ladies\nof the emperor’s\nharem are queens\nof all the earth and the rings\nupon their hands are from mines\na mile deep\nbut the body of\nthe queen of queens is\nmore transparent\nthan water,she is softer than birds\n\n2.\n\nwhen the emperor is very\namorous he reclines upon\nthe couch of couches and\nbeckons with\nthe little\nfinger of his left\nhand\nthen the\nthrice-three-hundredth\ndoor is opened by the tallest\neunuch and the queen\nof queens comes\nforth\nankles\nmusical with large pearls\nkingdoms in her ears\nat the feet of\nthe emperor a cithern-\nplayer squats with\nquiveringgold\nbody\nbehind\nthe emperor ten\nelected warriors with\nbodies of lazy jade\nand twitching\neyelids\nfinger\ntheir\nunquiet\nspears\n\nthe queen of queens is dancing\n\nher subtle\nbody weaving\ninsinuating upon the gold cloth\nincessantly creates patterns of sudden\nlust\nher\nstealing body ex-\npending gathering pouring upon itself stiffenS\nto a\nwhite thorn\nof desire\n\nthe taut neck of the citharede wags\nin the dust the ghastly warriors\namber with lust breathe\ntogether the emperor,exerting\nhimself amoung his pillows throws\njewels at the queen of queens and\nwhite money upon her nakedness\nhe\nnods\n and all\ndepart through the bruised air aflutter with pearls\n\n3.\n\nthey are\nalone\nhe beckons,she rises she\nstands\na moment\nin the passion of the fifty\npillars\nlistening\n\nwhile the queens of all the\nearth writhe upon deep rugs", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/orientale-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-i", "title": "Portraits I", "first_line": "the", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the\nnimble\nheat\nhad\n\nlong on a certain\ntaut precarious\nholiday\nfrighteningly\n\nperformed\nand\nat tremont and bromfield i\npaused a moment because\n\non the frying\ncurb the\nquiet face\nlay\n\nwhich had been dorothy\nand once\npermitted\nme for\n\ntwenty\niron\nmen\nher common purple\n\nsoul\nthe absurd eyelids sulked\nenormous\nsobs puckered the foolish\n\nbreasts the\ndroll\nmouth\nwilted\n\nand not old,harry,a\nwoman in the crowd\nwhinnied and a man squeezing her\nwaist said\n\nthe cop ’s rung for the\nwagon but as i was\nlifting the horror\nof her toylike\n\nhead and vainly\ntried to\ncatch on funny\nhand opening the hard great\n\neyes to noone in particular she\ngasped almost\nloudly\ni’m\n\nso\ndrunG\n\nk,dear", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-i.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ii", "title": "Portraits II", "first_line": "of evident invisibles", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "of evident invisibles\nexquisite the hovering\n\nat the dark portals\n\nof hurt girl eyes\n\n\nsincere with wonder\n\na poise a wounding\na beautiful suppression\n\nthe accurate boy mouth\n\n\nnow droops the faun head\n\nnow the intimate flower dreams\n\nof parted lips\ndim upon the syrinx", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iii", "title": "Portraits III", "first_line": "between nose-red gross", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "between nose-red gross\nwalls sprawling with tipsy\ntables the abominable\nfloor belches smoky\n\nlaughter into the filigree\nframe of a microscope\nstage whose jouncing curtain. ,rises\nupon one startling doll\n\nundressed in unripe green with\nnauseous spiderlegs\nand excremental\nhair and the eyes of the mother of\n\ngod who spits seeds of dead\nsong about home and love from her\ntransfigured face a queer\npulp of ecstacy\n\nwhile in the battered\nbodies the odd unlovely\nsouls struggle slowly and writhe\nlike caught.brave:flies;", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iv", "title": "Portraits IV", "first_line": "i walked the boulevard", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "i walked the boulevard\n\ni saw a dirty child\nskating on noisy wheels of joy\n\npathetic dress fluttering\n\n\nbehind her a mothermonster\nwith red grumbling face\n\ncluttered in pursuit\n\npleasantly elephantine\n\n\nwhile nearby the father\n\na thick cheerful man\n\nwith majestic bulbous lips\nand forlorn piggish hands\n\n\njoked to a girlish whore\n\nwith buy rhythmic mouth\nand silly purple eyelids\n\nof how she was with child", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ix", "title": "Portraits IX", "first_line": "spring omnipotent goddess thou dost", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "spring omnipotent goddess thou dost\ninveigle into crossing sidewalks the\nunwary june-bug and the frivolous angleworm\nthou dost persuade to serenade his\nlady the musical tom-cat,thou stuffest\nthe parks with overgrown pimply\ncavaliers and gumchewing giggly\ngirls and not content\nSpring,with this\nthou hangest canary-birds in parlor windows\n\nspring slattern of seasons you\nhave dirty legs and a muddy\npetticoat,drowsy is your\nmouth your eyes are sticky\nwith dreams and you have\na sloppy body\nfrom being brought to bed of crocuses\nWhen you sing in your whiskey-voice\n the grass\n\nrises on the head of the earth\nand all the trees are put on edge\n\nspring,\nof the jostle of\nthey breasts and the slobber\nof your thighs\ni am so very\n glad that the soul inside me Hollers\nfor thou comest and your hands\nare the snow\nand thy fingers are the rain,\nand i hear\nthe screetch of dissonant\nflowers,and most of all\ni hear you stepping\n freakish feet\n feet incorrigible\nragging the world,", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-v", "title": "Portraits V", "first_line": "the young", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the young\nman sitting\nin Dick Mid’s Place\nsaid to Death\n\nteach me of her\nThy yonder servant who\nin Thy very house silently\nsits looking beyond the\n\nkissing and striving of\nthat old man who at her\nredstone mouth renews his\nchildhood\n\nand He\nsaid\n“willingly\nfor the tale is short\n\nit was\ni think yourself delivered into\nboth my hands herself to\nalways keep”\n\nalways?\nthe young\nman sitting in Dick Mid’s\nPlace\n\nasked\n“always”\nDeath\nsaid\n\n“then as i recollect her\ngirlhood was by the kindly\nlips and body fatherly of a\nromantic tired business man\n\nsomewhat tweaked and dinted\nthen\ndid my servant\nbecome of the company of those\n\nladies with faces painteaten\nand bodies lightly\ndesperate certainly wherefrom\ndeparted is youth’s indispensable\n\nillusion”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-v.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vi", "title": "Portraits VI", "first_line": "but the other", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "but the other\nday i was passing a certain\nfate, rain\nfell(as it will\n\nin spring)\nropes\nof silver gliding from sunny\nthunder into freshness\n\nas if god’s flowers were\npulling upon bells of\ngold i looked\nup\n\nand\nthought to myself Death\nand will You with\nelaborate fingers possibly touch\n\nthe pink hollyhock existence whose\npansy eyes look from morning till\nnight into the street\nunchangingly the always\n\nold lady always sitting in her\ngentle window like\na reminiscence\npartaken\n\nsoftly at whose gate smile\nalways the chosen\nflowers of reminding", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vii", "title": "Portraits VII", "first_line": "the rose", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the rose\nis dying the\nlips of an old man murder\n\nthe petals\nhush\nmysteriously\ninvisible mourners move\nwith prose faces and sobbing,garments\nThe symbol of the rose\n\nmotionless\nwith grieving feet and\nwings\nmounts\n\nagainst the margins of steep song\na stallion sweetness ,the\n\nlips of an old man murder\n\nthe petals.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-viii", "title": "Portraits VIII", "first_line": "Buffalo Bill ’s", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Buffalo Bill ’s\ndefunct\n who used to\n ride a watersmooth-silver\n stallion\nand break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat\n Jesus\n\nhe was a handsome man\n and what i want to know is\nhow do you like your blueeyed boy\nMister Death", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-x", "title": "Portraits X", "first_line": "somebody knew Lincoln somebody Xerxes", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "somebody knew Lincoln somebody Xerxes\n\nthis man:a narrow thudding timeshaped face\nplus innocuous winking hands,carefully\ninhabits number 1 on something street\n\nSpring comes\n the lean and definite houses\n\nare troubled. A sharp blue day\nfills with peacefully leaping air\nthe minute mind of the world.\nThe lean and\n\ndefinite houses are\ntroubled.in the sunset their chimneys converse\nangrily,their\nroofs are nervous with the soft furious\nlight,and while fire-escapes and\nroofs and chimneys and while roofs and fire-escapes and\nchimneys and while chimneys and fire-escapes\nand roofs are talking rapidly all together there happens\nSomething,and They\n\ncease(and\none by one are turned suddenly and softly\ninto irresponsible toys.)\n when this man with\n\nthe brittle legs winces\nswiftly out of number 1 someThing\nstreet and trickles carefully into the park\nsits\n\nDown. pigeons circle\naround and around and around the\n\nirresponsible toys\ncircle wildly in the slow-ly-in creasing fragility\n—.Dogs\nbark\nchildren\nplay\n-ing\n Are\n\nin the beautiful nonsense of twilight\n\nand somebody Napoleon", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/portraits-x.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-i", "title": "Post Impressions I", "first_line": "beyond the brittle towns asleep", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "beyond the brittle towns asleep\ni look where stealing needles of foam\nin the last light\n\nthread creeping shores\n\n\nas out of dumb strong hands infinite\n\nthe erect deep upon me\nin the last light\npours its eyeless miles\n\n\nthe chattering sunset ludicrously\ndies,i hear only tidewings\n\nin the last light\ntwitching at the world", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-i.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-ii", "title": "Post Impressions II", "first_line": "the moon is hiding in", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the moon is hiding in\nher hair,\nThe\nlily\nof heaven\nfull of all dreams,\ndrawns down.\n\ncover her briefness in singing\nclose her with intricate faint birds\nby daisies and twilights\nDeepen her,\n\nRecite\nupon her\nflesh\nthe rain’s\n\npearls singly-whispering", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-iii", "title": "Post Impressions III", "first_line": "into the strenuous briefness", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "into the strenuous briefness\nLife:\nhandorgans and April\ndarkness,friends\n\ni charge laughing.\nInto the hair-thin tints\nof yellow dawn,\ninto the women-coloured twilight\n\ni smilingly\nglide. I\ninto the big vermillion departure\nswim, sayingly;\n\n(Do you think?)the\ni do,world\nis probably made\nof roses & hello:\n\n(of solongs and,ashes)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-iv", "title": "Post Impressions IV", "first_line": "i am going to utter a tree, Nobody", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "i am going to utter a tree,Nobody\nshall stop me\n\nbut first\nearth ,the reckless oral darkness\nraging with thin impulse\n\ni will have\n\na\n dream\n i\n think it shall be roses and\nspring will bring her\nworms rushing through loam.\n\n(afterwards i’ll\nclimb\nby tall careful muscles\n\ninto nervous and accurate silence....But first\n\nyou)\n\npress easily\nat first,it will be leaves\nand a little harder\nfor roses\nonly a little harder\n\nlast we\non the groaning flame of neat huge\ntrudging kiss moistly climbing hideously with\nlarge\nminute\nhips,O\n\n .press\n\nworms rushing slowly through loam", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-v", "title": "Post Impressions V", "first_line": "any man is wonderful", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "any man is wonderful\nand a formula\na bit of tobacco and gladness\nplus little derricks of gesture\n\nany skyscraper\nbulges in the looseness of morning\nbut in twilight becomes\nunutterably crisp\n\na thing,\nwhich tightens\ncaught\nin the hoisting light\n\nany woman is smooth and ridiculous\na polite uproar of knuckling silent planes\na nudging bulb silkenly brutal\na devout flexion", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-v.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-vi", "title": "Post Impressions VI", "first_line": "at the head of this street a gasping organ is waving moth-eaten", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "at the head of this street a gasping organ is waving moth-eaten\ntunes. a fatish hand turns the crank;the box spouts fairies,out\nof it sour gnomes tumble clumsily,the little box is spilling ran-\ncid elves upon neat sunlight into the flowerstricken air which is\nfilthy with agile swarming sonal creatures\n\n—Children,stand with circular frightened faces glaring at the\nshabby tiny smiling,man in whose hand the crank goes desperately,\nround and round pointing to the queer monkey\n\n(if you toss him a coin he will pick it cleverly from,the air and\nstuff it seriously in,his minute pocket)Sometimes he does not\ncatch a piece of money and then his master will yell at him over\nthe music and jerk the little string and the monkey will sit,up,\nand look at,you with his solemn blinky eyeswhichneversmile and\nafter he has caught a,penny or three,pennies he will be thrown a\npeanut(which he will open skilfully with his, mouth carefully\nholding, it in his little toylikehand)and then he will stiff-ly\nthrow the shell away with a small bored gesture that makes the\nchildren laugh.\n\nBut i don’t, the crank goes round desperate elves and hope-\nless gnomes and frantic fairies gush clumsily from the battered box\nfatish and mysterious the flowerstricken sunlight is thickening\ndizzily is reeling gently the street and the children and the mon-\nkeyandtheorgan and the man are dancing slowly are tottering up\nand down in trembly mist of atrocious melody....tiniest dead\ntunes crawl upon my face my hair is lousy with mutilated singing\nmicroscopic things in my ears scramble faintly tickling putres-\ncent atomies,\n and\n i feel the jerk of the little stringthe tiny\nsmiling shabby man is yelling over the music i understand\nhim i shove my round red hat back on my head i site up and\nblink at you with my solemn eyeswhichneversmile\n\nyes,By god.\nfor i am they are pointing at the queer monkey with a little\noldish doll-like face and hairy arms like an ogre and rubbbercolour\ned hands and feet filled with quick fingers and a remarkable tail\nwhich is allbyitself alive.(and he has a little red coat with i\nhave a real pocket in it and the round funny hat with a big feather\nis tied under myhis chin.) that climbs and cries and runs and\nfloats like a toy on the end of a string", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/post-impressions-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "puella-mea", "title": "Puella Mea", "first_line": "Harun Omar and Master Hafiz", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Harun Omar and Master Hafiz\nkeep your dead beautiful ladies.\nMine is a little lovelier\nthan any of your ladies were.\n\nIn her perfectest array\nmy lady,moving in the day,\nis a little stranger thing\nthan crisp Sheba with her king\nin the morning wandering.\n Through the young and awkward hours\nmy lady perfectly moving,\nthrough the new world scarce astir\nmy fragile lady wandering\nin whose perishable poise\nis the mystery of Spring\n(with her beauty more than snow\ndexterous and fugitive\nmy very frail lady drifting\ndistinctly,moving like a myth\nin the uncertain morning,with\nApril feet like sudden flowers\nand all her body filled with May)\n—moving in the unskilful day\nmy lady utterly alive,\nto me is a more curious thing\n(a thing more nimble and complete)\nthan ever to Judea’s king\nwere the shapely sharp cunning\nand withal delirious feet\nof the Princess Salomé\ncarefully dancing in the noise\nof Herod’s silence,long ago.\n\nIf she a little turn her head\ni know that i am wholly dead:\nnor ever did on such a throat\nthe lips of Tristam slowly dote,\nLa beale Isoud whose leman was.\nAnd if my lady look at me\n(with her eyes which like two elves\nincredibly amuse themselves)\nwith a look of færie,\nperhaps a little suddenly\n(as sometimes the improbably\nbeauty of my lady will)\n—at her glace my spirit shies\nrearing(as in the miracle\nof a lady who had eyes\nwhich the king’s horses might not kill.)\n But should my lady smile,it were\na flower of so pure surprise\n(it were so very new a flower,\na flower so frail,a flower so glad)\nas trembling used to yield with dew\nwhen the world was young and new\n(a flower such as the world had\nin Springtime when the world was mad\nand Launcelot spoke to Guenever,\na flower which most heavy hung\nwith silence when the world was young\nand Diarmid looked in Grania’s eyes.)\n But should my lady’s beauty play\nat not speaking(sometimes as\nit will)the silence of her face\ndoth immediately make\nin my heart so great a noise,\nas in the sharp and thirsty blood\nof Paris would not all the Troys\nof Helen’s beauty:never did\nLord Jason(in impossible things\nvictorious impossibly)\nso wholly burn,to undertake\nMedea’s rescuing eyes;nor he\nwhen swooned the white egyptian day\nwho with Egypt’s body lay.\n\nLove as those ladies were\nmine is a little lovelier.\nAnd if she speak in her frail way,\nit is wholly to bewitch\nmy smallest thought with a most swift\nradiance wherein slowly drift\nmurmurous things divinely bright;\nit is foolingly to smite\nmy spirit with the lithe free twitch\nof scintillant space,with the cool writhe\nof gloom truly which syncopate\nsome sunbeam’s skilful fingerings;\nit is utterly to lull\nwith foliate inscrutable\nsweetness my soul obedient;\nit is to stroke my being with\nnumbing forests frolicsome,\nfleetly mystical,aroam\nwith keen creatures of idiom\n(beings alert and innocent\nvery deftly upon which\nindolent miracles impinge)\n—it is distinctly to confute\nmy reason with the deep caress\nof every most shy thing and mute,\nit is to quell me with the twinge\nof all living intense things.\n Never my soul so fortunate\nis(past the luck of all dead men\nand loving)-as invisibly when\nupon her palpable solitude\na furtive occult fragrance steals,\na gesture of immaculate\nperfume—whereby (with fear aglow)\nmy soul is wont wholly to know\nthe poignant instantaneous fern\nwhose scrupulous enchanted fronds\ntoward all things intrinsic yearn,\nthe immanent subliminal\nfern of her delicious voice\n(of her voice which always dwells\nbesides the vivid magical\nimpetuous and utter ponds\nof dream;and very secret food\nits leaves inimitable find\nbeyond the white authentic springs,\nbeyond the sweet instinctive wells,\nwhich make to flourish the minute\nspontaneous meadow of her mind)\n—the vocal fern,always which feels\nthe keen ecstatic actual tread\n(and thereto perfectly responds)\nof all things exquisite and dead,\nall living things and beautiful.\n(Caliph and king their ladies had\nto love them and to make them glad\nwhen the world was young and mad,\nin the city of Bagdad—\nmine is a little lovelier\nthan any of those ladies were.)\n\nHer body is most beauteous,\nbeing for all things amorous\nfashioned very curiously\nof roses and of ivory.\nThe immaculate crisp head\nis such as only certain dead\nand careful painters love to use\nfor their youngest angels(whose\npraising bodies in a row\nbetween slow glories fleetly go.)\nUpon a keen and lovely throad\nthe strangeness of her face doth float,\nwhich in eyes and lips consists\n—always upon the mouth there trysts\ncurvingly a fragile smile\nwhich like a flower lieth(while\nwithing the eyes is dimly hear\na wistful and precarious bird.)\nSpringing from fragrant shoulders small,\nardent,and perfectly withal\nsmooth to stroke and sweet to see\nas a supple and young tree,\nher slim lascivious arms alight\nin skilful wrists which hint at flight\n—my lady’s very singular\nand slenderest hands moreover are\n(which as lilies smile and quail)\nof all things perfect the most frail.\n\n(Whose rideth in the tale\nof Chaucer knoweth many a pair\nof companions blithe and fair;\nwho to walk with Master Gower\nin Confessio doth prefer\nshall not lack for beauty there,\nnor he that will amaying go\nwith my log Boccaccio—\nwhose knocketh at the door\nof Marie and of Maleore\nfindeth of ladies goodly store\nwhose beauty did in nothing err.\nIf to me there shall appear\nthan a rose more sweetly known,\nmore silently than a flower,\nmy lady naked in her hair—\ni for those ladies nothing care\nnor any lady dead and gone.)\n\nEach tapering breast is firm and smooth\nthan in a lovely fashion doth\nfrom my lady’s body grow;\nas morning may a lily known,\nher petaled flesh doth entertain\nthe adriot blood’s mysterious skein\n(but like some passionate earlier\nflower, the snow will oft utter,\nwhereof the year has perfect bliss—\nfor each breast a blossom is,\nwhich being a little while caressed\nits fragrance makes the lover blest.)\nHer waist is a most tiny hinge\nof flesh,a winsome thing and strange;\napt in my hand warmly to lie\nit is a throbbing neck whereby\nto grasp the belly’s ample vase\n(that urgent urn which doth amass\nfor whoso drinks,a dizzier wine\nthan should the grapes of heaven combine\nwith earth’s madness)—’tis a gate\nunto a palace intricate\n(whereof the luscious pillars rise\nwhich are her lage and shapely thighs)\nin whose dome the trembling bliss\nof a kingdom wholly is.\n Beneath her thighs such legs are seen\nas were the pride of the world’s queen:\neach is a verb,miraculous\ninflected oral devious,\nbeneath the body’s breathing noun\n(moreover the delicious frown\nof the grave great sensual knees\nwell might any monarch please.)\nEach ankle is divinely shy;\nas if for fear you would espy\nthe little distinct food(if whose\nvery minuteness doth abuse\nreason,why then the artificer\ndid most exquistiely err.)\n\nWhen the world was like a song\nheard behind a golden door,\npoet and sage and caliph had\nto love them and to make them glad\nladies with lithe eyes and long\n(when the world was like a flower\nOmar Hafiz and Harun\nloved their ladies in the moon)\n—fashioned very curiously\nof roses and of ivory\nif naked she appear to me\nmy flesh is an enchanted tree;\nwith her lips’ most frail parting\nmy body hears the cry of Spring,\nand with their frailest syllable\nits leaves go crisp with miracle.\n\nLove!—maker of my lady,\nin that alway beyond this\npoem or any poem she\nof whose body words are afraid\nperfectly beautiful is.\nforgive these words which i have made.\nAnd never boast your dead beauties,\nyou greatest lovers in the world!\nwho with Grania strangely fled,\nwho with Egypt went to bed,\nwhom white-thighed Semiramis\nput up her mouth to wholly kiss—\nnever boast your dead beauties,\nmine being unto me sweeter\n(of whose shy delicious glance\nthings which never more shall be,\nperfect things of færie,\nare intense inhabitants;\nin whose warm superlative\nbody do distinctly live\nall sweet cities passed away—\nin her flesh at break of day\nare the smells of Nineveh,\nin her eyes when day is gone\nare the cries of Babylon.)\nDiarmuid Paris and Solomon,\nOmar Harun and Master Hafiz,\nto me your ladies are all one—\nkeep your dead beautiful ladies.\n\nEater of all things lovely—Time!\nupon whose watering lips the world\npoises a moment(futile,proud,\na costly morsel of sweet tears)\ngesticulates,and disappears—\nof all dainties which do crowd\ngaily upon oblivion\nsweeter than any there is one;\nto touch it is the fear of rhyme—\nin life’s very fragile hour\n(when the world was like a tale\nmade of laughter and of dew,\nwas a flight,a flower,a flame,\nwas a tendril fleety curled\nupon frailness)used to stroll\n(very slowly)one or two\nladies like flowers made,\nsoftly used to wholly move\nslender ladies made of dream\n(in the lazy world and new\nsweetly used to laugh and love\nladies with crisp eyes and frail,\nin the city of Bagdad.)\n\nKeep your dead beautiful ladies\nHarun Omar and Master Hafiz.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/puella-mea/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/puella-mea.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/puella-mea.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-i", "title": "Songs I", "first_line": "(thee will i praise between those rivers whose", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "(thee will i praise between those rivers whose\nwhite voices pass upon forgetting(fail\nme not)whose courseless waters are a gloat\nof silver;o’er whose night three willows wail,\na slender dimness in the unshapeful hour\nmaking dear moan in tones of stroked flower;\nlet not thy lust one threaded moment lose:\nhaste)the very shadowy sheep float\nfree upon terrific pastures pale,\n\nwhose tall mysterious shepherd lifts a cheek\nteartroubled to the momentary wind\nwith guiding smile,lips wisely minced for blown\nkisses,condemnatory fingers thinned\nof pity—so he stands counting the moved\nmyriads wonderfully loved,\n(hasten, it is the moment which shall seek\nall blossoms that do learn,scents of not known\nmusics in whose careful eyes are dinned;\n\nand the people of the perfect darkness fills\nhis mind who will their hungering whispers hear\nwith weepings soundless,saying of “alas\nwe were chaste on earth we ghosts:hark to the sheer\ncadence of our gray flesh in the gloom!\nand still to be immortal is our doom;\nbut a rain frailly raging whom the hills\nsink into and their sunsets,it shall pass.\nOur feet tread sleepless meadows sweet with fear”)\n\nthen be with me:unseriously seem\nby the perusing greenness of thy thought\nmy golden soul fabulously to glue\nin a superior terror;be thy taut\nflesh silver,like the currency of faint\ncities eternal—ere the sinless taint\nof thy long sinful arms about me dream\nshall my love wholly taste thee as a new\nwine from steep hills by darkness softly brought—\n\n(be with me in the sacred witchery\nof almostness which May makes follow soon\non the sweet heels of passed afterday,\nclothe thy soul’s coming merely,with a croon\nof mingling robes musically revealed\nin rareness:let thy twain eyes deeply wield\na noise of petals falling silently\nthrough the far-spaced possible nearaway\nfrom huge trees drenched by a rounding moon)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-i.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-ii", "title": "Songs II", "first_line": "Always before your voice my soul", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Always before your voice my soul\nhalf-beautiful and wholly droll\nis as some smooth and awkward foal,\nwhereof young moons begin\nthe newness of his skin\n\nso of my stupid sincere youth\nthe exquisite failure uncouth\ndiscovers a trembling and smooth\nUnstrength,against the strong\nsilences of your song;\n\nor as a single lamb whose sheen\nof full unsheared fleece is mean\nbesides its lovelier friends,between\nyour thoughts more white than wool\nMy thought is sorrowful:\n\nbut my heart smote in trembling thirds\nof anguish quivers to your words,\nAs to a flight of thirty birds\nshakes with a thickening fright\nthe sudden fooled light.\n\nit is autumn of the year:\nWhen through the thin air stooped with fear,\nacrosss the harvest whitely peer\nempty of surprise\ndeath’s faultless eyes\n\n(whose hand my folded soul shall know\nwhile on faint hills do frailly go\nThe peaceful terrors of the snow,\nand before your dead face\nwhich sleeps,a dream shall pass)\n\nand these my days their sounds and flowers\nFall in a pride of petaled hours,\nlike flowers at the feet of mowers\nwhose bodies strong with love\nthrough meadows hugely move.\n\nyet what am i that such and such\nmysteries very simply touch\nme,whose heart-wholeness overmuch\nExpects of your hair pale,\na terror musical?\n\nwhile in an earthless hour my fond\nsoul seriously yearns beyond\nthis fern of sunset frond on frond\nopening in a rare\nSlowness of gloried air...\n\nThe flute of morning stilled in noon—\nnoon the implacable bassoon—\nnow Twilight seeks the thrill of moon,\nwashed with a wild and thin\ndespair of violin", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-iii", "title": "Songs III", "first_line": "The fingers make early flowers of", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Thy fingers make early flowers of\nall things.\nthy hair mostly the hours love:\na smoothness which\nsings,saying\n(though love be a day)\ndo not fear,we will go amaying.\n\nthy whitest feet crisply are straying.\nAlways\nthy moist eyes are at kisses playing,\nwhose strangeness much\nsays;singing\n(though love be a day)\nfor which girl art thou flowers bringing?\n\nTo be thy lips is a sweet thing\nand small.\nDeath,Thee i call rich beyond wishing\nif this thou catch,\nelse missing.\n(though love be a day\nand life be nothing,it shall not stop kissing).", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-iv", "title": "Songs IV", "first_line": "All in green went my love riding", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "All in green went my love riding\non a great horse of gold\ninto the silver dawn.\n\nfour lean hounds crouched low and smiling\nthe merry deer ran before.\n\nFleeter be they than dappled dreams\nthe swift sweet deer\nthe red rare deer.\n\nFour red roebuck at a white water\nthe cruel bugle sang before.\n\nHorn at hip went my love riding\nriding the echo down\ninto the silver dawn.\n\nfour lean hounds crouched low and smiling\nthe level meadows ran before.\n\nSofter be they than slippered sleep\nthe lean lithe deer\nthe fleet flown deer.\n\nFour fleet does at a gold valley\nthe famished arrow sang before.\n\nBow at belt went my love riding\nriding the mountain down\ninto the silver dawn.\n\nfour lean houds crouched low and smiling\nthe sheer peaks ran before.\n\nPaler be they than daunting death\nthe sleek slim deer\nthe tall tense deer.\n\nFour tall stags at a green mountain\nthe lucky hunter sang before.\n\nAll in green went my love riding\non a great horse of gold\ninto the silver dawn.\n\nfour lean hounds crouched low and smiling\nmy heart fell dead before.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-v", "title": "Songs V", "first_line": "Doll’s boy ’s asleep", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "Doll’s boy ’s asleep\nunder a stile\nhe sees eight and twenty\nladies in a line\n\nthe first lady\nsays to nine ladies\nhis lips drink water\nbut his heart drinks wine\n\nthe tenth lady\nsays to nine ladies\nthey must chain his foot\nfor his wrist ’s too fine\n\nthe nineteenth\nsays to nine ladies\nyou take his mouth\nfor his eyes are mine.\n\nDoll’s boy ’s asleep\nunder the stile\nfor every mile the feet go\nthe heart goes nine", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-v.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-vi", "title": "Songs VI", "first_line": "when god lets my body be", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "when god lets my body be\n\nFrom each brave eye shall sprout a tree\nfruit that dangles therefrom\n\nthe purpled world will dance upon\nBetween my lips which did sing\n\na rose shall beget the spring\nthat maidens whom passion wastes\n\nwill lay between their little breasts\nMy strong fingers beneath the snow\n\nInto strenuous birds shall go\nmy love walking in the grass\n\ntheir wings will touch her face\nand all the while shall my heart be\n\nWith the bulge and nuzzle of the sea", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/songs-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-i", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities I", "first_line": "a thing most new complete fragile intense,", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "a thing most new complete fragile intense,\nwhich wholly trembling memory undertakes\n—your kiss,the little pushings of flesh,makes\nmy body sorry when the minute moon\nis a remarkable splinter in the quick\nof twilight\n ....or if sunset utters one\nunhurried muscled huge chromatic\nfist skilfully modeling silence\n—to feel how through the stopped entire day\nhorribly and seriously thrills\nthe moment of enthusiastic space\nis a little wonderful,and say\nPerhaps her body touched me;and to face\n\nsuddenly the lighted living hills", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-ii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities II", "first_line": "my love is buiding a building", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "my love is buiding a building\naround you,a frail slippery\nhouse,a strong fragile house\n(beginning at the singular beginning\n\nof your smile)a skilful uncouth\nprison,a precise clumsy\nprison(building thatandthis into Thus,\nAround the reckless magic of your mouth)\n\nmy love is building a magic,a discrete\ntower of magic and(as i guess)\n\nwhen Farmer Death(whom fairies hate)shall\n\ncrumble the mouth-flower fleet\nHe’ll not my tower,\n laborious, casual\n\nwhere the surrounded smile\n hangs\n\n breathless", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-iii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities III", "first_line": "yours is the music for no instrument", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "yours is the music for no instrument\nyours the preposterous colour unbeheld\n\n—mine the unbought contemptuous intent\ntill this our flesh merely shall be excelled\nby speaking flower\n (if i have made songs\n\nit does not greatly matter to the sun,\nnor will rain care\n cautiously who prolongs\nunserious twilight)Shadows have begun\n\nthe hair’s worm huge,ecstatic,rathe....\n\nyours are the poems i do not write.\n\nIn this at least we have got a bulge of death,\nsilence,and the keenly musical light\n\nof sudden nothing....la bocca mia “he\nkissed wholly trembling”\n\n or so thought the lady.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-iv", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities IV", "first_line": "by little accurate saints thickly which tread", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "by little accurate saints thickly which tread\nthe serene nervous light of paradise—\nby angelfaces clustered like bright lice\n\nabout god’s capable dull important head—\nby on whom glories whisperingly impinge\n(god’s pretty mother)but may not confuse\n\nthe clever hair nor rout the young mouth whose\nlips being a smile exactly strange—\nthis painter should have loved my lady.\nAnd by this throad a little suddenly lifted\n\nin singing—hands fragile whom almost tire\nthe sleepshaped lilies—\n\n should my lady’s body\nwith these frail ladies dangerously respire:\n\nimpeccable girls in raiment laughter-gifted.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-v", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities V", "first_line": "notice the convulsed orange inch of moon", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "notice the convulsed orange inch of moon\nperching on this silver minute of evening.\n\nWe’ll choose the way to the forest—no offense\nto you,white town whose spires softly dare.\nWill take the houseless wisping rune\nof road lazily carved on sharpening air.\n\nFields lying miraculous in violent silence\n\nfill with microscopic whithering\n...(that’s the Black People,cherie,\nwho live under stones.) Don’t be afraid\n\nand we will pass the simple ugliness\nof exact tombs,where a large road crosses\nand all the people are minutely dead.\n\nThen you will slowly kiss me", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-actualities-v.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-i", "title": "Sonnets—Realities I", "first_line": "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls\nare unbeautiful and have comfortable minds\n(also,with the church’s protestant blessings\ndaughters,unscented shapeless spirited)\nthey believe in Christ and Longfellow,both dead,\nare invariably interested in so many things—\nat the present writing one still finds\ndelighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?\nperhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy\nscandal of Mrs. N and Professor D\n....the Cambridge ladies do not care,above\nCambridge if sometimes in its box of\nsky lavender and cornerless,the\nmoon rattles like a fragment of angry candy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-ii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities II", "first_line": "goodby Betty,don’t remember me", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "goodby Betty,don’t remember me\npencil your eyes dear and have a good time\nwith the tall tight boys at Tabari’\ns,keep your teeth snowy,stick to beer and lime,\nwear dark,and where your meeting breasts are round\nhave roses darling,it’s all i ask of you—\nbut that when light fails and this sweet profound\nParis moves with lovers,two and two\nbound for themselves,when passionate dusk\nbrings softly down the perfume of the world\n(and just as smaller stars begin to husk\nheaven)you, you exactly paled and curled\n\nwith mystic lips take twilight where i know:\nproving to Death that Love is so and so.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-iv", "title": "Sonnets—Realities IV", "first_line": "when you rang at Dick Mid’s Place", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "when you rang at Dick Mid’s Place\nthe madam was a bulb stuck in the door.\na fang of wincing gas showed how\nhair,in two fists of shrill colour,\nclutched the dull volume of her tumbling face\nscribbled with a big grin. her sow-\neyes clicking mischief from thick lids.\nthe chunklike nose on which always the four\ntablets of perspiration erectly sitting.\n—If they knew you at Dick Mid’s\nthe three trickling chins began to traipse\ninto the cheeks “eet smeestaire steevensun\nkum een, dare ease Bet,an Leelee,an dee beeg wun”\nher handless wrists did gooey severe shapes.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-iii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities III", "first_line": "ladies and gentlemen this little girl", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "ladies and gentlemen this little girl\nwith the good teeth and small important breasts\n(is it the Frolic or the Century whirl?\none’s memory indignantly protests)\nthis little dancer with the tightened eyes\ncrisp ogling shoulders and the ripe quite too\nlarge lips always clenched faintly,wishes you\nwith all her fragile might to not surmise\nshe dreamed on afternoon\n ....or maybe read?\n\nof a time when the beautiful most of her\n(this here and This,do you get me?)\nwill maybe dance and maybe sing and be\nabsitively posolutely dead,\nlike Coney Island in winter", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-v", "title": "Sonnets—Realities V", "first_line": "“kitty”. sixteen,5’ 1”,white,prostitute.", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "“kitty”. sixteen,5’ 1”,white,prostitute.\n\nducking always the touch of must and shall,\nwhose slippery body is Death’s littlest pal,\n\nskilled in quick softness. Unspontaneous. cute.\n\nthe signal perfume of whose unrepute\nfocusses in the sweet slow animal\nbottomless eyes importantly banal,\n\nKitty. a whore. Sixteen\n you corking brute\namused from time to time by clever drolls\nfearsomely who do keep their sunday flower.\nThe babybreasted broad “kitty” twice eight\n\n—beer nothing,the lady’ll have a whiskey-sour—\n\nwhose least amazing smile is the most great\ncommon divisor of unequal souls.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-v.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-vi", "title": "Sonnets—Realities VI", "first_line": "when thou hast taken thy last applause,and when", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "when thou hast taken thy last applause,and when\nthe final curtain strikes the world away,\nleaving to shadowy silence and dismay\nthat stage which shall not know they smile again,\nlingering a little while i see thee then\nponder the tinsel part they let thee play;\ni see the large lips livid,the face grey,\nand silent smileless eyes of Magdalen.\nThe lights have laughed their last;without,the street\ndarkling awaiteth her whose feet have trod\nthe silly souls of men to golden dust:\nshe pauses on the lintel of defeat,\nher heart breaks in a smile—and she is Lust....\n\nmine also,little painted poem of god", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-realities-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-ii", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities II", "first_line": "god gloats upon Her stunning flesh. Upon", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "god gloats upon Her stunning flesh. Upon\nthe reachings of Her green body among\nunseen things,things obscene (Whose fingers young\n\nthe caving ages curiously con)\n\n—but the lunge of Her hunger softly flung\nover the gasping shores\n leaves his smile wan,\nand his blood stopped hears in the frail anon\n\nthe shovings and the lovings of Her tongue.\n\ngod Is The Sea. All terrors of his being\nquake before this its hideous Work most old\nWhose battening gesture prophecies a freeing\n\nof ghostly chaos\n in this dangerous night\nthrough moaned space god worships God—\n\n (behold!\nwhere chaste stars writhe captured in brightening fright)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-i", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities I", "first_line": "it may not always be so;and i say", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "it may not always be so;and i say\nthat if your lips,which i have loved,should touch\nanother’s,and your dear strong fingers clutch\nhis heart,as mine in time not far away;\nif on another’s face your sweet hair lay\nin such silence as i know,or such\ngreat writhing words as,uttering overmuch,\nstand helplessly before the spirit at bay;\n\nif this should be,i say if this should be—\nyou of my heart,send me a little word;\nthat i may go unto him,and take his hands,\nsaying, Accept all happiness from me.\nThen shall i turn my face,and hear one bird\nsing terribly afar in the lost lands.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-iv", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities IV", "first_line": "when citied day with the sonorous homes", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "when citied day with the sonorous homes\nof light swiftly sink in the sorrowful hour,\nthey counted petals O tremendous flower\non whose huge heart prospecting darkness roams\n\ntorture my spirit with the exquisite froms\nand whithers of existence,\n as by shores\nsoundless,the unspeaking watcher who adores\n\nperceived sails whose might brightness dumbs\n\nthe utterance of his soul—so even i\nwholly chained to a grave astonishment\nfeel in my being the delirious smart\n\nof thrilled ecstasy,where sea and sky\nmarry—\n\n to know the white ship of thy heart\n\non frailer ports of costlier commerce bent", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-iii", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities II", "first_line": "it is at moments after i have dreamed", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "it is at moments after i have dreamed\nof the rare entertainment of your eyes,\nwhen(being fool to fancy)i have deemed\n\nwith your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;\nat moments when the glassy darkness holds\n\nthe genuine apparition of your smile\n(it was through tears always)and silence moulds\nsuch strangeness as was mine a little while;\n\nmoments when my once more illustrious arms\nare filled with a fascination,when my breast\nwears the intolerant brightness of your charms:\n\none pierced moment whiter than the rest\n\n—turning from the tremendous lie of sleep\ni watch the roses of the day grow deep.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-vi", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities VI", "first_line": "a connotation of infinity", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "a connotation of infinity\nsharpens the temporal splendor of this night\n\nwhen souls which have forgot frivolity\nin lowliness,noting the fatal flight\nof worlds whereto this earth’s a hurled dream\n\ndown eager avenues of lifelessness\n\nconsider for how much themselves shall gleam,\nin the poised radiance of perpetualness.\nWhen what’s in velvet beyond doomed thought\n\nis like a woman amorous to be known;\nand man,whose here is always worse than naught,\nfeels the tremendous yonder for his own—\n\non such a night the sea through her blind miles\n\nof crumbling silence seriously smiles", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-unrealities-v", "title": "Sonnets—Unrealities V", "first_line": "a wind has blown the rain away and blown", "book_slug": "tulips-and-chimneys", "book_title": "Tulips and Chimneys", "text": "a wind has blown the rain away and blown\nthe sky away and all the leaves away,\nand the trees stand. I think i too have known\nautumn too long\n\n (and what have you to say,\nwind wind wind—did you love somebody\nand have you the petal of somewhere in your heart\npinched from dumb summer?\n O crazy daddy\nof death dance cruelly for us and start\n\nthe last leaf whirling in the final brain\nof air!)Let us as we have seen see\ndoom’s integration.........a wind has blown the rain\n\naway and the leaves and the sky and the\ntrees stand:\n the trees stand. The trees,\nsuddenly wait against the moon’s face.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/tulips-and-chimneys/poem/sonnets-unrealities-v.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-i", "title": "&:Seven Poems I", "first_line": "i will be", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": " i will be\nM o ving in the Street of her\n\nbodyfee l inga ro undMe the traffic of\nlovely;muscles-sinke x p i r i n g S\n uddenl\nY totouch\n the curvedship of\n Her-\n....kIss her:hands\n will play on,mE as\ndea d tunes OR s-cra p-y lea Ves flut te rin g\nfrom Hideous trees or\n\n Maybe Mandolins\n l oo k-\n pigeons fly ingand\n\nwhee(:are,SpRiN,k,LiNg an in-stant with sunLight\nthen)l-\ning all go BlacK wh-eel-ing\n\noh\n ver\n mYveRylitTle\n\nstreet\nwhere\nyou will come,\n at twi li ght\n s(oon & there’s\n a m oo\n)n.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-i.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-iii", "title": "&:Seven Poems III", "first_line": "Spring is like a perhaps hand", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Spring is like a perhaps hand\n(which comes carefully\nout of Nowhere)arranging\na window,into which people look(while\npeople stare arranging and changing placing\ncarefully there a strange\nthing and a known thing here)and\n\nchanging everything carefully\n\nspring is like a perhaps\nHand in a window\n(carefully to\nand fro moving New and\nOld things,while\npeople stare carefully\nmoving a perhaps\nfraction of flower here placing\nan inch of air there)and\n\nwithout breaking anything.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-ii", "title": "&:Seven Poems II", "first_line": "i’ll tell you a dream i had once i was away up in the sky Blue,everything:", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i’ll tell you a dream i had once i was away up in the sky Blue,everything:\na bar the bar was made of brass hangIng from strings (or)someThing i was\nlying on the bar it was cOOl i didn’t have anything on and I was hot all\nHot and the bar was\n\n COOl\nO My lover,\n\n there’s just room for me in You\nmy stomach goes into your Little Stomach My legs are in your legs Your\narms\n under me around; my head fits(my head)in your Brain—my,head’s\nbig\nshe(said laughing\n )with your head.all big", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-iv", "title": "&:Seven Poems IV", "first_line": "Who\n threw the silver dollar up into the tree?\n I didn’t", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Who\n threw the silver dollar up into the tree?\n I didn’t said the little\nlady who sews and grows every day paler-paler she sits sewing and grow-\ning and that’s the truth,\nwho threw\n\n the ripe melon into the tree?you\n got me said the smoke who\nruns the elevator but I bet two bits come seven come eleven mm make\nthe world safe for democracy it never fails and that’s a fact;\n\nwho threw the\n\nbunch of violets\n into the tree?I dunno said the silver dog, with ripe\neyes and wagged his tail that’s the god’s own\n\nand the moon kissed the little lady on her paler-paler face and said\nnever mind,you’ll find\n But the moon creeped into the pink hand of the\nsmoke that shook the ivories\n and she said said She Win and you won’t be\n\nsorry And The Moon came!along-along to the waggy silver dog\nand the moon came\nand the Moon said into his Ripe Eyes\n and the moon\n Smiled", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-vi", "title": "&:Seven Poems VI", "first_line": "(one!)", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": " (one!)\nthe wisti-twisti barber\n-pole is climbing\n\npeople high,up-in\n\ntenements talk.in sawdust Voices\n a:whispering drunkard passes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-vii", "title": "&:Seven Poems VII", "first_line": "who knows if the moon’s", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "who knows if the moon’s\na balloon,coming out of a keen city\nin the sky—filled with pretty people?\n(and if you and i should\n\nget into it,if they\nshould take me and take you into their balloon.\nwhy then\nwe’d go up higher with all the pretty people\n\nthan houses and steeples and clouds:\ngo sailing\naway and away sailing into a keen\ncity which nobody’s ever visited,where\n\nalways\n it’s\n Spring)and everyone’s\nin love and flowers pick themselves", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-i", "title": "Portraits I", "first_line": "being", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "being\ntwelve\nwho hast merely\ngonorrhea\n\n Oldeyed\nchild,to\nambitious weeness\nof boots\n\ntiny\nadd\ndeath\nwhat\n\nshall?", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-i.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ii", "title": "Portraits II", "first_line": "Babylon slim", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Babylon slim\n-ness of\nevenslicing\neyes are chisels\n\nscarlet Goes\nwith her\nwhitehot\nface,gashed\n\nby hair’s blue cold\n\njolts of\nlovecrazed abrupt\n\nflesh split “Pretty\nBaby”\nto\nnumb rhythm before christ", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iii", "title": "Portraits III", "first_line": "ta", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "ta\nppin\ng\ntoe\n\nhip\npopot\namus Back\n\ngen\nteel-ly\nlugu-\nbri ous\n\n eyes\nLOOPTHELOOP\n\nas\n\nfathandsbangrag", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ix", "title": "Portraits IX", "first_line": "impossibly", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "impossibly\n\nmotivated by midnight\nthe flyspecked abdominous female\nindubitably tellurian\nstrolls\n emitting minute grins\n\neach an intaglio.\nNothing\nhas also carved upon her much\n\ntoo white forehead a pair of\neyes which mutter thickly(as one merely\nterricolous American an instant doubts\nthe authenticity\n\nof these antiquities—relaxing\n hurries\nelsewhere;to blow\n\nincredible wampum", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iv", "title": "Portraits IV", "first_line": "the waddling", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the waddling\nmadam star\ntaps\ntaps. “ready girls”. the\n\nunspontaneous streets\nmake bright their eyes\na\nblind irisher fiddles a\n\nscotch jig in a stinking\njoyman bar\na cockney is\nbuying whiskies for a turk\n\na waiter intones:bloo-moon-n\nsirkusricky\nplatzburg\nhoppytoad yesmam. the\n\nfurious taximan\np(ee)ps\non his whistle somebody\nsays here’s luck\n\nsomebody else says down the hatch\nthe nigger smiles\nthe jew stands\nbeside his teddy-bears\n\nthe sailor shuffles the\nnight with fucking eyes\nthe great black preacher gargles jesus\nthe aesthete indulges\n\nhis soul for certain things which died\nitis eighteen hundred\nyears....\nexactly\n\n under the window\n under the window\n under the window walk\n\nthe unburied feet of\nthe little ladies more than dead", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "and-seven-poems-v", "title": "&:Seven Poems V", "first_line": "gee i like to think of dead it means nearer because deeper firmer", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "gee i like to think of dead it means nearer because deeper firmer\nsince darker than little round water at one end of the well it’s\ntoo cool to be crooked and it’s too firm to be hard but it’s sharp\nand thick and it loves, every old thing falls in rosebugs and\njackknives and kittens and pennies they all sit there looking at\neach other having the fastest time because they’ve never met before\n\ndead’s more even than how many ways of sitting on your head your\nunnatural hair has in the morning\n\ndead’s clever too like POF goes the alarm off and the little striker\nhaving the best time tickling away everybody’s brain so everybody\njust puts out their finger and they stuff the poor thing all full\nof fingers\n\ndead has a smile like the nicest man you’ve never met who maybe winks\nat you in a streetcar and you pretend you don’t but really you do\nsee and you are My how glad he winked and hope he’ll do it again\n\nor if it talks about you somewhere behind your back it makes your neck\nfeel pleasant and stoopid and if dead says may i have this one and\nwas never introduced you say Yes because you know you want it to dance\nwith you and it wants to and it can dance and Whocares\n\ndead’s fine like hands do you see that water flowerpots in windows but\nthey live higher in their house that you so that’s all you see but you\ndon’t want to\n\ndead’s happy like the way underclothes All so differently solemn and\ninti and sitting on one string\n\ndead never says my dear,Time for your musiclesson and you like music and\nto have somebody play who can but you know you never can and why have to?\n\ndead’s nice like a dance where you danced simple hours and you take all\nyour prickly-clothes off and squeeze-into-largeness without one word and\nyou lie still as anything in largeness and this largeness begins to give\nyou,the dance all over again and you,feel all again all over the way men\n\nyou liked made you feel when they touched you(but that’s not all)because\nlargeness tells you so you can feel what you made,men feel when,you touched,\nthem\n\ndead’s sorry like a thistlefluff-thing which goes landing away all by\nhimself on somebody’s roof or something where who-ever-heard-of-growing\nand nobody expects you to anyway\n\ndead says comes with me he says(andwhyevernot)into the round well and\nsee the kitten and the penny and the jackknife and the rosebug\n and you\nsay Sure you say (like that) sure i’ll come with you you say for i\nlike kittens i do and jackknives i do and pennies i do and rosebugs i do", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/and-seven-poems-v.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-v", "title": "Portraits V", "first_line": "raise the shade", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "raise the shade\nwill youse dearie?\nrain\nwouldn’t that\n\nget yer goat but\nwe don’t care do\nwe dearie we should\nworry about the rain\n\nhuh\ndearie?\nyknow\ni’m\n\nsorry for awl the\npoor girls that\ngets up god\nknows when every\n\nday of their\nlives\naint you,\n oo-oo. dearie\n\nnot so\nhard dear\n\nyou’re killing me", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-v.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vi", "title": "Portraits VI", "first_line": "Cleopatra built", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Cleopatra built\nlike a smooth arrow or\na fleet pillar is eaten\nby yesterday\n\nshe was a silver tube of wise\nlust whose arms and legs\nlike white squirming pipes\nwiggle upon the perfumed roman\n\nstrength who how\nfuriously plays the hot\nsweet horrible stops of\nher\n\nbody\nCleopatra had a\nbody\nit was\n\nthick slim warm moist\nbuilt like an organ\nand it\nloved\n\nhe\nwas a roman theirs was a\nmusic sinuous globular\nslippery intense witty huge\n\nand its chords\nbrittle eager eternal luminous\nfirmly diminishing have swoopingly\nfallen svelte sagging gone into the soaring silence\n\n(put\nyour smallest\near against yester-\nday My Lady hear\n\nthe purple trumpets\nblow horses of gold\ndelicately crouching beneath silver\nyouths the leaneyed\n\nCaesars borne neatly through enormous\ntwilight surrounded by their triumphs\nand\n listen well\n\nhow the dainty destroyed\nhero clamps the hearty sharp\ncolumn\nof Egypt\n\n ,build like a fleet\npillar or a smooth\narrow\nCleopatra is eaten by\n\nyester-\nday)\n O i tell you out of\nthe minute incessant Was irrevocably\n\nemanates a dignity of papyruscoloured\nfaces superbly limp\nthe ostensible centuries\ntherefore let us be\n\na little uncouth and amorous in\nmemory of Cleopatra and of\nAntony\nand we will\n\nconfuse hotly our moreover irrevocable\nbodies while the infinite processions\nmove like moths and like boys and\nlike incense and like sunlight\n\nand like ships and like young girls and like\nbutterflies and like money\nand like laughter\nand like elephants\n\nthrough our\nsingle\nbrain in memory of Cleopatra while\neasily\n\ntremendously\nfloats\nin the bright shouting street of time\nher nakedness with its blue hair\n\n(all is eaten by yester-\nday\nbetween the nibbling timid teethful hours\nwilts the stern texture of Now\n\nthe arrow and the\npillar pursue curiously\na crumbling flight into the absolute stars\nthe gods are swallowed\n\neven\nNile\nthe\nkind black great god)\n\nCleopatra you\nare eaten\nby yester-\nday\n\n(and O My Lady Lady Of\nLadies you\nwho move beautifully in the winds\nof my lust like a high troubling\n\nship upon the fragrant\nunspeaking ignorant darkness of New\nLady whose kiss is\na procession of deep beasts\n\ncoming with keen ridiculous\nsilks coming with sharp languid perfumes\ncoming with the little profound gems and\nthe large laughing stones\n\na sinuous problem of colour\nfloating against\nthe clever deadly\nheaven i salute\n\nyou\nwhose body is\nEgypt\nwhose hair is Nile)\n\nput your ear\nto the ground\nthere is a music\nLady\n\n the noiseless truth of swirling\nworms\nis\ntomorrow", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vii", "title": "Portraits VII", "first_line": "between the breasts", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "between the breasts\nof bestial\nMarj lie large\nmen who praise\n\nMarj’s cleancornered strokable\nbody these men’s\nfingers toss trunks\nshuffle sacks spin kegs they\n\ncurl\nloving\naround\nbeers\n\n the world has\nthese men’s hands but their\nbodies big and boozing\nbelong to\n\nMarj\nthe greenslim purse of whose\nface opens\non a fatgold\n\ngrin\nhooray\nhoorah for the large\nmen who lie\n\nbetween the breasts\nof bestial Marj\nfor the strong men\nwho\n\nsleep between the legs of Lil", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-viii", "title": "Portraits VIII", "first_line": "when the spent day begins to frail", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "when the spent days begins to frail\n(whose grave already three or two\nyoung stars with spades of silver dig)\n\nby beauty i declare to you\n\nif what i am at one o’clock\nto little lips(which have not sinned\nin whose displeasure lives a kiss)\nkneeling,your frequent mercy begs,\n\nsharply believe me,wholly,well\n—did(wisely suddenly into\na dangerous womb of cringing air)\nthe largest hour push deep his din\n\nof wallowing male(shock beyond shock\nblurted)strokes,vibrant with the purr\nof echo pouring in a mesh\nof following tone:did this and this\n\nspire strike midnight(and did occur\nbell beyond fiercely spurting bell\na jetted music splashing fresh\nupon silence)i without fail\n\nentered because and was these twin\nimminent lisping bags of flesh;\nbecame eyes moist lithe shuddering big,\nthe luminous laughter,and the legs\n\none,i am this blueeyed Finn\nemerging from a lovehouse who\nbuttons his coat against the wind", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-x", "title": "Portraits X", "first_line": "here is little Effie’s head", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "here is little Effie’s head\nwhose brains are made of gingerbread\nwhen the judgment day comes\nGod will find six crumbs\n\nstooping by the coffinlid\nwaiting for something to rise\nas the other somethings did—\nyou imagine His surprise\n\nbellowing through the general noise\nWhere is Effie who was dead?\n—to God in a tiny voice.\ni am may the first crumb said\n\nwhereupon its fellow five\ncrumbs chuckled as if they were alive\nand number two took up the song,\nmight i’m called and did no wrong\n\ncried the third crumb,i am should\nand this is my little sister could\nwith our big brother who is would\ndon’t punish us for we were good;\n\nand the last crumb with some shame\nwhispered unto God,my name\nis must and with the other i’ve\nbeen Effie who isn’t alive\n\njust imagine it I say\nGod amid a monstrous din\nwatch your step and follow me\nstooping by Effie’s little,in\n\n(want a match or can you see?)\nwhich the six subjunctive crumbs\ntwitch like mutilated thumbs:\npicture His peering biggest whey\n\ncoloured face on which a frown\npuzzles,but I know the way—\n(nervously Whose eyes approve\nthe blessed while His ears are crammed\n\nwith the strenuous music of\nthe innumerable capering damned)\n—staring wildly up and down\nand here we are now judgment day\n\ncross the threshold have no dread\nlift the sheet back in this way.\nhere is little Effie’s head\nwhose brains are made of gingerbread", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-x.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-xii", "title": "Portraits XII", "first_line": "little ladies more", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "little ladies more\nthan dead exactly dance\nin my head,precisely\ndance where danced la guerre.\n\nMimi à\nla voix fragile\nqui chatouille Des\nItaliens\n\nthe putain with the ivory throat\nMarie Louise Lallemand\nn’est-ce pas que je suis belle\nchéri? les anglais m’aiment\ntous,les américains\naussi....“bon dos,bon cul de Paris”(Marie\nVierge\nPriez\nPour\nNous)\n\nwith the\nlong lips of\nLucienne which dangle\nthe old men and hot\nmen se promènent\ndoucement le soir(ladies\n\naccurately dead les anglais\nsont gentils et les américains\naussi,ils payent bien les américains dance\n\nexactly in my brain voulez-\nvous coucher avec\nmoi? Non? pourquoi?)\n\nladies skilfully\ndead precisely dance\n\nwhere has danced la\nguerre j’m’appelle\nManon,cinq rue Henri Monnier\nvoulez-vous coucher avec moi?\nte ferai Mimi\nte ferai Minette,\ndead exactly dance\nsi vous voulez\nchatouiller\nmon lézard ladies suddenly\nj’m’en fous des négres\n\n (in the twilight of Paris\nMarie Louise with queenly\nlegs cinq rue Henri\nMonnier a little love\nbegs,Mimi with the body\nlike une boîte á joujoux,want nice sleep?\ntoutes les petites femmes exactes\nqui dansent toujours in my\nhead dis-donc, Paris\n\nta gorge mystérieuse\npourquoi se proméne-t-elle,pourquoi\néclate ta voix\nfragile couleur de pivoine?)\n with the\n\nlong lips of Lucienne which\ndangle the old men and hot men\nprecisely dance in my head\nladies carefully dead", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-xi", "title": "Portraits XI", "first_line": "her", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "her\nflesh\nCame\nat\n\nmeassandca V\n ingint\n oA\nchute\n\n i had cement for her,\n merrily\nwe became each\nother humped to tumbling\n\ngarble when\na\nminute\npulled the sluice\n\n emerging.\n\n\nconcrete", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/portraits-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-i", "title": "Post Impressions I", "first_line": "windows go orange in the slowly.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "windows go orange in the slowly.\ntown, night\nfeatherly swifts\nthe\n Dark on us\nall;\n stories told returned\n\n gather\n\n the\n\nAgain:who\ndanc ing\ngoes utter ly\n\nchurning\nwitty,twitters\n\n upon Our\n\n(ta-te-ta\nin a parenthesis!said the moon\n\n )", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-i.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-ii", "title": "Post Impressions II", "first_line": "riverly is a flower", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "riverly is a flower\ngone softly by tomb\nrosily gods whiten\nbefall saith rain\n\nanguish\nand dream-send is\nhushed\nin\n\nmoan-loll where\nnight gathers\nmorte carved smiles\n\ncloud-gloss is at moon-cease\nsoon\nverbal mist-flowers close\nghosts on prowl gorge\n\nsly slim gods stare", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-iii", "title": "Post Impressions III", "first_line": "this wind is a Lady with", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "this wind is a Lady with\nbright slender eyes(who\n\nmoves)at sunset\nand who—touches—the\nhills without any reason\n\n(i have spoken with this\nindubitable and green person “Are\nYou the wind?” “Yes” “why do you touch flowers\nas if they were unalive,as\n\nif They were ideas?” “because,sir\nthings which in my mind blossom will\nstumble beneath a clumsiest disguise,appear\ncapable of fragility and indecision\n\n—do not suppose these\nwithout any reason and otherwise\nroses and mountains\ndifferent from the i am who wanders\n\nimminently across the renewed world”\nto me said the)wind being A lady in a green\ndress,who;touches:the fields\n(at sunset)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-iv", "title": "Post Impressions IV", "first_line": "Take for example this:", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Take for example this:\n\nif to the colour of midnight\nto a more than darkness(which\nis myself and Paris and all\nthings)the bright\nrain\noccurs deeply, beautifully\n\nand i(being at a window\nin this midnight)\n for no reason feel\ndeeply completely conscious of the rain or rather\nSomebody who uses roofs and streets skilfully to make a\npossible and beautiful sound:\n\nif a(perhaps)clock strikes,in the alive\ncoolness,very faintly and\nfinally through altogether delicate gestures of rain\n\na colour comes,which is morning,O do not wonder that\n\n(just at the edge of day)i surely\nmake a millionth poem which will not wholly\nmiss you;or if i certainly create,lady,\none of the thousand selves who are your smile.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-ix", "title": "Post Impressions IX", "first_line": "of this sunset(which is so", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "of this sunset(which is so\nfilled with fear people bells)i\nsay your eyes can take\nday away more softly horribly suddenly;\n\n(of these two most\nearly stars wincing upon a single\ncolour,i know only that your hands\nmove more simply upon the evening\n\nand à propos such light and shape as means\nthe moon,i somehow feel\nyour smile slightly is a more\nminute adventure)\n\nlady. The clumsy dark threatens(and i do\nnot speak nor think nor am aware\nof anything\n save that these houses bulge\nlike memories in one crooked street\n\nof a mind peacefully and skilfully which is disappearing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-v", "title": "Post Impressions V", "first_line": "Paris;this April sunset completely utters;", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Paris;this April sunset completely utters;\nutters serenely silently a cathedral\n\nbefore whose upward lean magnificent face\nthe streets turn young with rain,\n\nspiral acres of bloated rose\ncoiled within cobalt miles of sky\nyield to and heed\nthe mauve\n of twilight(who slenderly descends,\ndaintily carrying in her eyes the dangerous first stars)\npeople move love hurry in a gently\n\narriving gloom and\nsee!(the new moon\nfills abruptly with sudden silver\nthese torn pockets of lame and begging colour)while\nthere and here the lithe indolent prostitute\nNight,argues\n\nwith certain houses", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-v.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-vi", "title": "Post Impressions VI", "first_line": "I remark this beach has been used too. much Too. originally", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "I remark this beach has been used too. much Too. originally\nspontaneous twurls-of-excrement inanely codified with superb\nsunlight, jolts of delapidation bath-houses whose opened\nwithins ejaculate. obscenity the tide Did dl es a,fad ed\nexplosion of, pink!stocking\n\nw h e e saysthesea-brE aking-b Re akin g(brea )K ing\n\nmy Nose puts on sharp robes of uncouth odour,for an onion!for\none—onion for. putrescence is Cubical sliced-nicelybits\nOf, shivers ofcrin Ging stink.dull, globular glows and\nflatchatte ringarom a .s\n\n—w hee e;\n\nseasays.Break snice-Ly in-twin K les Of,CleaN\n\na booming smell waddles toward,me,dressed like a Plum grinning\nsoftly,New focus-of disintegrat i o n ? my\n\nmind laughsin- to Slivers of (unthinking.c’est\n\nl’heure\n\n exquise)i remind Me of HerThe delicate-swill tints of\n\nhair Whose(the lit-tle m-oo-n’s o u t ) flesh stalks\nthe Momentinmyarms\n\nyour expression\n my love\n when most passionate.,\n\n my,love\nis thatofa fly.pre cisel Yhalf\n\n(squashe)d\n\n with,its,little,solemn, entrails", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-x", "title": "Post Impressions X", "first_line": "SNO", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": " a white idea(Listen\n\n drenches:earth’s ugly)mind.\n‚Rinsing with exact death\n\n the annual brain\n clotted with loosely voices\n look\n look. Skillfully\n\n.fingered by(a parenthesis\n the)pond on whoseswooning edge\n\n black trees think\n\n(hear little knives of flower\n stropping sof a. Thick silence)\n\n blacktreesthink\n\n tiny‚angels sharpen:themselves\n\n(on\n air)\n don’t speak\n A white idea‚\n\n drenching. earth’s brain detaches\n clottingsand from a a nnual(ugliness\n of)rinsed mind slowly:\n\n from!the:A wending putrescense. a.of,loosely\n\n\n;voices", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-x.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-vii", "title": "Post Impressions VII", "first_line": "my smallheaded pearshaped", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my smallheaded pearshaped\n\nlady in gluey twilight\nmoving,suddenly\n\nis three animals. The\nminute waiste continually\n\nwith an African gesture\n\nutters a frivolous intense half of\nGirl which(like some\n\nfloating snake upon itself always and\nslowly which upward certainly is pouring)emits\na pose\n :to twitter wickedly\n\nwhereas the big and firm legs moving solemnly\nlike careful and furious and beautiful elephants\n\n(mingled in whispering thickly smooth thighs\nthinkingly)\nremind me of Woman and\n\nhow between\nher hips India is.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-viii", "title": "Post Impressions VIII", "first_line": "i was sitting in mcsorley’s outside it was New York and beauti-", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i was sitting in mcsorley’s outside it was New York and beauti-\nfully snowing.\n\nInside snug and evil. the slobbering walls filthily push witless\ncreases of screaming warmth chuck pillows are noise funnily swallows\nswallowing revolvingly pompous a the swallowed mottle with smooth or\na but of rapidly goes gobs the and of flecks of and a chatter sobbings\nintersect with which distinct disks of graceful oath,upsoarings the\nbreak on ceiling-flatness\n\nthe Bar.tinking lucious jigs dint of ripe silver with warmlyish\nwetflat splurging smells waltz the glush of squirting taps plus slush\nof foam knocked off and a faint piddle-of-drops she says I ploc spittle\nwhat the lands thaz me kid in no sir hopping sawdust you kiddo he’s a\npalping wreaths of badly Yep cigars who jim him why gluey grins topple\ntogether eyes pout gestures stickily point made glints squinting who’s\na wink bum-nothing and money fuzzily mouths take big wobbly foot-steps\nevery goggle cent of it get out ears dribbles soft right old feller\nbelch the chap hic summore eh chuckles skulch....\n\nand i aws sitting in the din thinking drinking the ale,which never\nlets you grow old blinking at the low ceiling my being pleasantly was\npunctuated by the always retchings of a worthless lamp.\n\nwhen With a minute terrif iceffort one dirty squeal of soiling light\nyanKing from bushy obscurity a bald greenish foetal head established\nIt suddenly upon the huge neck around whose unwashed sonorous muscle\nthe filth of a collar hung gently.\n\n(spattered)by this instant of semiluminous nausea A vast wordless\nnondescript genie of trunk trickled firmly in to one exactly-mutilated\nghost of a chair,\n\na;domeshaped interval of complete plasticity,shoulders,sprouted the\nextraordinary arms through an angle of ridiculous velocity commenting\nupon an unclean table,and,whose distended immense Both paws slowly\nloved a dinted mug\n\ngone Darkness it was so near to me,i ask of shadow won’t you have a\ndrink?\n\n(the eternal perpetual question)\n\nInside snugandevil. i was sitting in mcsorley’s It,did not answer.\n\noutside.(it was New York and beautifully,snowing....", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-xiii", "title": "Post Impressions XIII", "first_line": "the dress was a suspicious madder, importing the cruelty of roses.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the dress was a suspicious madder,importing the cruelty of roses.\nThe exciting simplicity of her hipless body,pausing to invent im-\nperceptible bulgings of the pretended breasts,forked in surpris-\nable unliving eyes chopped by a swollen inanity of picture hat.\n the arms hung ugly., the hands sharp and impertinently dead.\n expression began with the early cessation of her skirt. flesh-\nless melody of the,keenly lascivious legs. painful ankles large\nacute brutal feet propped on irrelevantly ferocious heels.\n Her gasping slippery body moved with the hideous spontaneity\nof a solemn mechanism. beneath her drab tempo of hasteful futility\nlived brilliantly the enormous rhythm of absurdity.\n skin like the poisonous fragility of ice newly formed upon an old\npool. Her nose was small,exact,stupid. mouth normal,large,unclever.\nhair genuinely artificial,unpleasantly tremendous.\n under flat lusts of light her nice concupiscence appeared rounded.\n if she were alive,death was amusing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-xii", "title": "Post Impressions XII", "first_line": "suppose", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "suppose\nLife is an old man carrying flowers on his head.\n\nyoung death sits in a café\nsmiling,a piece of money held between\nhis thumb and first finger\n\n(i say “will he buy flowers” to you\nand “Death is young\nlife wears velour trousers\nlife totters,life has a beard” i\n\nsay to you who are silent.—“Do you see\nLife?he is there and here,\nor that,or this\nor nothing or an old man 3 thirds\nasleep,on his head\nflowers,always crying\nto nobody something about les\nroses les bluets\n yes,\n will He buy?\nLes belles bottes—oh hear\npas chères”)\n\nand my love slowly answered I think so. But\nI think I see someone else\n\nthere is a lady,whose name is Afterwards\nshe is sitting beside young death,is slender;\nlikes flowers.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-xi", "title": "Post Impressions XI", "first_line": "my eyes are fond of the east side", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my eyes are fond of the east side\nas i lie asleep my eyes go into Allen street the dark long cool tunnel\nof raving colour,on either side the windows are packed with hardslippery\ngreens and helplessbaby blues and stic-ky chromes and prettylemons and\nvirginal pinks and wealthy vermilion and breathless-scarlet,dark colours\nlike ’cellos keen fiddling colours colours cOOler than harps colours\np r i c k i n glike piccolos thumPing colours like a bangofpiano colours\nwhich,are,the,flowery pluckings of a harpsichord colours of Pure percus-\nsion colours-like-trumpets they(writhe they,struggleinweird chords of\nhumorous,fury heapingandsqueezing tum-bling-scratchingcrowd ingworming\neach by screeching Each)on either side the street’s DarkcOOllinGBody\nwindows,are. clenched. fistsoftint.\n TUMTITUMTIDDLE\nif sometimes my eyes stay at home\nthen my mouth will go out into the East side,my mouth goes to the peddlers,\nto the peddlers of smooth,fruits of eager colours of the little,huddling\nnuts and the bad candies my,mouth loves melons slitted with bright knives,\nit stains itself, with currants and cherries it (swallow s bun chesofnew\ngrapes likeGree n A r e b u b b l e s asc end-ing inthecarts my,mouth\nis,fond of tiny plums of tangerines and apples it will,Gorge indistinct\npalishflesh of laZilytas tingg OO seberries,it,loves these better than,\ncubesandovalsof sweetness but it swallow) s greedily sugaredellipses it\ndoes not disdain picKles,once,it,ate a scarlet pepper and my eyes were\nbuttoned with pain\n THE BLACK CAT WITH\nis there anything my ears love it’s\nto go into the east Side in a. dark street a hurDygurdY with thequeer\nhopping ghosts of children. my,ears know the fuZZy tune that’s played\nby the Funny hand of the paralyticwhose dod d e rin g partner whEEl\nshi min chb yi nch along the whirlingPeaceful furious street people\ndrop,coppers into,the littletin-cup His wrappedupbody Queerly Has,my,\nears,go into Hassan’s place the kanoonchir p ing the bigtwittering\nzither-and the mealy,ladies dancing thicklyfoolish,with,the,tam,bou,\nrine,s And the violin spitting squeakysongs into the cuspidor-col our-\nedRoom and,my ears bend to the little silent handorgan propping the\ncurve of the tiny motheaten old manwhose Beard rests.onthetopwhose\nsilly,Hand revolves,perfectly,slowlywith,the handle ofa crankin It\nThe L’s roar tortures-pleasantly myears it is,like the,Jab:of a dark\ntool. With a cleverjeRk in itlike the motionofa Sharp Knife-sN ap-\npingof fadeadf ish’ shead Or,the whipping of a blackSnake cu tSudden ly\nin 2 that,writhes...A.lit.tleora basket of RipeBlackbeRRies emptied\nsuddenl (y down the squirming sPine of the)unsuspecting street;\n THE YELLOW EYES AND\n—;i Like to\nLie On My Couch at Christopher Street For my stomach goes out into The\neast side my sex sitting upright on the stomach like A billiken with\nhisknees huggedtogether it,goes out into the rapid hard women and\nintotheslow hot women my Stomach ruBSiTSElf kew-re-ous-ly a mong\nThem(among their stomachs andtheir sexes )stomachsofold pe o plelLike\nhideous vegetables weazEned with-being-put-too-long in windows and\nnever sold and couldn’t-be-given-away because Who?wanted them,stom-\nachslikEDead fishe s s olemnandputrid vast,stomachs bLurting and\ncHuckling like uninteresting-landscapes made interesting by earTHQuake\nempty stomachsClenche Dtothe beautiful-curveofhunger, cHuBbY stomachs\nwhich have not,known other stomachs and their Sexis a Lone ly,flower\nwhose secretloveliness hur.ts itse;l.f to no-thing signifi-cant\nstomachs:Who carry-tadpole!s,stomachs of little,girls smoothanduseless\ni,like,best,the,stomachs,of the young (girls silky and lewd)like corn\ns l e n derl y tottering in sun-light\n THE\n\nnobody(knows and WhoEver would)?dance lewd dollies pretty and putrid\ndollies of-love-and-of-death dollies of perfect life,\n\ndollies of anyway\n VIOLIN", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "post-impressions-xiv", "title": "Post Impressions XIV", "first_line": "inthe,exquisite;", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "inthe,exquisite;\n\nmorning sure lyHer eye s exactly sit,ata little roundtable\namong otherlittle roundtables Her,eyes count slow(ly\n\nobstre peroustimidi ties surElyfl)oat iNg,the\n\nofpieces ofof sunlıgh tof fa l l in gof throughof treesOf.\n\n(Fields Elysian\n\nthe like,a)slEEping neck a breathing a ,lies\n(slo wlythe wom an pa)ris her\nflesh:wakes\n in little streets\n\nwhile exactlygir lisHlegs;play;ing;nake;D\nand\n\nchairs wait under the trees\n\nFields slowly Elysian in\na firmcool-Ness taxis, s.QuirM\n\nand, b etw ee nch air st ott er s thesillyold\nWomanSellingBalloonS\n\nIn theex qui site\n\nmorning,\n her sureLyeye s sit-ex actly her sitsat a surely!little,\nroundtable amongother;littleexactly round. tables,\n\nHer\n .eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/post-impressions-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-ii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities II", "first_line": "it is funny,you will be dead some day.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "it is funny,you will be dead some day.\nBy you the mouth hair eyes,and i mean\nthe unique and nervously obscene\n\nneed;it’s funny. They will all be dead\n\nknead of lustfulhunched deeplytoplay\nlips and stare the gross fuzzy-pash\n—dash—and the dark gold delicately smash....\ngrass,and the stars,of my shoulder in stead.\n\nIt is a funny,thing. And you will be\n\nand i and all the days and nights that matter\nknocked by sun moon jabbed jerked with ecstasy\n....tremble(not knowing how much better\n\nthan me will you like the rain’s face and\n\nthe rich improbable hands of the Wind)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-i", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities I", "first_line": "when my love comes to see me it’s", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "when my love comes to see me it’s\njust a little like music,a\nlittle more like curving colour(say\norange)\n against silence,or darkness....\n\nthe coming of my love emits\na wonderful smell in my mind,\n\nyou should see when i turn to find\nher how my least heart-beat becomes less.\nAnd then all her beauty is a vise\n\nwhose stilling lips murder suddenly me,\n\nbut of my corpose the tool her smile makes something\nsuddenly luminous and precise\n\n—and then we are I and She....\n\nwhat is that the hurdy-gurdy’s playing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-v", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities V", "first_line": "before the fragile gradual throne of night", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "before the fragile gradual throne of night\nslowly when several stars are opening\none beyond one immaculate curving\ncool treasures of silence\n (slenderly wholly\nrising,herself uprearing wholly slowly,\nlean in the hips and her sails filled with dream—\nwhen on a green brief gesture of twilight\ntrembles the imagined galleon of Spring)\n\nsomewhere unspeaking sits my life;the grim\nclenched mind of me somewhere begins again,\nshares the year’s perfect agony. Waiting\n\n(always)upon a fragile instant when\n\nherself me(slowly, wholly me)will press\nin the young lips unearthly slenderness", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-v.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-vi", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities VI", "first_line": "when i have thought of you somewhat too", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "when i have thought of you somewhat too\nmuch and am become perfectly and\nsimply Lustful....sense a gradual stir\nof beginning muscle,and what it will do\nto me before shutting....understand\ni love you....feel your suddenly body reach\nfor me with a speed of white speech\n\n(the simple instant of perfect hunger\nYes)\n how beautifully swims\nthe fooling world in my huge blood,\ncracking brains A swiftlyenormous light\n—and furiously puzzling through,prismatic,whims\nthe chattering self perceives with hysterical fright\n\na comic tadpole wriggling in delicious mud", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-iv", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities IV", "first_line": "utterly and amusingly i am pash", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "utterly and amusingly i am pash\npossibly because\n .dusk and if it\nperhaps drea-mingly Is(not-\nquite trees hugging with the rash,\ncoherant light\n )only to trace with\nstiffening slow shrill eyes beyond a fit-\nand-cling of stuffs the alert willing myth\nof body,which will make oddly to strut\nmy indolent priceless smile,\n until\nthis very frail enormous star(do you see\nit?)and this shall dance upon the nude\nand final silence and shall the\n(i do but touch you)timid lewd\nmoon plunge skilfully into the hill.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-vii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities VII", "first_line": "autumn is:that between there and here", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "autumn is:that between there and here\ngladness flays hideously hills.\nIt was in the spring of this very year\n\n(a spring of wines women and window-sills)\ni met that hideous gladness,per the face\n—pinxit,who knows? Who knows? Some “allemand”....?\nof Goethe,since exempt from heaven’s grace,\n\nin an engraving belonging to my friend.\nWhom i salute,by what is dear to us;\nand by a gestured city stilled in the framing\ntwilight of Spring....and the dream of dreaming\n—and i fall back,quietly amorous\nof,through the autumn indisputably roaming\n\ndeath’s big rotten particular kiss.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-viii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities VIII", "first_line": "fabulous against ,a,fathoming jelly", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "fabulous against ,a,fathoming jelly\nof vital futile light as she\ndoes not stand-ing.unsits\n\n her(wrist\nperforms a thundering trivial)it.y\n\nprotuberant through the room’s skilfull of thing\nsilent spits discrete lumps of noise....\nfurniture\n\n unsolemnly :bur sting\nthe skinfull of Ludicrous,solidity which a. ,kissed\nwith is nearness.(peers:body of\n\n aching toys\nin unsmooth sexual luminosity spree.\n\n—dear)the uncouthly Her.thuglike stare the\npollenizing vacancy\nwhen,Thy patters?hands....is swig\n\nit does who eye sO neatly big", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-x", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities X", "first_line": "if i should sleep with a lady called death", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "if i should sleep with a lady called death\nget another man with firmer lips\nto take your new mouth in his teeth\n(hips pumping pleasure into hips).\n\nSeeing how the limp huddling string\nof your smile over his body squirms\nkissingly,i will bring you every spring\nhandfuls of little normal worms.\n\nDress deftly your flesh in stupid stuffs,\nphrase the immense weapon of your hair.\nUnderstanding why his eye laughs.\ni will bring you every year\n\nsomething which is worth the whole,\nan inch of nothing for your soul.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-x.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xi", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XI", "first_line": "my naked lady framed", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my naked lady framed\nin twilight is an accident\n\nwhose niceness betters easily the intent\nof genius—\n painting wholly feels ashamed\nbefore this music, and poetry cannot\ngo near because perfectly fearful.\n\nmeanwhile these speak her wonderful\nBut i(having in my arms caught\n\nthe picture)hurry it slowly\n\nto my mouth,taste the accurate demure\nferocious\n rhythm of\n precise\nlaziness. Eat the price\n\nof an imaginable gesture\n\nexact warm unholy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XII", "first_line": "i have found what you are like", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i have found what you are like\nthe rain.\n\n (Who feathers frightened fields\nwith the superior dust-of-sleep. wields\n\neasily the pale club of the wind\nand swirled justly souls of flower strike\n\nthe air in utterable coolness\n\ndeeds of green thrilling light\n with thinned\n\nnewfragile yellows\n\n lurch and.press\n\n—in the woods\n which\n stutter\n and\n\n sing\nAnd the coolness of your smile is\nstirringofbirds between my arms;but\ni should rather than anything\nhave(almost when hugeness will shut\nquietly)almost,\n your kiss", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xiii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XIII", "first_line": "upon the room’s\n silence,i will sew", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "upon the room’s\n silence,i will sew\n\na nagging button of candlelight\n(halfstoopingto exactly kiss the trite\n\nworm of her nakedness\n until it go\n\nrapidly to bed:i will get in with\nit,wisely,pester skilfully,teasing\nits lips,absurd eyes,the hair). Creasing\nits smoothness—and leave the bed agrin with\n\nmemories\n (this white woman and i who\n\nlove to feel what it will do\nin my bullying fingers)\nas for the candle,it’ll\n\nturn into a little curse\n\nof wax. Something,distinct and. Amusing,brittle", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xiv", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XIV", "first_line": "the ivory performing rose", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the ivory performing rose\n\nof you, worn upon my mind\nall night, quitting only in the unkind\n\ndawn its muscle amorous\n\npricks with minute odour these gross\ndays\n when i think of you and do not live:\nand the empty twilight cannot grieve\nnor the autumns, as i grieve,faint for your face\n\nO stay with me slighty. or until\n\nwith neat obscure obvious hands\n\nTime stuff the sincere stomach of each mill\n\nof the ingenious gods.(i am punished.\nThey have stolen into recent lands\nthe flower\n with their enormous fingers unwished", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xix", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XIX", "first_line": "the mind is its own beautiful prisoner.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the mind is it own beautiful prisoner.\nMine looked long at the sticky moon\nopening in dusk her new wings\n\nthen decently hanged himself,one afternoon.\n\nThe last thing he saw was you\nnaked amid unnaked things,\n\nyour flesh,a succinct wandlike animal,\na little strolling with the futile purr\nof blood;your sex squeaked like a billiard-cue\nchalking itself,as not to make an error,\nwith twists spontaneously methodical.\nHe suddenly tasted worms windows and roses\n\nhe laughed,and closed his eyes as a girl closes\nher left hand upon a mirror.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xix.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xv", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XV", "first_line": "(the phonograph’s voice like a keen spider skipping", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "(the phonograph’s voice like a keen spider skipping\n\nquickly over patriotic swill.\nThe,negress,in the,rocker by the,curb,tipping\n\nand tipping,the flocks of pigeons. An the skil-\n\nful loneliness,and the rather fat\nman in bluishsuspenders half-reading the\nEvening Something\n in the normal window. and a cat.\n\nA cat waiting for god knows makes me\n\nwonder if i’m alive(eye pries,\n\nnot open. Tail stirs.) And the, fire-escapes—\nthe night. makes me wonder if,if i am\nthe face of a baby smeared with beautiful jam\n\nor\n\n my invincible Nearness rapes\n\nlaughter from your preferable,eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xvi", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XVI", "first_line": "a blue woman with sticking out breasts hanging", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": " a blue woman with sticking out breasts hanging\nclothes. On the line, not so old\nfor the mother of twelve undershirts(we are told\nby is it Bishop Taylor who need hanging\n\nthat marriage is a sure cure for masturbation).\n\n A dirty wind,twitches the,clothes which are clean\n—this is twilight,\n a little puppy hopping between\n\nskipping\n children\n (It is the consummation\nof day,the hour)she says to me you big fool\nshe says i says to her i says Sally\ni says\n the\n\n mmmoon,begins to,drool\n\nsoftly,in the hot alley,\n\na nigger’s voice feels curiously cool\n(suddenly-Lights go!on,by schedule", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xvii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XVII", "first_line": "(let us tremble)a personal radiance sits", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "(let us tremble)a personal radiance sits\nhideously upon the trafficking hum\nof dusk\n each street takes of shadowy\nlight the drollsnowing delirium\n\n(we do not speak!)\n tumbled hushingly bits\nof downward flower flowing without or cease\n\nor time;a naming stealth of ectasy\nmeans,like a girl lasciviously frail,\n peace\n\n(dreaming is better)\n\n murdering coolness slowly\nin peopling places seeks play:withs of star\nlink clauses of warmth\n (after dream who knows?)\na blackish cat and a bluish cat are\n\neyeing,as with almost melancholy\ndelicacy night gargles windows.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xvii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xviii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XVIII", "first_line": "—G O N splashes-sink", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": " —G O N splashes-sink\nwhich is east eight,a star of three annoys\n\nme,but the stink of perfumed noise\nfiercely mounts from the fireman’s ball,i think\n\nand also i think of you,getting mandolin-clink\nmixed with your hair;feeling your knees\namoung the supercilious chimneys,\n\nmy nerves sumptuously wink\n....and little-dusk has his toys to play with\nwindows-and-whispers,\n (will BigMorning get away with\nthem?)’m’en doute,)\n chérie,j’m’em doute.\n\nthe accurate key to a palace\n\n—You.—in this window sits a Face\n(it is twilight)a Face playing on a flute", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xviii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xxi", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XXI", "first_line": "when you went away it was morning", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "when you went away it was morning\n(this,big horses;light feeling up\nstreets;heels taking derbies (where?) a pup\nhurriedly hunched over swill;one butting\n\ntrolley imposingly empty;snickering\nshop doors unlocked by white-grub\nfaces) clothes in delicate hubbub\n\nas you stood thinking of anything,\n\nmaybe the world....But i have wondered since\nisn’t it odd of you really to lie\na sharp agreeable flower between my\n\namused legs\n kissing with little dints\n\nof april,making the obscene shy\nbreasts tickle,laughing when i wilt and wince", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xx", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XX", "first_line": "my sonnet is A light goes on in", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my sonnet is A light goes on in\nthe toiletwindow,that’s straightacross from\nmy window,night air bothered with a rustling din\n\nsort of sublimated tom-tom\nwhich quite outdoes the mandolin-\n\nman’s tiny racket. The horses sleep upstairs.\nAnd you can see their ears. Ears win-\n\nk,funny stable. In the morning they go out in pairs:\namazingly,one pair is white\n(but you know that)they look at each other. Nudge.\n\n(if they love each other,who cares?)\nThey pull the morning out of the night.\n\nI am living with a mouse who shares\n\nmy meals with him,which is fair as i judge.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xx/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xx.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xx.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xxii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XXII", "first_line": "you asked me to come:it was raining a little,", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "you asked me to come:it was raining a little,\nand the spring;a clumsy brightness of air\nwonderfully stumbled above the square,\nlittle amorous-tadpole people wiggled\n\nbattered by stuttering pearl,\n leaves jiggled\nto the jigging fragrance of newness\n—and then. My crazy fingers liked your dress\n....your kiss,your kiss was a distinct brittle\n\nflower,and the flesh crisp set\nmy love-tooth on edge. So until light\neach having each we promised to forget—\n\nwherefore is there nothing left to guess:\nthe cheap intelligent thighs,the electric trite\nthighs;the hair stupidly priceless.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xxiii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XXIII", "first_line": "and this day it was Spring....us", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "and this day it was Spring....us\ndrew lewdly the murmurous minute clumsy\nsmelloftheworld. We intricately\nalive,cleaving the luminous stammer of bodies\n(eagerly just not each other touch)seeking,some\nstreet which easily tickles a brittle fuss\nof fragile huge humanity....\n Numb\nthoughts kicking in the rivers of our blood,miss\nby how terrible inches speech—it\nmade you a little dizzy did the world’s smell\n(but i was thinking why the girl-and-bird\nof you move....moves...and also,i’ll admit—)\n\ntill,at the corner of Nothing and Something,we heard\na handorgan in twilight playing like hell", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-xxiv", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities XXIV", "first_line": "i like my body when it is with your", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i like my body when it is with your\nbody. It is so quite new a thing.\nMuscles better and nerves more.\ni like your body. i like what it does,\ni like its hows. i like to feel the spine\nof your body and its bones,and the trembling\n-firm-smooth ness and which i will\nagain and again and again\nkiss, i like kissing this and that of you,\ni like,slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz\nof your electric fur,and what-is-it comes\nover parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,\n\nand possibly i like the thrill\n\nof under me you so quite new", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-xxiv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-i", "title": "Sonnets—Realities I", "first_line": "O It’s Nice To Get Up In,the slipshod mucous kiss", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "O It’s Nice To Get Up In,the slipshod mucous kiss\nof her riant belly’s fooling bore\n—When The Sun Begins To(with a phrasing crease\nof hot subliminal lips,as if a score\nof youngest angels suddenly should stretch neat necks\njust to see how always squirms\nthe skilful mystery of Hell)me suddenly\n\ngrips in the chuckles of supreme sex.\n\nIn The Good Old Summer Time.\nMy gorgeous bullet in the tickling intuitive flight\naches,just,simply,into,her. Thirsty\nstirring. (Must be summer. Hush. Worms.)\nBut It’s Nicer To Lie In Bed\n —eh? I’m\n\nnot. Again. Hush. God. Please hold. Tight", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-ii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities II", "first_line": "my strength becoming wistful in a glib", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my strength becoming wistful in a glib\n\ngirl i consider her a leaf\n thinks\nof the sky, my mind takes to nib\n-bling,of her posture. (As an eye winks).\n\nand almost i refrain from jumbling her\nflesh whose casual mouth’s coy rooting\ndies also. (my loveFist in her knuckling\n\nthighs,\n with a sharp indecent stir\nunclenches\n\n into fingers....she too is tired.\nNot of me. The eyes which biggish loll\n\nthe hands’ will tumbling into shall\n\n—and Love ’s a coach with gilt hopeless wheels mired\nwhere sits rigidly her body’s doll\ngay exactly perishing sexual,", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-iii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities III", "first_line": "i have loved,let us see if that’s all.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i have loved,let us see if that’s all.\nBit into you as teeth, in the stone\nof a musical fruit. My lips pleasantly groan\non your taste. Jumped the quick wall\n\nof your smile into stupid gardens\nif this were not enough(not really enough\npulled one before one the vague tough\n\nexquisite\n\n flowers,whom hardens\nrichly, darkness. On the whole\npossibly have i loved....?you)\n sheath before sheath\n\nstripped to the Odour. (and here’s what WhoEver will know\nHad you as bite teeth;\ni stood with you as a foal\n\nstands but as the trees,lay,which grow", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-iv", "title": "Sonnets—Realities IV", "first_line": "light cursed falling in a singular block", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "light cursed falling in a singular block\nher,rain-warm-naked\n exquisitely hashed\n\n(little careful hunks-of-lilac laughter splashed\nfrom the world prettily upward,mock\nus....)\n and there was a clock. tac-tic. tac-toc.\n\nTime and lilacs....minutes and love....do you?and\nalways\n (i simply understand\nthe gnashing petals of sex which lock\nme seriously.\n\n Dumb for a while.my\n\ngod—a patter of kisses,the chewed stump\n\nof a mouth,huge dropping of a flesh from\nhinging thighs\n ....merci....i want to die\nnous sommes heureux\n\n My soul a limp lump\n\nof lymph\n she kissed\n and i\n\n ....chéri....nous sommes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-ix", "title": "Sonnets—Realities IX", "first_line": "irreproachable ladies firmly lewd", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "irreproachable ladies firmly lewd\non dangerous slabs of tilting din whose\nmouths distinctly walk\n your smiles accuse\n\nthe dusk with an untimid svelte subdued\nmagic\n while in your eyes there lives\na green egyptian noise. ladies with whom time\n\nfeeds especially his immense lips\n\nOn whose deep nakedness death most believes,\nperpetual girls marching to love\n\nwhose bodies kiss me with the square crime\nof life....Cecile,the oval shove\nof hiding pleasure. Alice,stinging quips\nof flesh. Lorette, cut the comedy\nkid....\n\n Fran Mag Glad Dorothy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-v", "title": "Sonnets—Realities V", "first_line": "the bed is not very big", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the bed is not very big\n\na sufficient pillow shoveling\nher small manure-shaped head\n\none sheet on which distinctly wags\n\nat times the weary twig\nof a neckless nudity\n(very occasionally budding\n\na flabby algebraic odour\n\njigs\n et tout en face\nalways wiggles the perfectly dead\nfinger of thitherhithering gas.\n\nclothed with a luminous fur\n\npoilu\n\n a Jesus sags\nin frolicsome wooden agony).", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-v.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-vi", "title": "Sonnets—Realities VI", "first_line": "the poem her belly marched through me as", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "the poem her belly marched through me as\none army. From her nostrils to her feet\n\nshe smelled of silence. The inspired cleat\n\nof her glad leg pulled into a sole mass\nmy separate lusts\n her hair was like a gas\nevil to feel. Unwieldy....\n\n the bloodbeat\nin her fierce laziness tried to repeat\na trick of syncopation Europe has\n\n—. One day i felt a mountain touch me where\ni stood (maybe nine miles off). It was spring\n\nsun-stirring. sweetly to the mangling air\nmuchness of buds mattered. a valley spilled\nits tickling river in my eyes,\n the killed\n\nworld wriggled like a twitched string.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-vii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities VII", "first_line": "an amiable putrescence carpenters", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "an amiable putrescence carpenters\n\nthe village of her mind bodily which\n\nravelling,to a proud continual stitch\nof the unmitigated systole\n purrs\nagainst my mind,the eyes’ shuddering burrs\nof light stick on my brain harder than can twitch\nits terrors;\n the,month’s,swallowed,muscle(itch\nof groping mucous)in my mouth occurs\n\nhomelessly. While grips Hips simply. well\nfussed flesh does surely to mesh. New\nand eager. wittily peels the. ploop.—OOc h get:breath\nonce,all over,kid how,funny Do tell\n....sweat,succeeds breathings stopped\n to\n\nhear,in darkness,water the lips of death", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-x", "title": "Sonnets—Realities X", "first_line": "nearer:breath of my breath:take not thy tingling", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "nearer:breath of my breath:take not thy tingling\nlimbs from me:make my pain their crazy meal\nletting thy tigers of smooth sweetness steal\nslowly in dumb blossoms of new mingling:\ndeeper:blood of my blood:with upwardcringing\nswiftness plunge these leopards of white dream\nin the glad flesh of my fear:more neatly ream\nthis pith of darkness:carve an evilfringing\nflower of madness on gritted lips\nand on sprawled eyes squirming with light insane\nchisel the killing flame that dizzily grips.\n\nQuerying greys between mouthed houses curl\n\nthirstily. Dead stars stink. dawn. Inane,\n\nthe poetic carcass of a girl", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-x.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-viii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities VIII", "first_line": "her careful distinct sex whose sharp lips comb", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "her careful distinct sex whose sharp lips comb\n\nmy mumbling gropeofstrength(staggered by the lug\nof love)\n sincerely greets,with an occult shrug\nasking Through her Muteness will slowly roam\nmy dumbNess?\n\n her other,wet,warm\n\nlips limp,across my brusing smile;\nas rapidly upon the jiggled norm\n\nof agony my grunting eyes pin tailored flames\nHer being at this instant commits\n\nas impenetrable transparency.\nthe harsh erecting breasts and uttering tits\npunish my hug\n presto!\n\n the bright rile\nof jovial hair extremely frames\n\nthe face in a hoop of grim ecstasy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xi", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XI", "first_line": "god pity me whom(god distinctly has)", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "god pity me whom(god distinctly has)\nthe weightless svelte drifting sexual feather\nof your shall i say body?follows\ntruly through a dribbling moan of jazz\n\nwhose arched occasional steep youth swallows\ncurvingly the keenness of my hips;\nor,your first twitch of crisp boy flesh dips\nmy height in a firm fragile stinging weather,\n\n(breathless with sharp necessary lips)kid\n\nfemale cracksman of the nifty,ruffian-rogue,\nlaughing body with wise breasts half-grown,\nlisping flesh quick to thread the fattish drone\nof I Want a Doll,\n wispish-agile feet with slid\nsteps parting the tousle of saxophonic brogue.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XII", "first_line": "even a pencil has fear to", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "even a pencil has fear to\ndo the posed body luckily made\na pen is dreadfully afraid\nof her of this of the smile’s two\neyes....too,since the world’s but\na piece of eminent fragility.\nWell and when—Does susceptibility\nimply perspicuity,or?\n shut\nup.\n Seeing\n seeing her is not\nto something or to nothing as much as\nbeing by her seen,which has got\nnothing on something as i think\n\n,did you ever hear a jazz\nBand?\n\n or unnoise men don’t make soup who drink.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xiii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XIII", "first_line": "unnoticed woman from whose kind large flesh", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "unnoticed woman from whose kind large flesh\n\ni turn to the cruel-littleness of cold\n(when battling street-lamps fail upon the gold\ndawn,where teeth of slowturning streets mesh\n\nin a frieze of smoking Face Bluish-old\n\nand choked pat of going soles on flat\npavements with icy cries of this and that\nstumbling in gloom,bad laughters,smiled unbold)\n\nalso,tomorrow the daily papers will feature\nPeace and Good Will,and Mary with one lung\nextended to the pumping Child,and “’Twas\n\nthe night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature\nwas stirring,not even a mouse. The stockings were hung\nby the chimney with care in hopes that Saint Nicholas”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xiv", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XIV", "first_line": "she sits dropping on a caret of clenched arms", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "she sits dropping on a caret of clenched arms\na delicately elephantine face\n(It is necessary to find Hassan’s Place\nby tiny streets shrugging with colour)\nthe mouth who sits between her cheeks\nutters a thud of scarlet. always. More\ninteresting,as i think,her charms\nen repos....a fattish leg leaks\nobscenely from the dress. one nipple tries.\nplayfully to peek into the belly\nwhose deep squirm nibbles. another couches,\nweary,upon a flabby mattress of jelly....\nthan when to the kanoon she totters,slouches,\nwith giggling hips and frozen eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xix", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XIX", "first_line": "in making Marjorie god hurried", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "in making Marjorie god hurried\na boy’s body on unsuspicious\nlegs of girl. his left hand quarried\nthe quartzlike face. his right slapped\nthe amusing big vital vicious\nvegetable of her mouth.\nUpon the whole he suddenly clapped\na tiny sunset of vermouth\n-colour. Hair. he put between\nher lips a moist mistake,whose fragrance hurls\nme into tears,as the dusty new-\nness of her obsolete gaze begins to. lean....\na little against me,when for two\ndollars i fill her hips with boys and girls", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xix.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xv", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XV", "first_line": "of this wilting wall the colour drub", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "of this wilting wall the colour drub\nsouring sunbeams,of a foetal fragrance\nto rickety unclosed blinds inslants\nperegrinate,a cigar-stub\ndisintegrates,above,underdrawers club\nthe faintly sweating air with pinkness,\none pale dog behind a slopcaked shrub\npainstakingly utters a slippery mess,\na star sleepily,feebly,scratches the sore\nof morning. But i am interested more\nintricately in the delicate scorn\nwith which in a putrid window every day\nalmost leans a lady whose still-born\nsmile involves the comedy of decay,", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xvii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XVII", "first_line": "whereas by dark really released,the modern", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "whereas by dark really released,the modern\nflame of her indomitable body\nuses a careful fierceness. Her lips study\nmy head gripping for a decision:burn\nthe terrific fingers which grapple and joke\non my passionate anatomy\nof yes! Large legs pinch,toes choke—\nhair-thin strands of magic agony\n....by day this lady in her limousine\n\noozes in fashionable traffic,just\na halfsmile (for society’s sweet sake)\nin the not too frail lips almost discussed;\nbetween her and ourselves a nearly-opaque\nperfume disinterestedly obscene.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xvi", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XVI", "first_line": "it started when Bill’s chip let on to", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "it started when Bill’s chip let on to\nthe bulls he’d bumped a bloke back in fifteen.\nThen she came toward him on her knees across the locked\nroom. he knocked her cold and beat it for Chicago.\n\nEddie was waiting for him,and they cleaned up a few\ntimes—before she got the info\nfrom a broad that knew Eddie to Topeka,went clean\ndaffy,and which was very silly hocked\n\nthe diamond he gave her. Bill was put wise\nthat she coming with his kid inside her.\nHe laughed. She came. he gave her a shove\nand asked Eddie did he care to ride her?\n....she exactly lay, looking hunks of love\n\nin The Chair he kept talking about eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xvi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xviii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XVIII", "first_line": "my girl’s tall with hard long eyes", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "my girl’s tall with hard long eyes\nas she stands,with her long hard hands keeping\nsilence on her dress,good for sleeping\nis her long hard body filled with surprise\nlike a white shocking wire,when she smiles\na hard long smile it sometimes makes\ngaily go clean through me tickling aches,\nand the weak noise of her eyes easily files\nmy impatience to an edge—my girl’s tall\nand taut,with thin legs just like a vine\nthat’s spent all of its life on a garden-wall,\nand is going to die. When we grimly go to bed\nwith these legs she begins to heave and twine\nabout me,and to kiss my face and head.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xviii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xx", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XX", "first_line": "Dick Mid’s large bluish face without eyebrows", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "Dick Mid’s large bluish face without eyebrows\n\nsits in the kitchen nights and chews a two-bit\ncigar\n waiting for the bulls to pull his joint.\nJimmie was a dude. Dark hair and nice hands.\n\nwith a little eye that rolled and made its point\n\nJimmie’s sister worked for Dick. And had some rows\nover percent. The gang got shot up twice,it\noperated in the hundred ands\n\nAll the chips would kid Jimmie to give them a kiss\nbut Jimmie lived regular. stewed three times a week.\nand slept twice a week with a big toothless girl\nin Yonkers.\n Dick Mid’s green large three teeth leak\n\nsmoke:remembering,two pink big lips curl....\n\nhow Jimmie was framed and got his", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xx/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xx.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xx.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xxi", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XXI", "first_line": "twentyseven bums give a prostitute the once", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "twentyseven bums give a prostitute the once\n-over. fiftythree(and one would see if it could)\n\neyes say the breasts look very good:\nfirmlysquirmy with a slight jounce,\n\nthirteen pants have a hunch\n\nadmit in threedimensional distress\nthese hips were made for Horizontal Business\n(set on big legs nice to pinch\n\nassiduously which justgraze\neach other). As the lady lazily struts\n (her\nthickish flesh superior to the genuine daze\nof unmarketable excitation,\n\nwhose careless movements carefully scatter\n\npink propaganda of annihilation", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-realities-xxii", "title": "Sonnets—Realities XXII", "first_line": "life boosts herself rapidly at me", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "life boosts herself rapidly at me\n\nthrough sagging debris of exploded day\nthe hulking perpendicular mammal\n a\ngrim epitome of chuckling flesh.\nWeak thirsty fists of idiot futures bash\n\nthe bragging breasts,\n puppy-faces to mouth\nher ugly nipples squirming in pretty wrath,\ngums skidding on slippery udders\n\n she\nlifts an impertinent puerperal face\nand with astute fatuous swallowed eyes\nsmiles,\n one grin very distinctly wobbles\nfrom the thinning lips me hugely which embrace.\nas in the hairy notching of clenched thighs\n\na friendless dingy female frenzy bubbles", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-realities-xxii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-iii", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities III", "first_line": "i have loved,let us see if that’s all.", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "i have loved,let us see if that’s all.\nBit into you as teeth, in the stone\nof a musical fruit. My lips pleasantly groan\non your taste. Jumped the quick wall\n\nof your smile into stupid gardens\nif this were not enough(not really enough\npulled one before one the vague tough\n\nexquisite\n\n flower,whom hardens\nrichly,darkness. On the whole\npossibly have i loved....?you)\n sheath before sheath\n\nstripped to the Odour. (and here’s what WhoEver will know\nHad you as bite teeth;\ni stood with you as a foal\n\nstands but as the trees,lay,which grow", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-actualities-ix", "title": "Sonnets—Actualities IX", "first_line": "let’s live suddenly without thinking", "book_slug": "and", "book_title": "&", "text": "let’s live suddenly without thinking\n\nunder honest trees,\n a stream\ndoes,the brain of cleverly-crinkling\n-water pursues the angry dream\nof the shore. By midnight,\n a moon\nscratches the skin of the organised hills\n\nan edged nothing begins to prune\n\nlet’s live like the light that kills\nand let’s as silence,\n because Whirl’s after all:\n(after me)love,and after you\nI occasionally feel vague how\nvague i don’t know tenuous Now-\nspears and The Then-arrows making do\nour mouths something red,something tall", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "chansons-innocentes-ii", "title": "Chansons Innocentes II", "first_line": "little tree", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "little tree\nlittle silent Christmas tree\nyou are so little\nyou are more like a flower\n\nwho found you in the green forest\nand were you very sorry to come away?\nsee i will comfort you\nbecause you smell so sweetly\n\ni will kiss your cool bark\nand hug you safe and tight\njust as your mother would,\nonly don’t be afraid\n\nlook the spangles\nthat sleep all the year in a dark box\ndreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,\nthe balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,\n\nput up your little arms\nand i’ll give them all to you to hold\nevery finger shall have its ring\nand there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy\n\nthen when you’re quite dressed\nyou’ll stand in the window for everyone to see\nand how they’ll stare!\noh but you’ll be very proud\n\nand my little sister and i will take hands\nand looking up at our beautiful tree\nwe’ll dance and sing\n“Noel Noel”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "chansons-innocentes-i", "title": "Chansons Innocentes I", "first_line": "why did you go", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "why did you go\nlittle fourpaws?\nyou forgot to shut\nyour big eyes\n\nwhere did you go?\nlike little kittens\nare all the leaves\nwhich open in the rain.\n\nlittle kittens who\nare called spring,\nis what we stroke\nmaybe asleep?\n\ndo you know?or maybe did\nsomething go away\nevery so quietly\nwhen we weren’t looking.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/chansons-innocentes-i.txt" }, { "slug": "la-guerre-i", "title": "La Guerre I", "first_line": "earth like a tipsy", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "earth like a tipsy\nbiddy with an old mop punching\nunderneath\nconventions exposes\n\nhidden obscenities\nnudging\ninto neglected sentiments brings\nto light dusty\n\nheroisms\nand\nfinally colliding with the most\nexpensive furniture upsets\n\na\ncrucifix which smashes into several\npieces and is hurriedly picked up and\nthrown on the ash-heap\n\nwhere\nlies\n what was once the discobolus of\none\n\nMyron", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-i.txt" }, { "slug": "la-guerre-ii", "title": "La Guerre II", "first_line": "Humanity i love you", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "Humanity i love you\nbecause you would rather black the boots of\nsuccess than enquire whose soul dangles from his\nwatch-chain which would be embarassing for both\n\nparties and because you\nunflinchingly applaud all\nsongs containing the words country home and\nmother when sung at the old howard\n\nHumanity i love you because\nwhen you’re hard up you pawn your\nintelligence to buy a drink and when\nyou’re flush pride keeps\n\nyou from the pawn shop and\nbecause you are continually committing\nnuisances but more\nespecially in your own house\n\nHumanity i love you because you\nare perpetually putting the secret of\nlife in your pants and forgetting\nit’s there and sitting down\n\non it\nand because you are\nforever making poems in the lap\nof death Humanity\n\ni hate you", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/la-guerre-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-i", "title": "Portraits I", "first_line": "conversation with my friend is particularly", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "conversation with my friend is particularly\n\nto enjoy the composed sudden body atop which always quiv-\ners the electric Distinct face haughtily vital clinched\nin a swoon of synopsis\n\ndespite a sadistic modesty his mind is seen frequently\nfingering the exact beads of a faultless languor when\ninvisibly consult with some delicious image the a little\nstrolling lips and eyes inwardly crisping\n\nfor my friend,feeling is the sacred and agonizing prox-\nimity to its desire of a doomed impetuous acute sentience\nwhose whitehot lips however suddenly approached may never\nquite taste the wine which their nearness evaporates\n\nto think is the slippery contours of a vase inexpressibly\nfragile it is for the brain irrevocably frigid to touch a\nmerest shape which however slenderly by it caressed\nwill explode and spill the immediate imperceptible content\n\nmy friend’s being,out of the spontaneous clumsy trivial\nacrobatic edgeless gesture of existence,continually whit-\ntles keen careful futile flowers\n\n(isolating with perpetually meticulous concupiscence the\nbright large undeniable disease of Life, himself occasion-\nally contrives an unreal precise intrinsic fragment of\nactuality),\n\nan orchid whose velocity is sculptural", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-i.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ii", "title": "Portraits II", "first_line": "one April dusk the", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "one April dusk the\nsallow street-lamps were turning\nsnowy against a west of robin’s egg blue when\ni entered a mad street whose\n\nmouth dripped with slavver of\nspring\nchased two flights of squirrel-stairs into\na mid-victorian attic which is known as\nO ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ\n and having ordered\nyaoorti from\nNicho’\nsettled my feet on the\n\nceiling inhaling six divine inches\nof Haremina in\nthe thick of the snick-\ner of cards and smack of back-\n\ngammon boards i was aware of an entirely\ndirty circle of habitués their\nfaces like cigarettebutts, chewed\nwith disdain, lead by a Jumpy\n\nTramp who played each\ncard as if it were a thunderbolt red-\nhot peeling\noff huge slabs of a fuzzy\n\nlanguage with the aid of an exclamatory\ntooth-pick\nAnd who may that\nbe i said exhaling into\n\neternity as Nicho’ laid\nbefore me bread\nmore downy than street-lamps\nupon an almostclean\n\nplate\n“Achilles”\nsaid\nNicho’\n\n“and did you perhaps wish also shishkabob?”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iii", "title": "Portraits III", "first_line": "Picasso", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "Picasso\nyou give us Things\nwhich\nbulge:grunting lungs pumped full of sharp thick mind\n\nyou make us shrill\npresents always\nshut in the sumptuous screech of\nsimplicity\n\n(out of the\nblack unbunged\nSomething gushes vaguely a squeak of planes\nor\n\nbetween squeals of\nNothing grabbed with circular shrieking tightness\nsolid screams whisper.)\nLumberman of The Distinct\n\nyour brain’s\naxe only chops hugest inherent\nTrees of Ego,from\nwhose living and biggest\n\nbodies lopped\nof every\nprettiness\n\nyou hew form truly", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-ix", "title": "Portraits IX", "first_line": "at the ferocious phenomenon of 5 o’clock i find myself gently decompos-", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "at the ferocious phenomenon of 5 o’clock i find myself gently decompos-\ning in the mouth of New York. Between its supple financial teeth delir-\nlously sprouting from complacent gums,a morsel prettily wanders buoy-\ned on the murderous saliva of industry. the morsel is i.\n\nVast cheeks enclose me.\n\na gigantic uvula with imperceptible gesticulations threatens the tub-\nular downward blackness occasionally from which detatching itself bumps\nclumsily into the throat A meticulous vulgarity:\n\na sodden fastidious normal explosion;a square murmur,a winsome flatu-\nlence—\n\nIn the soft midst of the tongue sits the Woolworth building a serene\npastile-shaped insipid kinesis of frail swooping lozenge. a ruglike\nsentience whose papillæ expertly drink the docile perpendicular taste\nof this squirming cube of undiminished silence,supports while devour-\ning the firm tumult of exquisitely insecure sharp algebraic music.\nFor the first time in sorting from this vast nonchalant inward walk of\nvolume the flat minute gallop of careful hugeness i am conjugated by\nthe sensual mysticism of entire vertical being ,i am skilfully con-\nstrued by a delicately experimenting colossus whose irrefutable spiral\nantics involve me with the soothings of plastic hypnotism .i am ac-\ncurately parsed by this gorgeous rush of upward lips....\n\ncleverly\n\nperching on the sudden extremity of one immense tooth myself surveys\nsafely the complete important profane frantic inconsequential gastro-\nnomic mystery of mysteries\n ,life.\n\nFar below myself the lunging leer of horizontal large distinct ecstasy\nwags and.rages Laughters jostle grins nudge smiles push—. deep into\nthe edgeless gloaming gladness hammers incessant putrid spikes of mad-\nness (at\n\nMyself’s height these various innocent ferocities are superceded by\nthe sole prostituted ferocity of silence,it is) still 5 o’clock\n\nI stare only always into the tremendous canyon the\n,tremendous canyon always only exhales a climbing dark exact walloping\nhuman noise of digestible millions whose rich slovenly obscene proces-\nsion always floats through the thin amorous enormous only lips of\nthe evening\n\n And it is 5 o’clock\n\n in the oblong air, from which a singular ribbon of common sunset\nis hanging,\n\nsnow speaks slowly", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-iv", "title": "Portraits IV", "first_line": "the skinny voice", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "the skinny voice\n\nof the leatherfaced\nwoman with the crimson\nnose and coquettishly-\ncocked bonnet\n\nhaving ceased the\n\ncaptain\nannounces that as three\ndimes seven nickels and ten\npennies have been deposited upon\n\nthe drum there is need\n\nof just twenty five cents\ndear friends\nto make it an even\ndollar whereupon\n\nthe Divine Average who was\n\nattracted by the inspired\nsister’s howling moves\noff\nwill anyone tell him why he should\n\nblow two bits for the coming of Christ Jesus\n\n?\n??\n???\n!\n\nnix, kid", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-v", "title": "Portraits V", "first_line": "as usual i did not find him in cafes, the more dissolute", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "as usual i did not find him in cafes, the more dissolute atmosphere\nof a street superimposing a numbing imperfectness upon such peregri-\nnations as twilight spontaneously by inevitable tiredness of flang-\ning shop-girls impersonally affords furnished a soft first clue to\nhis innumerable whereabouts violet logic of annihilation demon-\nstrating from woolworthian pinnacle a capable millennium of faces\nmeshing with my curiously instant appreciation exposed his hiber-\nnative contours,\naimiable immensity impeccably extending the courtesy of five o’clock\nbecame the omen of his presence it was spring by the way in the\nsoiled canary-cage of largest existence\n\n(when he would extemporise the innovation of muscularity upon the\nmost crimson assistance of my comforter a click of deciding glory\ninflicted to the negative silence that primeval exposure whose elec-\ntric solidity remembers some accurately profuse scratchings in a\nrecently discovered cave, the carouse of geometrical putrescence\nwhereto my invariably commendable room has been forever subject his\nEarliest word wheeled out on the sunny dump of oblivion)\n\na tiny dust finely arising at the integration of my soul i coughed\n\n,naturally", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-v.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vi", "title": "Portraits VI", "first_line": "it’s just like a coffin’s", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "it’s just like a coffin’s\ninside when you die,\npretentious and\nshiny and\nnot too wide\n dear god\n\nthere’s a portrait\nover the door very notable of\nthe sultan’s nose pullable and rosy\nflanked by the scrumptious magdalene\nof whoisit and madame\nsomething by gainsborough\n just the playthings\n for dust n’es-ce pas\n\n effendi drifts between\n tables like an old leaf\n between toadstools\nhe is the cheerfulest of men\n his peaked head smoulders\n like a new turd in April\n his legs are brittle and small\n his feet large and fragile\nhis queer hands twitter before him,like foolish\n butterflies\nhe is the most courteous of men\n\nshould you remark the walls have been repapered\n\nhe will nod\n like buddha\n or answer modestly\ni am dying\n\nso let us come in together and\ndrink coffee covered with froth\nhalf-mud\nand not too\nsweet?", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-vii", "title": "Portraits VII", "first_line": "my mind is", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "my mind is\na big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and taste and smell\nand hearing and sight keep hitting and chipping with sharp fatal\ntools\nin an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of chrome and ex-\necute strides of cobalt\nnevertheless i\nfeel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming\nsomething a little different,in fact\nmyself\nHereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet bellowings.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "portraits-viii", "title": "Portraits VIII", "first_line": "5", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "5\nderbies-with-men-in-them smoke Helmar\ncigarettes 2\nplay backgammon,3 watch\n\na has gold\nteeth b pink\nsuspenders c\nreads Atlantis\n\nx and y play b\ncries “effendi” “Uh” “coffee”\n“uh” enter\npaperboy,c\n\nbuys Bawstinamereekin,exit\npaperboy a finishes\nHelmar lights\nanother\n\n x and y\nplay,effendi approaches,sets\ndown coffee withdraws\na and c discuss news in\n\nturkish x and y play b spits\nx and\ny\nplay,b starts armenian record\n\n pho\nnographisrunn\ningd o w, n phonograph\n stopS.\n\nb swears in persian at phonograph\nx wins exeunt ax:by;c,\nGoo dnightef fendi\n....\n\nfive men in derbies", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/portraits-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-i", "title": "Songs I", "first_line": "the\n sky\n was", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "the\n sky\n was\ncan dy lu\nminous\n edible\nspry\n pinks shy\nlemons\ngreens coo l choc\nolate\ns.\n\n un der,\n a lo\nco\nmo\n tive s pout\n ing\n vi\n o\n lets", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-i.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-ii", "title": "Songs II", "first_line": "of my", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "of my\nsoul a street is:\nprettinesses Pic-\nabian tricktrickclickflick-er\ngarnished\nof stark Picasso\nthrottling trees\n\nhither\nmy soul\nrepairs herself with\nprisms of sharp mind\nand Matisse rhythms\nto juggle Kandinsky gold-fish\n\naway from the gripping gigantic\nmuscles of Cézanne’s\nlogic,\n oho.\n a street\nthere is\n\nwhere strange birds purr", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-iii", "title": "Songs III", "first_line": "when life is quite through with", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "when life is quite through with\nand leaves say alas,\nmuch is to do\nfor the swallow,that closes\na flight in the blue;\n\nwhen love ’s had his tears out,\nperhaps shall pass\na million years\n(while a bee dozes\non the poppies,the dears;\n\nwhen all’s done and said,and\nunder the grass\nlies her head\nby oaks and roses\ndeliberated.)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-iv", "title": "Songs IV", "first_line": "into the smiting", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "into the smiting\nsky tense\nwith\nblend\n\ning\nthe\ntree leaps\n a stiffened exquisite\n\ni\nwait the sweet\nannihilation of swift\nflesh\n\ni make me stern against\nyour charming strength\n\n\nO haste\n annihilator\ndrawing into you my enchanting\nleaves", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-ix", "title": "Songs IX", "first_line": "Lady of Silence", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "Lady of Silence\nfrom the winsome cage of\nthy body\nrose\n through the sensible\nnight\na\nquick bird\n\n(tenderly upon\nthe dark’s prodigious face\nthy\nvoice\n scattering perfume-gifted\nwings\nsuddenly escorts\nwith feet\nsun-sheer\n\nthe smarting beauty of dawn)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-v", "title": "Songs V", "first_line": "Where’s Madge then,", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "Where’s Madge then,\nMadge and her men?\nburied with\nAlice in her hair,\n(but if you ask the rain\nhe’ll not tell where.)\n\nbeauty makes terms\nwith time and his worms,\nwhen loveliness\nsays sweetly Yes\nto wind and cold;\nand how much earth\nis Madge worth?\nInquire of the flower that sways in the autumn\nshe will never guess.\nbut i know", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-v.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-vi", "title": "Songs VI", "first_line": "after five", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "after five\ntimes the poem\nof thy remembrance\nsurprises with refrain\n\nof unreasoning summer\nthat by responding\nways cloaked with renewal\nmy body turns toward\n\nthee\nagain for the stars have been\nfinished in the nobler trees and\nthe language of leaves repeats\n\neventual perfection\nwhile east deserves of dawn.\ni lie at length,breathing\nwith shut eyes\n\nthe sweet earth where thou liest", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-vii", "title": "Songs VII", "first_line": "between green\n mountains", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "between green\n mountains\nsings the flinger\nof\n\nfire beyond red rivers\nof fair perpetual\nfeet the\nsinuous\n\n riot\n\nthe\nflashing\nbacchant.\n\npartedpetaled\nmouth,face\ndelirious. indivisible\ngrace\n\n of dancing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-viii", "title": "Songs VIII", "first_line": "in the rain-", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "in the rain-\ndarkness, the sunset\nbeing sheathed i sit and\nthink of you\n\nthe holy\ncity which is your face\nyour little cheeks the streets\nof smiles\n\nyour eyes half-\nthrush\nhalf-angel and your drowsy\nlips where float flowers of kiss\n\nand\nthere is the sweet shy pirouette\nyour hair\nand then\n\nyour dancesong\nsoul. rarely-beloved\na single star is\nuttered,and i\n\nthink\n of you", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-x", "title": "Songs X", "first_line": "the hills", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "the hills\nlike poets put on\npurple thought against\nthe\n\nmagnificent clamor of\n day\ntortured\nin gold,which presently\n\ncrumpled\ncollapses\nexhaling a red soul into the dark\n\nso\nduneyed master\nenter\nthe sweet gates\n\n of my heart and\ntake\nthe\nrose,\n\nwhich perfect\nis\nWith killing hands", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-x.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-xi", "title": "Songs XI", "first_line": "i will wade out\n till my thighs are steeped in burning flowers", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "i will wade out\n till my thighs are steeped in burning flowers\nI will take the sun in my mouth\nand leap into the ripe air\n Alive\n with closed eyes\nto dash against darkness\n in the sleeping curves of my body\nShall enter fingers of smooth mastery\nwith chasteness of sea-girls\n Will i complete the mystery\n of my flesh\nI will rise\n After a thousand years\nlipping\nflowers\n And set my teeth in the silver of the moon", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "songs-xii", "title": "Songs XII", "first_line": "cruelly,love", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "cruelly,love\nwalk the autumn long;\nthe last flower in whose hair,\nthy lips are cold with songs\n\nfor which is\nfirst to wither,to pass?\nshallowness of sunlight\nfalls and,cruelly,\nacross the grass\nComes the\nmoon\n\nlove,walk the\nautumn\nlove,for the last\nflower in the hair withers;\nthy hair is acold with\ndreams,\nlove thou art frail\n\n—walk the longness of autumn\nsmile dustily to the people,\nfor winter\nwho crookedly care.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/songs-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-i", "title": "Sonnets I", "first_line": "if learned darkness from our searched world", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "if learned darkness from our searched world\n\nwrestest the rare unwisdom of thy eyes,\nif thy two hands flowers of silence curled\n\nupon a wish,to rapture should surprise\nmy soul slowly which on thy beauty dreams\n(proud through the cold perfect night whisperless\n\nto mark,how that asleep whitely she seems\n\nwhose lips the whole of life almost do guess)\n\nif god should send the morning;and before\nmy doubting window leaves softly to stir,\nof thoughtful trees whom night hath pondered o’er\n—and frailties of dimension to occur\n\nabout us\n and birds known,scarcely to sing\n\n(heart,could we bear the marvel of this thing?)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-i.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-ii", "title": "Sonnets II", "first_line": "O Thou to whom the musical white spring", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "O Thou to whom the musical white spring\n\noffers her lily inextinguishable,\ntaught by thy tremulous grace bravely to fling\n\nImplacable death’s mysteriously sable\nrobe from her redolent shoulders,\n Thou from whose\nfeet reincarnate song suddenly leaping\nflameflung,mounts,inimitably to lose\nherself where the wet stars softly are keeping\n\ntheir exquisite dreams—O Love! upon thy dim\nshrine of intangible commemoration,\n(from whose faint close as some grave languorous hymn\n\npledged to illimitable dissipation\nunhurried clouds of incense fleetly roll)\n\ni spill my bright incalculable soul.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-iii", "title": "Sonnets III", "first_line": "when unto nights of autumn do complain", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "when unto nights of autumn do complain\nearth’s ghastlier trees by whom Time measured is\nwhen frost to dance maketh the sagest pane\nof littler huts with peerless fantasies\nor the unlovely longness of the year\n\ndroops with things dead athwart the narrowing hours\nand hope(by cold espoused unto fear)\nin dreadful corners hideously cowers—\n\ni do excuse me,love,to Death and Time\n\nstorms and rough cold,wind’s menace and leaf’s grieving:\nfrom the impressed fingers of sublime\nMemory,of that loveliness receiving\nthe image my proud heart cherished as fair.\n\n(The child-head poised with the serious hair)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-iv", "title": "Sonnets IV", "first_line": "this is the garden:colours come and go", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "this is the garden:colours come and go,\nfrail azures fluttering from night’s outer wing\nstrong silent greens serenely lingering,\nabsolute lights like baths of golden snow.\nThis is the garden:pursed lips do blow\nupon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing\n(of harps celestial to the quivering string)\ninvisible faces hauntingly and slow.\n\nThis is the garden. Time shall surely reap\nand on Death’s blade lie many a flower curled,\nin other lands where other songs be sung;\nyet stand They here enraptured,as among\nthe slow deep trees perpetual of sleep\nsome silver-fingered fountain steals the world.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-ix", "title": "Sonnets IX", "first_line": "when my sensational moments are no more", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "when my sensational moments are no more\nunjoyously bullied of vilest mind\n\nand sweet uncaring earth by thoughtful war\nheaped wholly with high wilt of human rind—\nwhen over hate has triumphed darkly love\n\nand the small spiritual cry of spring\nutters a striving flower,\n just where strove\nthe droll god-beasts\n\n do thou distinctly bring\nthy footstep,and the rushing of thy deep\nhair and the smiting smile didst love to use\nin other days (drawing my Mes from sleep\nwhose stranger dreams thy strangeness must abuse....)\n\nTime being not for us,purple roses were\nsweeter to thee\n perchance to me deeper.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-v", "title": "Sonnets V", "first_line": "Thou in whose swordgreat story shine the deeds", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "Thou in whose swordgreat story shine the deeds\nof history her heroes,sounds the tread\nof those vast armies of the marching dead,\nwith standards and the neighing of great steeds\nmoving to war across the smiling meads;\nthou by whose page we break the precious bread\nof dear communion with the past,and wed\nto valor,battle with heroic breeds;\n\nthou,Froissart,for that thou didst love the pen\nwhile others wrote in steel,accept all praise\nof after ages,and of hungering days\nfor whom the old glories move,the old trumpets cry;\nwho gavest as one of those immortal men\nhis life that his fair city might not die.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-v.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-vi", "title": "Sonnets VI", "first_line": "when the proficient poison sure sleep", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "when the proficient poison sure sleep\nbereaves us of our slow tranquillities\n\nand He without Whose favour nothing is\n(being of men called Love) upward doth leap\nfrom the mute hugeness of depriving deep,\n\nwith thunder of those hungering wings of His,\n\ninto the lucent and large signories\n—i shall not smile beloved;i shall not weep:\n\nwhen from the less-then-whiteness of thy face\n(whose eyes inherit vacancy) will time\nextract his inconsiderable doom,\nwhen these they lips beautifully embrace\nnothing\n and when thy bashful hands assume\n\nsilence beyond the mystery of rhyme", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-vii", "title": "Sonnets VII", "first_line": "and what were roses. Perfume? for i do", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "and what were roses. Perfume?for i do\nforget....or mere Music mounting unsurely\n\ntwilight\n but here were something more maturely\nchildish,more beautiful almost than you.\n\nYet if not flower, tell me softly who\n\nbe these haunters of dreams always demurely\nhalfsmiling from cool faces,moving purely\nwith muted step,yet somewhat proudly too—\n\nare they not ladies,ladies of my dreams\njustly touching roses their fingers whitely\nlive by?\n or better,\n queens,queens laughing lightly\ncrowned with far colours,\n\n thinking very much\nof nothing and whom dawn loves most to touch\n\nwishing by willows,bending up streams?", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-x", "title": "Sonnets X", "first_line": "I have seen her stealthily frail", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "I have seen her stealthily frail\nflower walking with its fellows in the death\nof light,against whose enormous curve of flesh\nexactly cubes of tiny fragrance try;\ni have watched certain petals rapidly wish\nin the corners of her youth;whom,fiercely shy\nand gently brutal,the prettiest wrath\nof blossoms dishevelling made a pale\nfracas upon the accurate moon....\nAcross the important gardens her body\nwill come toward me with its hurting sexual smell\nof lilies....beyond night’s silken immense swoon\nthe moon is like a floating silver hell\na song of adolescent ivory.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-x.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-viii", "title": "Sonnets VIII", "first_line": "come nothing to my comparable soul", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "come nothing to my comparable soul\nwhich with existence has conversed in vain,\nO scrupulously take thy trivial toll,\nfor whose cool feet this frantic heart is fain;\ntry me with thy perfumes which have seduced\nthe mightier nostrils of the fervent dead,\nfeed with felicities me wormperused\nby whom the hungering mouth of time is fed:\nand if i like not what thou givest me\nto him let me complain,whose seat is where\nrevolving planets struggle to be free\nwith the astounding everlasting air—\nbut if i like,i’ll take between thy hands\nwhat no man feels,no woman understands.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xi", "title": "Sonnets XI", "first_line": "who’s most afraid of death?thou\n art of him", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "who’s most afraid of death?thou\n art of him\nutterly afraid,i love of thee\n(beloved)this\n\n and truly i would be\nnear when his scythe takes crisply the whim\nof thy smoothness. and the mark the fainting\nmurdered petals. with the caving stem.\n\nBut of all most would i be one of them\n\nround the hurt heart which do so frailly cling....)\ni who am but imperfect in my fear\n\nOr with thy mind against my mind,to hear\nnearing our hearts’ irrevocable play—\nthrough the mysterious high futile day\n\nan enormous stride\n (and drawing thy mouth toward\n\nmy mouth,steer our lost bodies carefully downward)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xii", "title": "Sonnets XII", "first_line": "perhaps it is to feel strike", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "perhaps it is to feel strike\nthe silver fish of her nakedness\nwith fins sharply pleasant, my\n\nyouth has travelled toward her these years\n\nor to snare the timid like\nof her mind to my mind that i\n\nam come by little countries to the yes\n\nof her youth.\n And if somebody hears\nwhat i say—let him be pitiful:\nbecause i’ve travelled all alone\nthrough the forest of wonderful,\nand that my feet have surely known\nthe furious ways and the peaceful,\n\nand because she is beautiful", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xiii", "title": "Sonnets XIII", "first_line": "when i am in Boston,i do not speak", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "when i am in Boston,i do not speak.\nand i sit in the click of ivory balls....\n\nnoting flies,which jerk upon the weak\ncolour of table-cloths,the electric When\nIn Doubt Buy Of(but a roof hugs\nwhom)\n as the august evening mauls\nKneeland,and a waiter cleverly lugs\nindigestible honeycake to men\n....one perfectly smooth coffee\ntasting of hellas,i drink,or sometimes two\nremarking cries of paklavah meeah.\n(Very occasionally three.)\nand i gaze on the cindercoloured little ΜΕΓΑ\nΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΝ ΞΕΝΟΔΟΧΕΙΟΝ ΎΠΝΟΎ", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xiv", "title": "Sonnets XIV", "first_line": "will suddenly trees leap from winter and will", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "will suddenly trees leap from winter and will\n\nthe stabbing music of your white youth\nwounded by my arms’ bothness\n(say a twilight lifting the fragile skill\nof new leaves’ voices,and sharp lips of spring\nsimply joining with the wonderless\ncity’s sublime cheap distinct mouth)\n\ndo the exact human comely thing?\n\n(or will the fleshless moments go and go\n\nacross this dirtied pane where softly preys\nthe grey and perpendicular Always—\nor possibly there drift a pulseless blur\nof paleness;\n the unswift mouths of snow\ninsignificantly whisper....", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xv", "title": "Sonnets XV", "first_line": "a fragrant sag of fruit distinctly grouped.", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "a fragrant sag of fruit distinctly grouped.\n\nI have not eaten peppers for a week.\n\nOn this street the houses immensely speak\n(it is nine minutes past six)\n\nthe well-fed L’s immaculate roar looped\nstraightens,into neatest distance....\n\nA new curve of children gladly cricks\nwhere a hurdy-gurdy accurately pants.\n\nand pompous ancient jews obscurely twitch\nthrough the bumping teem of Grand. a nudging froth\nof faces clogs Second as Mrs. Somethingwich\n\n(with flesh like an old toy balloon)\n\nheavily swims to Strunsky’s,\n\n Monia’s mouth\neats tangerines looking at the moon—", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xv.txt" }, { "slug": "sonnets-xvi", "title": "Sonnets XVI", "first_line": "by god i want above fourteenth", "book_slug": "xli-poems", "book_title": "XLI Poems", "text": "by god i want above fourteenth\n\nfifth’s deep purring biceps,the mystic screetch\nof Broadway,the trivial stink of rich\n\nfrail firm asinine life\n (i pant\n\nfor what’s below. the singer. Wall. i want\nthe perpendicular lips the insane teeth\nthe vertical grin\n\n give me the Square in spring,\nthe little barbarous Greenwich perfumed fake\n\nAnd most,the futile fooling labyrinth\nwhere noisy colors stroll....and the Baboon\n\nsniggering insipidities while. i sit,sipping\nsingular anisettes as. One opaque\nbig girl jiggles thickly hips to the kanoon\n\nbut Hassan chuckles seeing the Greeks breathe)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/xli-poems/poem/sonnets-xvi.txt" }, { "slug": "five-americans-ii", "title": "MAME", "first_line": "she puts down the handmirror. “Look at” arranging", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "she puts down the handmirror. “Look at” arranging\nbefore me a mellifluous idiot grin\n(with what was nose upwrinkled into nothing\nearthly,while the slippery eyes drown\nin surging flesh). A thumblike index down-\ndragging yanks back skin“see” (i,seeing,ceased\nto breathe). The plump left fist opening\n“wisdom.” Flicker of gold. “Yep. No gas. Flynn”\n\nthe words drizzle untidily from released\ncheeks “I’ll tell duh woild:some noive all right.\nAint much on looks but how dat baby ached.”\n\nand when I timidly hinted “novocaine?”\nthe eyes outstart,curl,bloat,are newly baked\n\nand swaggering cookies of indignant light", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "five-americans-i", "title": "LIZ", "first_line": "with breathing as(faithfully)her lownecked", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "with breathing as(faithfully)her lownecked\ndress a little topples and slightly expands\n\none square foot mired in silk wrinkling loth\nstocking begins queerly to do a few\ngestures to death,\n the silent shoulders are both\nslowly with pinkish ponderous arms bedecked\nwhose white thick wrists deliver promptly to\na deep lap enormous mindless hands.\nand no one knows what(i am sure of this)\nher blunt unslender,what her big unkeen\n\n“Business is rotton” the face yawning said\n\nwhat her mouth thinks of\n (if it were a kiss\ndistinct entirely melting sinuous lean...\nwhereof this lady in some book had read", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-i.txt" }, { "slug": "five-americans-iii", "title": "GERT", "first_line": "joggle i think will do it although the glad", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "joggle i think will do it although the glad\nmonosyllable jounce possibly can tell\nbetter how the balloons move(as\nher ghost lurks,a Beau Brummel sticking in its three-\n\ncornered always moist mouth)—jazz,\nfor whose twitching lips,between you and me\nalmost succeeds while toddle rings the bell.\nBut if her tall corpsecoloured body seat\nitself(with the uncouth habitual dull\njerk at garters)there’s no sharpest neat\nword for the thing.\n Her voice?\n gruesome:a trull\nleaps from the lungs “gimme uh swell fite\n\nlike up ter yknow,Rektuz,Toysday nite;\nwhere uh guy gets gayn troze uh lobstersalad", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "five-americans-iv", "title": "MARJ", "first_line": "life?", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "“life?\n Listen” the feline she with radishred\nlegs said(crossing them slowly)“I’m\nasleep. Yep. Youse is asleep kid\nand everybody is.” And i hazarded\n“god”(blushing slightly)—“O damn\nginks like dis Gawd” opening slowlyslowly\nthem—then carefully the rolypoly\nvoice squatting on a mountain of gum did\nsomething like a whisper,“even her,”\n“The Madam?” I emitted;vaguely watching\nthat mountainous worthy in the fragile act\nof doing her eyebrows.—Marj’s laughter smacked\nme:pummeling the curtains, drooped to a purr . . .\n\ni left her permanently smiling", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "five-americans-v", "title": "FRAN", "first_line": "should i entirely ask of god why", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "should i entirely ask of god why\non the alert neck of this brittle whore\ndelicately wobbles an improbably distinct face,\nand how these wooden big two feet conclude\nhappeningly the unfirm drooping bloated\ncalves\n i would receive the answer more\nor less deserved,Young fellow go in peace.\nwhich i do,being as Dick Mid once noted\nlifting a Green River (here’s to youse)\n“a bloke wot’s well behaved” ...and always try\nto not wonder how let’s say elation\ncauses the bent eyes thickly to protrude—\n\nor why her tiniest whispered invitation\nis like a clock striking in a dark house", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-americans-v.txt" }, { "slug": "five-i", "title": "FIVE I", "first_line": "after all white horses are in bed", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "after all white horses are in bed\n\nwill you walking beside me,my very lady,\nif scarcely the somewhat city\nwiggles in considerable twilight\n\ntouch(now)with a suddenly unsaid\n\ngesture lightly my eyes?\nAnd send life out of me and the night\nabsolutely into me....a wise\nand puerile moving of your arm will\ndo suddenly that\n\n will do\nmore than heroes beautifully in shrill\narmour colliding on huge blue horses,\nand the poets looked at them,and made verses,\n\nthrough the sharp light cryingly as the knights flew.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-i.txt" }, { "slug": "five-ii", "title": "FIVE II", "first_line": "touching you I say(it being Spring", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "touching you i say(it being Spring\nand night)“let us go a very little beyond\nthe last road—there’s something to be found”\n\nand smiling you answer“everything\nturns into something else,and slips away....\n(these leaves are Thingish with moondrool\nand i’m ever so very little afraid”)\n i say\n“along this particular road the moon if you’ll\nnotice follows us like a big yellow dog. You\n\ndon’t believe? look back.(Along the sand\nbehind us,a big yellow dog that’s....now it’s red\na big red dog that may be owed by who\nknows)\n only turn a little your. so. And\n\nthere’s the moon, there is something faithful and mad”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "five-iii", "title": "FIVE III", "first_line": "along the brittle treacherous bright streets", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "along the brittle treacherous bright streets\nof memeory comes my heart,singing like\nan idiot,whispering like a drunken man\n\nwho(at a certain corner,suddenly)meets\nthe tall policeman of my mind.\n awake\nbeing not asleep,elsewhere our dreams began\nwhich now are folded:but the year completes\nhis life as a forgotten prisoner\n\n—“Ici?”—“Ah non,mon cheri;il fait trop froid”—\nthey are gone:along these gardens moves a wind bringing\nrain and leaves,filling the air with fear\nand sweetness....pauses. (Halfwhispering....halfsinging\n\nstirs the always smiling chevaux de bois)\n\nwhen you were in Paris we met here", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "five-iv", "title": "FIVE IV", "first_line": "our touching hearts slenderly comprehend", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "our touching hearts slenderly comprehend\n(clinging as finders,loving one another\ngradually into hands)and bend\ninto the huge disaster of the year:\n\nlike this most early single star which tugs\n\nweakly at twilight,caught in the thickening fear\nour slightly fingering spirits starve and smother;\nuntil autumn abruptly wholly hugs\n\nour dying silent minds,which hand in hand\nat some window try to understand\nthe\n (through pale miles of perishing air,haunted\nwith huddling infinite wishless melancholy,\nsuddenly looming)accurate undaunted\n\nmoon’s bright third tumblings slowly", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "five-v", "title": "FIVE IV", "first_line": "if i have made,my lady,intricate", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "if i have made,my lady,intricate\nimperfect various things chiefly which wrong\nyour eyes(frailer than most deep dreams are frail)\nsongs less firm than your body’s whitest song\nupon my mind—if i have failed to snare\nthe glance too shy—if through my singing slips\nthe very skilful strangeness of your smile\nthe keen primeval silence of your hair\n\n—let the world say “his most wise music stole\nnothing from death”—\n you only will create\n(who are so perfectly alive)my shame:\nlady through whose profound and fragile lips\nthe sweet small clumsy feet of April came\n\ninto the ragged meadow of my soul.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/five-v.txt" }, { "slug": "forward", "title": "FORWARD", "first_line": "Forward", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "On the assumption that my technique is either complicated or original or both,the publishers have politely requested me to write an introduction to this book.\n\nAt least my theory of technique,if I have one,is very far from original;nor is it complicated. I can express it in fifteen words,by quoting The Eternal Question And Immortal Answer of burlesk,viz. “Would you hit a woman with a child?—No,I’d hit her with a brick.” Like the burlesk comedian,I am abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement.\n\nIf a poet is anybody,he is somebody to whom things made matter very little—somebody who is obsessed by Making. Like all obsessions, the Making obsession has disadvantages;for instance,my only interest in making money would be to make it. Fortunately,however,I should prefer to make almost anything else,including locomotives and roses. It is with roses and locomotives(not to mention acrobats Spring electricity Coney Island the 4th of July the eyes of mice and Niagara Falls)that my “poems” are competing.\n\nThey are also competing with each other,with elephants,and with El Greco.\n\nIneluctable preoccupation with The Verb gives a poet one priceless advantage:whereas nonmakers must content themselves with the merely undeniable fact that two times two is four,he rejoices in a purely irresistible truth(to be found,in abbreviated costume,upon the title page of the present volume.)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/forward/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/forward.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/forward.txt" }, { "slug": "four-i", "title": "FOUR I", "first_line": "the moon looked into my window", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "the moon looked into my window\nit touched me with its small hands\nand with curling infantile\nfingers it understood my eyes cheeks mouth\nits hands(slipping)felt of my necktie wandered\nagainst my shirt and into my body the\nsharp things fingered tinily my heart life\n\nthe little hands withdrew, jerkily, themselves\nquietly they began playing with a button\nthe moon smiled she\nlet go my vest and crept\nthrough the window\nshe did not fall\nshe went creeping along the air\n over houses\n roofs\n\nAnd out of the east toward\nher a fragile light bent gatheringly", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-i.txt" }, { "slug": "four-ii", "title": "FOUR II", "first_line": "if being morticed with a dream", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "if being morticed with a dream\nmyself speaks\n\n(whispering,\nsuggesting that our souls\ninhabit whatever is between them)\nknowing my lips hands the way i move\nmy habits laughter\n\ni say\nyou will perhaps pardon,\npossibly you will comprehend. and how\nthis has arrived your mind may guess\n\nif at sunset\n\nit should,leaning against me,smile;\nor(between dawn and twilight)giving\n\nyour eyes,present me also\nwith the terror of shrines\n\nwhich noone has suspected(but\nwherein silently\nalways\nare kneeling the various deaths\nwhich are your lover lady:together with what keen\ninnumerable lives he has not lived.z", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-iii", "title": "FOUR III", "first_line": "here’s a little mouse)and", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "here’s a little mouse)and\nwhat does he think about,i\nwonder as over this\nfloor(quietly with\n\nbright eyes)drifts(nobody\ncan tell because\nNobody knows,or why\njerks Here &,here,\ngr(oo)ving the room’s Silence)this like\na littlest\npoem a\n(with wee ears and see?\n\ntail frisks)\n (gonE)\n“mouse”,\n We are not the same you and\n\ni,since here’s a little he\nor is\nit It\n? (or was something we saw in the mirror)?\n\ntherefore we’ll kiss;for maybe\nwhat was Disappeared\ninto ourselves\nwho (look) ,startled", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-iv", "title": "FOUR IV", "first_line": "but if I should say", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "but if I should say\ngoodmorning trouble adds\nup all sorts of quickly\nthings on the slate of that\nnigger’s\nface(but\n\nIf i should say thankyouverymuch\n\nmr rosenbloom picks strawberries\nwith beringed hands)but if\n\ni Should say solong my\ntailor\nchuckles\n\nlike a woman in a dream(but if\nshould say\nNow the all saucers\nbut cups if begin to spoons dance every-\n\nshould where say over the damned table and we\nhold lips Eyes everything\nhands you know what\nhappens)but if i should,\nSay,", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "four-ix", "title": "FOUR IX", "first_line": "supposing i dreamed this)", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "supposing i dreamed this)\nonly imagine,when day has thrilled\nyou are a house around which\ni am a wind—\n\nyour walls will not reckon how\nstrangely my life is curved\nsince the best he can do\nis to peer through windows,unobserved\n\n—listen,for(out of all\nthings)dream is noone’s fool;\nif this wind who i am prowls\ncarefully around this house of you\n\nlove being such,or such,\nthe normal corners of your heart\nwill never guess how much\nmy wonderful jealousy is dark\n\nif light should flower:\nor laughing sparkle from\nthe shut house(around and around\nwhich a poor wind will roam", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "four-v", "title": "FOUR V", "first_line": "in spite of everything", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "in spite of everything\nwhich breathes and moves,since Doom\n(with white longest hands\nneatening each crease)\nwill smooth entirely our minds\n\n—before leaving my room\ni turn, and(stooping\nthrough the morning)kiss\nthis pillow,dear\nwhere our heads lived and were.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-v.txt" }, { "slug": "four-vi", "title": "FOUR VI", "first_line": "you are not going to,dear. You are not going to and", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "you are not going to,dear. You are not going to and\ni but that doesn’t in the least matter. The big\nfear Who held us deeply in His fist is\n\nno longer,can you imagine it\ni can’t which doesn’t matter\nand what does is possibly this dear,that we may resume\nimpact with the inutile collide\n\nonce more with the imaginable,love,and eat sunlight(do\nyou believe it? i begin to and that doesn’t matter)which\n\ni suggest teach us a new terror always\nwhich shall brighten\ncarefully these things we consider life.\nDear i put my eyes into you but that doesn’t matter\nfurther than of old\n\nbecause you fooled the doctors,i touch you with hopes and\nwords and with so and so:we are together, we will\nkiss or smile or move. It’s different too isn’t it\n\ndifferent dear from moving as we,you\nand i,used to move when i thought you were going to(but\nthat doesn’t matter)\nwhen you thought you were going to America.\n Then\n\nmoving was a matter of not keeping still;we were\ntwo alert lice in the blond hair of nothing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "four-vii", "title": "FOUR VII", "first_line": "since feeling is first", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "since feeling is first\nwho pays any attention\nto the syntax of things\nwill never wholly kiss you;\n\nwholly to be a fool\nwhile Spring is in the world\n\nmy blood approves,\nand kisses are a better fate\nthan wisdom\nlady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry\n—the best gesture of my brain is less than\nyour eyelids’ flutter which says\n\nwe are for each other:then\nlaugh,leaning back in my arms\nfor life’s not a paragraph\n\nAnd death i think is no parenthesis", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-viii", "title": "FOUR VIII", "first_line": "some ask praise of their fellows", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "some ask praise of their fellows\nbut i being otherwise\nmade compose curves\nand yellows,angles or silences\nto a less erring end)\n\nmyself is sculptor of\nyour body’s idiom:\nthe musician of your wrists;\nthe poet who is afraid\nonly to mistranslate\n\na rhythm in your hair,\n(your fingertips\nthe way you move)\n the\n\npainter of your voice—\nbeyond these elements\n\nremarkably nothing is....therefore,lady\nam i content should any\nby me carven thing provoke\nyour gesture possibly or\n\nany painting(for its own\n\nreason)in your lips\nslenderly should create one least smile\n(shyly\nif a poem should lift to\nme the distinct country of your\neves,gifted with green twilight)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-x", "title": "FOUR X", "first_line": "you are like the snow only", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "you are like the snow only\npurer fleeter,like the rain\nonly sweeter frailer you\n\nwhom certain\nflowers ressemble but trembling(cowards\nwhich fear\nto miss within your least gesture the hurting\nskill which lives)and since\n\nnothing lingers\nbeyond a little instant,\nalong with rhyme and with laughter\nO my lady\n(and every brittle marvelous breathing thing)\n\nsince i and you are on our ways to dust\n\nof your fragility\n(but chiefly of your smile,\nmost suddenly which is\nof love and death a marriage)you give me\n\ncourage\nso that against myself\nthe sharp days slobber in vain:\n\nNor am i afraid that\nthis,which we call autumn,cleverly\ndies and over the ripe world wanders with\na near and careful\nsmile in his mouth(making\n\neverything suddenly old and with his awkward eyes\npushing\nsleep under and thoroughly\ninto all beautiful things)\n\nwinter,whom Spring shall kill", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-x.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xi", "title": "FOUR XI", "first_line": "because", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "because\nyou go away i give roses who\nwill advise even yourself,lady\nin the most certainly(of what we\neverywhere do not touch)deep\nthings;\n remembering ever so\ntinily these,your crisp\neyes atually shall contain new faeries\n\n(and if your slim lips are amused,no wisest\n\npainter of fragile\nMarys will understand\nhow smiling may be made as\nskilfully.) But carry\nalso,with that indolent and with\nthis flower wholly whom you do\nnot ever fear,\n me in your heart\n\nsoftly;not all\nbut the beginning\n\nof mySelf", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xii", "title": "FOUR XII", "first_line": "you being in love", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "you being in love\nwill tell who softly asks in love,\n\nam i separated from your body smile brain hands merely\nto become the jumping puppets of a dream? oh i mean:\nentirely having in my careful how\ncareful arms created this at length\ninexcusable,this inexplicable pleasure—you go from several\npersons:believe me that strangers arrive\nwhen i have kissed you into a memory\nslowly,oh seriously\n—that since and if you disappear\n\nsolemnly\nmyselves\nask “life,the question how do i drink dream smile\n\nand how do i prefer this face to another and\nwhy do i weep eat sleep—what does the whole intend”\nthey wonder. oh and they cry “to be,being,that i am alive\nthis absurd fraction in its lowest terms\nwith everything cancelled\nbut shadows\n—what does it all come down to? love? Love\nif you like and i like,for the reason that i\nhate people and lean out of this windowis love,love\nand the reason that i laugh and breathe is oh love and the reason\n\nthat i do not fall into this street is love.”", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xiii", "title": "FOUR XIII", "first_line": "Nobody wears a yellow", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Nobody wears a yellow\nflower in his buttonhole\nhe is altogether a queer fellow\nas young as he is old\n\nwhen autumn comes\nwho twiddles his white thumbs\nand frisks down the boulevards\n\nwithout his coat and hat\n\n—(and i wonder just why that\nshould please him or i wonder what he does)\n\nand why (at the bottom of this trunk,\nunder some dirty collars)only a\nmoment\n(or\nwas it perhaps a year)ago I found staring\n\nme in the face a dead yellow small rose", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xiv", "title": "FOUR XIV", "first_line": "it is so long since my heart has been with yours", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "it is so long since my heart has been with yours\n\nshut by our mingling arms through\na darkness where new lights begin and\nincrease,\nsince your mind has walked into\nmy kiss as a stranger\ninto the streets and colours of a town—\n\nthat i have perhaps forgotten\nhow,always(from\nthese hurrying crudites\nof blood and flesh)Love\ncoins His most gradual gesture,\n\nand whittles life to eternity\n\n—after which our separating selves become museums\nfilled with skilfully stuffed memories", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xv", "title": "FOUR XV", "first_line": "i am a beggar always", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "i am a beggar always\nwho begs in your mind\n\n(slightly smiling,patient,unspeaking\nwith a sign on his\nbreast\nBLIND)yes i\n\nam this person of whom somehow\nyou are never wholly rid(and who\n\ndoes not ask for more than\njust enough dreams to\nlive on)\n after all,kid\n\nyou might as well\ntoss him a few thoughts\n\na little love preferably,\nanything which you can’t\npass off on other people:for\ninstance a\nplugged promise—\n\nthen he will maybe(hearing something\nfall into his hat)go wandering\nafter it with fingers;till having\n\nfound\nwhat was thrown away\n himself\ntaptaptaps out of your brain,hopes,life\n\nto(carefully turning a\ncorner)never bother you any more.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xv.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xvi", "title": "FOUR XVI", "first_line": "if within tonight’s erect", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "if within tonight’s erect\neverywhere of black muscles fools\na weightless slowness(deftly\n\nmuting the world’s texture with drifted\n\ngifts of featheriest slenderness and\nhow gradually which descending are suddenly\nreceived)or by doomfull connivance\n\naccurately thither and hither myself\n\nstruts unremembered(rememberingly \nwith in both pockets curled hands moves)\nwhy then toward morning he is a ghost whom\n\nassault these whispering fists of hail\n\n(and a few windows awaken certain faces\nbusily horribly blunder through new light\nhush we are made of the same thing as perhaps\n\nnothing,he murmurs carefully lying down)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvi.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xvii", "title": "FOUR XVI", "first_line": "how this uncouth enchanted", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "how this uncouth enchanted\nperson,arising from a\nrestaurant,looks breathes or moves\n—climbing(past light after\nlight)to turn,disappears\n\nthe very swift and\ninvisibly living\nrhythm of your Heart possibly\n\nwill understand;\nor why(in\n\nthis most exquisite of cities)all\nof the long a fragile imitation of\n(perhaps)myself carefully wanders\nstreets dark and,deep\n\nwith rain....\n\n(he,slight whom or\ncautiously this person\n\nand this imitation resemble,\ndescends into the earth with the year\na cigarette between his ghost-lips\n\ngradually)\nremembering badly,softly\nyour\nkissed thrice suddenly smile", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xvii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-ii", "title": "POEM, OR BEAUTY HURTS MR. VINAL", "first_line": "take it from me kiddo", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "take it from me kiddo\nbelieve me\nmy country,’tis of\n\nyou,land of the Cluett\nShirt Boston Garter and Spearmint\nGirl With The Wrigley Eyes(of you\nland of the Arrow Ide\nand Earl &\nWilson\nCollars)of you i\nsing:land of Abraham Lincoln and Lydia E. Pinkham,\nland above all of Just Add Hot Water And Serve—\nfrom every B. V. D.\n\nlet freedom ring\n\namen. i do however protest,anent the un\n-spontaneous and otherwise scented merde which\ngreets one(Everywhere Why)as divine poesy per\nthat and this radically defunct periodical. i would\n\nsuggest that certain ideas gestures\nrhymes,like Gillette Razor Blades\nhaving been used and reused\nto the mystical moment of dullness emphatically are\nNot To Be Resharpened. (Case in point\n\nif we are to believe these gently O sweetly\nmelancholy trillers amid the thrillers\nthese crepuscular violinists among my and your\nskyscrapers—Helen & Cleopatra were Just Too Lovely,\nThe Snail’s On The Thorn enter Morn and God’s\nIn His andsoforth\n\ndo you get me?)according\nto such supposedly indigenous\nthrostles Art is O World O Life\na formula:example,Turn Your Shirttails Into\nDrawers and If It Isn’t An Eastman It Isn’t A\nKodak therefore my friends let\nus now sing each and all fortissimo A-\nmer\ni\n\nca,I\nlove,\nYou. And there’re a \nhun-dred-mil-lion-oth-ers,like\nall of you successfully if\ndelicately gelded(or spaded)\ngentlemen(and ladies)—pretty\n\nlittleliverpill-\nhearted-Nujolneeding-There’s-A-Reason\namericans(who tensetendoned and with\nupward vacant eyes,painfully\nperpetually crouched,quivering,upon the\nsternly allotted sandpile\n—how silently\nemit a tiny violetflavoured nuisance:Odor?\n\nono.\ncomes out like a ribbon lies flat on the brush", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "four-xviii", "title": "FOUR XVIII", "first_line": "i go to this window", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "i go to this window\njust as day dissolves\nwhen it is twilight(and\nlooking up in fear\n\nI see the new moon\nthinner than a hair)\n\nmaking me feel\nhow myself has been coarse and dull\ncompared with you,silently who are \nand cling\nto my mind always\n\nBut now she sharpens and becomes crisper\nuntil I smile with knowing \n—and all about\nherself\n\nthe sprouting largest final air\n\nplunges\n inward with hurled\ndownward thousands of enormous dreams", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/four-xviii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-iii", "title": "ONE III", "first_line": "curtains part)", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "curtains part)\nthe peacockappareled\nprodigy of Flo’s midnight\nFrolic dolores\n\nsmall in the head keen chassised like a Rolls\nRoyce\nswoopssmoothly\n outward(amid\ntinkling-cheering-hammering\n\ntables)\n\nwhile softly along Kirkland Street\nthe infantile ghost of Professor\nRoyce rolls\n\nremembering that it\n\nhas for\n-gotten some-\nthing ah\n\n(my\n\nnecktie", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-iv", "title": "ONE IV", "first_line": "workingman with hand so hairy-sturdy", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "workingman with hand so hairy-sturdy\nyou may turn O turn that airy hurdysturdygurdy\nbut when will turn backward O backward Time in your no thy flight\nand make me a child,a pretty dribbling child,a little child.\n\nIn thy your ear:\nen amérique on ne boit que de Jingyale.\nthings are going rather kaka\nover there,over there,\nyet we scarcely fare much better—\n\nwhat’s become of(if you please)\nall the glory that or which was Greece\nall the grandja\nthat was dada?\n\nmake me a child,stout hurdysturdygurdyman\nwaiter,make me a child. So this is Paris.\ni will sit in the corner and drink thinks and think drinks,\nin memory of the Grand and Old days:\nof Amy Sandburg\nof Algernon Carl Swinburned.\n\nWaiter a drink waiter two or three drinks\nwhat’s become of Maeterlinck\nnow that April’s here!\n(ask the man who owns one\nask Dad,He knows).", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-ix", "title": "ONE IX", "first_line": "even if all desires things moments be", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "even if all desires things moments be\nmurdered known photographed,ourselves yawning will ask ourselves\nou sont les neiges....some\n\nguys talks big\n\nabout Lundon Burlin an gay Paree an\nsome guys claims der never was\nnutn like Nooer Leans Shikahgo Sain\nLooey Noo York an San Fran dictaphones\nwireless subways vacuum\ncleaners pianolas funnygraphs skyscrapers an safetyrazors\n\nsall right in its way kiddo\nbut as fer i gimme de good ole daze....\n\nin dem daze kid Christmas\nmeant sumpn youse knows wot\ni refers ter Satter Nailyuh(comes but once er\nyear)i’ll tell de woild one swell bangup\ntime wen nobody wore no cloze\nan went runnin aroun wid eachudder Hell\nBent fer election makin believe dey was chust born", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "one-v", "title": "ONE V", "first_line": "yonder deadfromtheheckup graduate of a", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "yonder deadfromtheneckup graduate of a\nsomewhat obscure to be sure university spends\nher time looking picturesque under\n\nthe as it happens quite\nerroneous impression that he\n\nnascitur", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-v.txt" }, { "slug": "one-vi", "title": "ONE VI", "first_line": "Jimmie’s got a goil\n goil\n goil,\n Jimmie", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Jimmie’s got a goil\n goil\n goil,\n Jimmie\n’s got a goil and\nshe coitnly can shimmie\n\nwhen you see her shake\n shake\n shake,\n when\nyou see her shake a\nshimmie how you wish that you was Jimmie.\n \nOh for such a gurl\n gurl\n gurl,\n oh\nfor such a gurl to\nbe a fellow’s twistandtwirl\n \ntalk about your Sal–\n Sal–\n Sal–,\n talk\nabout your Salo\n–mes but gimmie Jimmie’s gal.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-vii", "title": "ONE VII", "first_line": "the waddling", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "the waddling\nmadam star\ntaps\ntaps. “ready girls”. the\n\nunspontaneous streets\nmake bright their eyes\na\nblind irisher fiddles a\n\nscotch jig in a stinking\njoyman bar\na cockney is\nbuying whiskies for a turk\n\na waiter intones:bloo-moon-n\nsirkusricky\nplatzburg\nhoppytoad yesmam. the\n\nfurious taximan\np(ee)ps\non his whistle somebody\nsays here’s luck\n\nsomebody else says down the hatch\nthe nigger smiles\nthe jew stands\nbeside his teddy-bears\n\nthe sailor shuffles the\nnight with fucking eyes\nthe great black preacher gargles jesus\nthe aesthete indulges\n\nhis soul for certain things which died\nitis eighteen hundred\nyears....\nexactly\n\n under the window\n under the window\n under the window walk\n\nthe unburied feet of\nthe little ladies more than dead", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-viii", "title": "ONE VIII", "first_line": "listen my children and you", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "listen my children and you\nshall hear the true\n\nstory of Mr Do\n-nothing the wellknown parvenu\nwho\n\n(having dreamed of a corkscrew)\nstudied with Freud a year or two\nand when Freud got through\nwith Do-\n\nnothing Do\n-nothing could do\nnothing which you\nand i are accustomed to\naccomplish two\n\nor three times,and even a few\nmore depending on the remu-\nnerativeness of the stimulus(eheu\nfu\n-gaces Postu-\nme boo\n\nwho)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-x", "title": "ONE X", "first_line": "death is more than", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "death is more than\ncertain a hundred these\nsounds crowds odours it\nis in a hurry\nbeyond that any this\ntaxi smile or angle we do\n\nnot sell and buy\nthings so necessary as\nis death and unlike shirts\nneckties trousers\nwe cannot wear it out\n\nno sir which is why\ngranted who discovered\nAmerica ether the movies\nmay claim general importance\n\nto me to you nothing is\nwhat particularly\nmatters hence in a\n\nlittle sunlight and less\nmoonlight ourselves against the worms\n\nhate laugh shimmy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-x.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xi", "title": "ONE XI", "first_line": "nobody loses all the time", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "nobody loses all the time\n\ni had an uncle named\nSol who was a born a failure and\nnearly everbody said he should have gone\ninto vaudeville perhaps because my Uncle Sol could\nsing McCann He Was A Diver on Xmas Eve like Hell Itself which\nmay or may not account for the fact that my Uncle\n\nSol indulged in that possibly most inexcusable\nof all to use highfalootin phrase\nluxuries that is or to\nwit farming and be\nit needlessly\nadded\n\nmy Uncle Sol’s farm\nfailed because the chickens\nate the vegetables so\nmy Uncle Sol had a\nchicken farm till the\nskunks ate the chickens when\n\nmy Uncle Sol\nhad a skunk farm but\nthe skunks caught cold and\ndied and so\nmy Uncle Sol imitated the\nskunks in a subtle manner\n\nor by drowning himself in the watertank\nbut somebody who’d given my Uncle Sol a Victor\nVictrola and records while he lived presented to\nhim upon the auspicious occasion of his decease a\nscrumptious not to mend splendiferous funeral with\ntall boys in black gloves and flowers and everything and\n\ni remember we all cried like the Missouri\nwhen my Uncle Sol’s coffin lurched because\nsomebody pressed a button\n(and down went\nmy Uncle\nSol\n\nand started a worm farm)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xii", "title": "ONE XII", "first_line": "now dis “daughter” uv eve(who aint precisely slim)sim", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "now dis “daughter” uv eve(who aint precisely slim)sim\n\nply don’t know duh meaning uv duh woid sin in\nnot disagreeable contras tuh dat not exacly fat\n\n“father”(adjustin his robe)who now puts on his flat hat", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xiii", "title": "ONE XIII", "first_line": "(and i imagine", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "(and i imagine\nnever mind Joe agreeably cheerfully remarked when\nsurrounded by fat stupid animals\nthe jewess shrieked\nthe messiah tumbled successfully into the world\nthe animals continued eating. And i imagine she,and\nheard them slobber and\nin the darkness)\n\nstood sharp angels with faces like Jim Europe", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xiv", "title": "ONE XIV", "first_line": "it really must", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "it really must\nbe Nice,never to\n\nhave no imagination)or never\nnever to wonder about guys used to(and them\nslim hot queens with dam next to nothing\n\non)tangoing\n(while a feller tries\nto hold down the fifty bucks per\njob with one foot and rock a\n\ncradle with the other)it Must be\nnice never to have no doubts about why you\nput the ring\non(and watching her\nface grow old and tired to which\n\nyou’re married and hands get red washing\nthings and dishes)and to never,never really wonder i\nmean about the smell\nof babies and how you\n\nknow the dam rent’s going to and everything and never,never\nNever to stand at no window\nbecause i can’t sleep(smoking sawdust\n\ncigarettes in the\nmiddle of the night", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xiv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xix", "title": "ONE XIX", "first_line": "this young question mark man", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "this young question mark man\n\nquestion mark\nwho suffers from\nindigestion question\nmark is a remarkably\ncharming person\n\npersonally they tell\n\nme as for me\ni only knows that\nas far as\nhis pictures go\n\nhe’s a wet dream\n\nby Cézanne", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xix.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xl", "title": "ONE XL", "first_line": "life hurl my", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "life hurl my\nyes,crumbles hand(ful released conarefetti)ev eryflitter,inga. where\nmil(lions of aflickf)litter ing brightmillion of S hurl;edindodg:ing\nwhom areEyes shy-dodge is bright cruMbshandful,quick-hurl edinwho\nIs flittercrumbs,fluttercrimbs are floatfallin,g;allwhere:\na:crimbflitteringish is arefloatsis ingfallall!mil,shy milbrightlions\nmy(hurl flicker handful\nin)dodging are shybrigHteyes is crum bs(alll)if,ey Es", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xl/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xl.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xl.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xv", "title": "ITEM", "first_line": "this man is o so", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "this man is o so\nWaiter\nthis;woman is\n\nplease shut that\nthe pout And affectionate leer\ninterminable pyramidal,napkins\n(this man is oh so tired of this\na door opens by itself\nwoman.)they so to speak were in\n\nLove once?\nnow\n her mouth opens too far\nand:she attacks her Lobster without\nfeet mingle under the\nmercy.\n (exit the hors d’oeuvres)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xvi", "title": "ONE XVI", "first_line": "it started when Bill’s chip let on to", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "it started when Bill’s chip let on to\nthe bulls he’d bumped a bloke back in fifteen.\nThen she came toward him on herkneesacrossthe locked\nroom. he knocked her cold and beat it for Chicago.\n\nEddie was waiting for him,and they cleaned up a few\ntimes—before she got the info\nfrom a broad that knew Eddie in Topeka,went clean\ndaffy,and which was very silly hocked\n\nthe diamond he gave her. Bill was put wise\nthat she was coming with his kid inside her.\nHe laughed. She came. he gave her a shove\nand asked Eddit did he care to ride her?\n....she exactly lay,looking hunks of love\n\nin The Chair he kept talking about eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xvii", "title": "ONE XVII", "first_line": "IKEY(GOLDBERG)’S WORTH I’M", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "IKEY(GOLDBERG)’S WORTH I’M\nTOLD $ SEVERAL MILLION\nFINKLESTEIN(FRITZ)LIVES\nAT THE RITZ WEAR\ncarl & wilson COLLARS", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xvii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xviii", "title": "ONE XVIII", "first_line": "why are these pipples taking their hets off?", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "why are these pipples taking their hets off?\nthe king & queen\nalighting from their limousine\ninhabit the Hôtel Meurice(whereas\ni live in a garret and eat aspirine)\n\nbut who is this pale softish almost round\nyoung man to whom headwaiters bow so?\nhush — the author of Women By Night whose latest Seeds\nOf Evil sold 69 carloads before\npublication the girl who goes wrong you\n\nknow(whereas when i lie down i cough too\nmuch). How did The traffic get so jammed?\nbedad it is the famous doctor who inserts\nmonkeyglands in millionaires a cute idea n‘est-ce pas? \n(whereas,upon the other hand,myself) but let us next demand\n\nwherefore yon mob\nan accident?somebody got concus-\nsion of the brain?—Not\na bit of it,my dears merely the prime\nminister of Siam in native\n\ncostume,who\nemerging from a pissoir\nenters abruptly Notre Dame(whereas\nde gustibus non disputandum est\nmy lady is tired of That sort of thing", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xviii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xx", "title": "ONE XX", "first_line": "mr youse needn’t be so spry", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "mr youse needn’t be so spry\nconcernin questions arty\n\neach has his tastes but as for i\ni likes a certain party\n\ngimme the he-man’s solid bliss\nfor youse ideas i’ll match youse\n\na pretty girl who naked is\nis worth a million statues", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xx/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xx.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xx.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxi", "title": "ONE XXI", "first_line": "i was sitting in mcsorley’s outside it was New York and beauti-", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "i was sitting in mcsorley’s outside it was New York and beauti-\nfully snowing.\n\nInside snug and evil. the slobbering walls filthily push witless\ncreases of screaming warmth chuck pillows are noise funnily swallows\nswallowing revolvingly pompous a the swallowed mottle with smooth or\na but of rapidly goes gobs the and of flecks of and a chatter sobbings\nintersect with which distinct disks of graceful oath,upsoarings the\nbreak on ceiling-flatness\n\nthe Bar.tinking lucious jigs dint of ripe silver with warmlyish\nwetflat splurging smells waltz the glush of squirting taps plus slush\nof foam knocked off and a faint piddle-of-drops she says I ploc spittle\nwhat the lands thaz me kid in no sir hopping sawdust you kiddo he’s a\npalping wreaths of badly Yep cigars who jim him why gluey grins topple\ntogether eyes pout gestures stickily point made glints squinting who’s\na wink bum-nothing and money fuzzily mouths take big wobbly foot-steps\nevery goggle cent of it get out ears dribbles soft right old feller\nbelch the chap hic summore eh chuckles skulch....\n\nand i aws sitting in the din thinking drinking the ale,which never\nlets you grow old blinking at the low ceiling my being pleasantly was\npunctuated by the always retchings of a worthless lamp.\n\nwhen With a minute terrif iceffort one dirty squeal of soiling light\nyanKing from bushy obscurity a bald greenish foetal head established\nIt suddenly upon the huge neck around whose unwashed sonorous muscle\nthe filth of a collar hung gently.\n\n(spattered)by this instant of semiluminous nausea A vast wordless\nnondescript genie of trunk trickled firmly in to one exactly-mutilated\nghost of a chair,\n\na;domeshaped interval of complete plasticity,shoulders,sprouted the\nextraordinary arms through an angle of ridiculous velocity commenting\nupon an unclean table,and,whose distended immense Both paws slowly\nloved a dinted mug\n\ngone Darkness it was so near to me,i ask of shadow won’t you have a\ndrink?\n\n(the eternal perpetual question)\n\nInside snugandevil. i was sitting in mcsorley’s It,did not answer.\n\noutside.(it was New York and beautifully,snowing....", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxii", "title": "ONE XXII", "first_line": "she being Brand", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "she being Brand\n\n-new;and you\nknow consequently a\nlittle stiff i was\ncareful of her and(having\n\nthoroughly oiled the universal\njoint tested my gas felt of\nher radiator made sure her springs were O.\n\nK.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her\n\nup,slipped the\nclutch(and then somehow got into reverse she\nkicked what\nthe hell)next\nminute i was back in neutral tried and\n\nagain slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my\n\nlev-er Right-\noh and her gears being in\nA 1 shape passed\nfrom low through\nsecond-in-to-high like\ngreasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinity\n\navenue i touched the accelerator and give\n\nher the juice,good\n\n (it\n\nwas the first ride and believe i we was\nhappy to see how nice she acted right up to\nthe last minute coming back down by the Public\nGardens i slammed on\nthe internalexpanding\n&\nexternalcontracting\nbrakes Bothatonce and\n\nbrought allofher tremB\n-ling\nto a:dead\n\nstand-\n;Still)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxiii", "title": "ONE XXIII", "first_line": "slighty before the middle of Congressman Pudd", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "slighty before the middle of Congressman Pudd\n’s 4th of July oration, with a curse and a frown\nAmy Lowell got up\nand all the little schoolchildren sat down", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxiv", "title": "ONE XXIV", "first_line": "Dick Mid’s large bluish face without eyebrows", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Dick Mid’s large bluish face without eyebrows\n\nsits in the kitchen nights and chews a two-bit\ncigar\n waiting for the bulls to pull his joint.\nJimmie was a dude. Dark hair and nice hands.\n\nwith a little eye that rolled and made its point\n\nJimmie’s sister worked for Dick. And had some rows\nover percent. The gang got shot up twice,it\noperated in the hundred ands\n\nAll the chips would kid Jimmie to give them a kiss\nbut Jimmie lived regular. stewed three times a week.\nand slept twice a week with a big toothless girl\nin Yonkers.\n Dick Mid’s green large three teeth leak\n\nsmoke:remembering,two pink big lips curl....\n\nhow Jimmie was framed and got his", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxiv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxix", "title": "ONE XXIX", "first_line": "than(by yon sunset’s wintry glow", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "than(by yon sunset’s wintry glow\nrevealed)this tall strong stalwart youth,\nwhat sight shall human optics know\nmore quite ennobling forsooth?\n\nOne wondrous fine sonofabitch\n(to all purposes and intents)\nin which distinct and rich\nportrait should be included,gents\n\nthese(by the fire’s ruddy glow\nunited)not less than sixteen\nchildren and of course you know\ntheir mother,of his heart the queen\n\n—incalculable bliss!\nPicture it gents:our hero,Dan\nwho as you’ve guessed already is\nthe poorbuthonest workingman\n\n(by that bright flame whose myriad tints\nenrich a visage simple,terse,\nseated like any king or prince\nupon his uncorrupted arse\n\nwith all his hearty soul aglow)\nhis nightly supper sups\nit isn’t snowing snow you know\nit’s snowing buttercups", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxix.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxv", "title": "oDE", "first_line": "o", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "o\n\nthe sweet & aged people\nwho rule this world(and me and\nyou if we’re not very\ncareful)\n\nOl\n\nthe darling benevolent mindless\nHe—and She—\nshaped waxworks filled\nwith dead ideas(the oh\n\nquintillions of incredible\ndodderingly godly toothless\nalways-so-much-interested-\nin-everybody-else’s-business\n\nbipeds)OH\nthe bothering\ndear unnecessary hairless\no\n\nld", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxvi", "title": "ONE XXVI", "first_line": "on the Madam’s best april the", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "on the Madam’s best april the\ntwenty nellie\n\nanyway and\nit’s flutters everything\nqueer;does smells he smiles is\nlike Out of doors he’s a with\neyes and making twice the a week\nyou kind of,know(kind well of\nA sort of the way he smile)but\nand her a I mean me a\nIrish,cook but well oh don’t\nyou makes burst want to dear somehow\nquickyes when(now,dark dear oh)\nthe iceman\nhow,luminously\noh how listens and,expands\nmy somewherealloverme heart my\nthe halfgloom coolish\nof The what are\nparks for wiggle yes has\nare leap,which,anyway\n\ngive rapid lapfulls of\nidiotic big hands", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxvii", "title": "ONE XXVII", "first_line": "(as that named Fred", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "(as that named Fred\n-someBody:hippopotamus,scratch-\ning,one,knee with,its,\nfriend observes I\n\npass Mr Tom Larsen twirls among\n\npale lips the extinct\ncigar)at\n\nwhich\n\nthis(once flinger\nof lariats lean exroper of\nhorned suddenly crashing things)man spits\n\nquickly into the very bright spittoon", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxvii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxviii", "title": "ONE XXVIII", "first_line": "my uncle", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "my uncle\nDaniel fought in the civil\nwar band and can play the triangle\nlike the devil)my\n\nuncle Frank has done nothing for many\nyears but fly kites and\nwhen the\nstring breaks(or something)my uncle Frank breaks into\ntears. my uncle Tom\n\nknits and is a kewpie above the ears(but\n\nmy uncle Ed\nthat’s\ndead from the neck\n\nup is lead all over\nBrattle Street by a castrated pup", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxviii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxx", "title": "ONE XXX", "first_line": "weazened Irrefutable unastonished", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "weazened Irrefutable unastonished\ntwo,countenances seated in arranging;sunlight\nwith-ered unspea-king:tWeNtY,f i n g e r s,large\nfour gnarled lips totter\n\nTherefore,approaching my twentysix selves\nbulging in immortal Spring express a cry of\nHow do you find the sun,ladies?\n\n(graduallyverygradually “there is not enough\nof it” their,hands\nminutely\n\nanswered", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxx/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxx.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxx.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxi", "title": "MEMORABILIA", "first_line": "stop look &", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "stop look &\n\nlisten Venezia:incline thine\near you glassworks\nof Murano:\npause\nelevator nel\nmezzo del cammin’ that means half-\nway up the Campanile,believe\n\nthou me cocodrillo—\n\nmine eyes have seen\nthe glory of\n\nthe coming of\nthe Americans particularly the\nbrand of marriageable nymph which is\narmed with large legs rancid\nvoices Baedekers Mothers and kodaks\n—by night upon the Riva Schiavoni or in\nthe felicitious vicinity of the de l’Europe\n\nGrand and Royal\nDanielli their numbers\n\nare like unto the stars of Heaven....\n\ni do signore\naffirm that all gondola signore\nday below me gondola signore gondola\nand above me pass loudly and gondola\nrapidly denizens of Omaha Altoona or what\nnot enthusiastic cohorts from Duluth God only,\ngondola knows Cincingondolanati i gondola don’t\n\n—the substantial dollarbringing virgins\n\n“from the Loggia where\nare we angels by O yes\nbeautiful we now pass through the look\ngirls in the style of that’s the\nfoliage what is it didn’t Ruskin\nsays about you got the haven’t Marjorie\nisn’t this wellcurb simply darling”\n —O Education:O\nthos cook & son\n\n(O to be a metope\nnow that triglyph’s here)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxiii", "title": "ONE XXXIII", "first_line": "Babylon slim", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Babylon slim\n-ness of\nevenslicing\neyes are chisels\n\nscarlet Goes\nwith her\nwhitehot\nface,gashed\n\nby hair’s blue cold\n\njolts of\nlovecrazed abrupt\n\nflesh split “Pretty\nBaby”\nto\nnumb rhythm before christ", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxii", "title": "ONE XXXII", "first_line": "a man who had fallen among thieves", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "a man who had fallen among thieves\nlay by the roadside on his back\ndressed in fifteenthrate ideas\nwearing a round jeer for a hat\n\nfate per a somewhat more than less\nemancipated evening\nhad in return for consciousness\nendowed him with a changeless grin\n\nwhereon a dozen staunch and leal\ncitizens did graze at pause\nthen fired by hypercivic zeal\nsought newer pastures or because\n\nswaddled with a frozen brook\nof pinkest vomit out of eyes\nwhich noticed nobody he looked\nas if he did not care to rise\n\none hand did nothing on the vest\nits wideflung friend clenched weakly dirt\nwhile the mute trouserfly confessed\na button solemnly inert\n\nBrushing from whom the stiffened puke\ni put him all into my arms\nand staggered hanged with terror through\na million billion trillion stars", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxiv", "title": "ONE XXXIV", "first_line": "this evangelist", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "this evangelist\nbuttons with his big gollywog voice\nthe kingdomofheaven up behind and crazily\nskating thither and hither in filthy sawdust\nchucks and rolls\nagainst the tent his thick joggling fists\n\nhe is persuasive\n\nthe editor cigarstinking hobgoblin swims\nupward in hisswivelchair one fist dangling scandal while\nfive other fingers snitch\nrapidly through mist a defunct king as\n\nlinotypes gobblehobble\n\nour lightheavy twic twoc ingly attacks\nlanding a onetwo\nwhich doubles up suddenly his bunged hinging\nvictim against the\ngiving ropes amid\nscreams of deeply bulging thousands\n\ni too omit one kelly\n\nin response to howjedooze the candidate’s new silk\nlid bounds gently from his baldness\na smile masturbates softly in the vacant\nlot of his physiognomy\nhis scientifically pressed trousers ejaculate spats\n\na strikingly succulent getup\n\nbut\nwe knew a muffhunter and he said to us Kid.\ndaze nutn like it.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxiv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxix", "title": "ONE XXXIX", "first_line": "voices to voices,lip to lip", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "voices to voices,lip to lip\ni swear(to noone everyone)constitutes\nundying;or whatever this and that petal confutes...\nto exist begin a peculiar form of sleep\n\nwhat’s beyond logic happens beneath will;\nnor can these moments be translated:i say\nthat even after April\nby God there is no excuse for May\n\n—bring forth your flowers and machinery:sculpture and prose\nflowers guess and miss\nmachinery is the more accurate,yes\nit delivers the goods,Heaven knows\n\n(yet are we mindful,though not as yet awake,\nof ourselves which shout and cling,being\nfor a little while and which easily break\nin spite of the best overseeing)\n\ni mean that the blond absence of any program\nexcept last and always and first to live\nmakes unimportant what i and you believe;\nnot for philosophy does this rose give a damn...\n\nbring on your fireworks,which are a mixed\nsplendor of piston and of pistil;very well\nprovided an instant may be fixed\nso that it will not rub,like any other pastel.\n\n(While you and i have lips and voices which\nare for kissing and to sing with\nwho cares if some oneeyed son of a bitch\ninvents an instrument to measure Spring with?\n\neach dream nascitur,is not made...)\nwhy then to Hell with that:the other;this,\nsince the thing perhaps is\nto eat flowers and not to be afraid.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxix.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxvi", "title": "ONE XXXVI", "first_line": "ta", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "ta\nppin\ng\ntoe\n\nhip\npopot\namus Back\n\ngen\nteel-ly\nlugu-\nbri ous\n\n eyes\nLOOPTHELOOP\n\nas\n\nfathandsbangrag", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvi.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxv", "title": "ONE XXXV", "first_line": "(ponder,darling,these busted statues", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "(ponder,darling,these busted statues\nof yon motheaten forum be aware\nnotice what hath remained\n——the stone cringes\nclinging to the stone,how obsolete\n\nlips utter their extant smile....\nremark\n\na few deleted of texture\nor meaning monuments and dolls\n\nresist Them Greediest Paws of careful\ntime all of which is extremely\nunimportant)whereas Life\n\nmatters if or\n\nwhen the your- and my-\nidle vertical worthless\nself unite in a peculiarly\nmomentary\n\npartnership(to instigate\nconstructive\n Horizontal\nbusiness....even so,let us make haste\n—consider well this ruined aqueduct\n\nlady,\nwhich used to lead something into somewhere)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxv.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxvii", "title": "ONE XXXVII", "first_line": "poets yeggs and thirsties", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "poets yeggs and thirsties\n\nsince we are spanked and put to sleep by dolls let\nus not be continually astonished should\nfrom their actions and speeches\nsawdust perpetually leak\n\nrather it is between such beddings and\nbumpings of ourselves to be observed\nhow in this fundamental respect the well\nrecognized regime of childhood is reversed\n\nmeantime in dreams let us investigate\nthoroughly each one his optima rerum first\nhaving taken care to lie upon our\nabdomens for greater privacy and lest\n\npunished bottoms interrupt philosophy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxvii.txt" }, { "slug": "one-xxxviii", "title": "ONE XXXVII", "first_line": "Will i ever forget that precarious moment?", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Will i ever forget that precarious moment?\n\nAs i was standing on the third rail waiting for the next train to grind me into lifeless atoms various absurd thoughts slyly crept into my highly sexed mind.\n\nIt 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,is you understand that i mean what i say i believe my most intimate friends would never have gathered.\n\nA collarbutton which had always not nothurt me not much and in the same place.\n\nWhy according to tomorrow’s paper the proletariat will not rise yesterday.\n\nInexpressible itchings to be photographed with Lord Rothermere playing with Lord Rothermere billiards very well by moonlight with Lord Rothermere.\n\nA crocodile eats a native,who in revenge beats it insensible with a banana,establishing meanwhile a religious cult based on consubstantial intangibility.\n\nPersonne ne m’aime et j’ai mains froides\n\nHis Royal Highness said “peek-a-boo” and thirty tame fleas left the prettily embroidered howdah immediately.\n\nThumbprints of an angel named Frederick found on a lightning-rod,Boston,Mass.\n\nsuch were not the unhurried reflections to which my organ of imperception gave birth to which i should ordinarily have objected to which,considering the background,it is hardly surprising if anyone hardly should call exactly extraordinary. We refer,of course,to my position. A bachelor incapable of occupation,he had long suppressed the desire to suppress the suppressed desire of shall we say:Idleness,while meaning its opposite? Nothing could be clearer to all concerned than that i am not a policeman.\n\nMeanwhile the tea regressed.\n\nKipling again H. G. Wells,and Anatole France shook hands again and yet again shook again hands again,the former coachman with a pipewrench of the again latter then opening a box of newly without exaggeration shot with some difficulty sardines. Mr. Wiggin took Wrs. Miggin’s harm in is,extinguishing the spittoon by a candle furnished by courtesy of the management on Thursdays,opposite which a church stood perfectly upright but not piano item:a watermelon causes indigestion to William Cullen Longfellow’s small negro son,Henry Wadsworth Bryant.\n\nBy this time,however,the flight of crows have ceased. I withdrew my hands form the tennisracket. All was over. One brief convulsive octopus,and then our hero folded his umbrella.\n\nIt seemed too beautiful.\n\nLet us perhaps excuse me if i repeat himself:these,or nearly these,were the not unpainful thoughts which occupied the subject of our attention;to speak even less objectively,i was horribly scared i would actually fall off the rail before the really train after all arrived. If i should have made this perfectly clear,it entirely would have been not my fault.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxviii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxviii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/one-xxxviii.txt" }, { "slug": "three-i", "title": "THREE I", "first_line": "now that fierce few", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "now that fierce few\nflowers(stealthily)\nin the alive west\nbegin\n\nrequiescat this six\nfeet of Breton big good\nbody, which terminated\nin fists hair wood\n\nerect cursing hatless who\n(bent by wind)slammed hard-\nover the tiller;clattered\nforward skidding in outrageous\n\nsabots language trickling\npried his black\nmouth with fat jibing\nlips,\n\nonce upon a\n(that is\nover: and the sea heaving\nindolent colourless forgets)time\n\nRequiescat.\ncarry\ncarefully the blessed large silent him\ninto nibbling final worms", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-i.txt" }, { "slug": "three-ii", "title": "THREE II", "first_line": "Among\n these\n red pieces of", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Among\n\n these\n red pieces of\nday(against which and\nquite silently hills\nmade of blueandgreen paper\n\nscorchbend ingthem\n-selves-U\npcurv E,into:\n anguish(clim\nb)ing\ns-p-i-r-a-\nl\nand,disappear)\n Satanic and blasé\n\na black goat lookingly wanders\n\nThere is nothing left of the world but\ninto this noth\ning il treno per\nRoma si-gnori?\njerk.\nilyr,ushes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "three-iii", "title": "THREE III", "first_line": "it is winter a moon in the afternoon", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "it is winter a moon in the afternoon\nand warm air turning into January darkness up\nthrough which sprouting gently,the cathedral\nleans its dreamy spine against thick sunset\n\ni perceive in front of our lady a ring of people\na brittle swoon of centrifugally expecting\nfaces clumsily which devours a man,three cats,\nfive white mice,and a baboon.\n\nO a monkey with a sharp face waddling carefully\nthe length of this padded pole;a monkey attached\nby a chain securely to this always talking\nindividual,mysterious witty hatless.\n\nCats which move smoothly from neck to neck of bottles,cats\nsmoothly willowing out and in between bottles,who step smoothly\nand rapidly along this pole over five squirming\nmice;or leap through hoops of fire,creating smoothness.\n\nPeople stare,the drunker applaud\nwhile twilight takes the sting out of the vermilion\njacket of nodding hairy Jacqueline who is given a mouse\nto hold lovingly.\n\nour lady what do you think of this? Do your proud fingers and\nyour arms tremble remembering something squirming fragile\nand which had been presented unto you by a mystery?\n...the cathedral recedes into weather without answering", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "three-iv", "title": "THREE IV", "first_line": "impossibly", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "impossibly\n\nmotivated by midnight\nthe flyspecked abdominous female\nindubitably tellurian\nstrolls\n emitting minute grins\n\neach an intaglio.\nNothing\nhas also carved upon her much\n\ntoo white forehead a pair of\neyes which mutter thickly(as one merely\nterriculous American an instant doubts\nthe authenticity\n\nof these antiquities—relaxing\n hurries\nelsewhere;to blow\n\nincredible wampum", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "three-ix", "title": "THREE IX", "first_line": "but observe;although", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "but observe;although\nonce is never the beginning of\nenough,is it(i do not pretend\nto know the reason any more than.) But look:up-\n\nraising,hoisting,a little\nperhaps that and this,deftly\nproppping on smallest hands\nthe slim hinging you\n —because\nit’s five o’clock\n\nand these(i notice)trees winterbrief surly old\ngurgle a nonsense of sparrows,the cathedral\nshudders blackening;\nthe sky is washed with tone\n\nnow for a moon\nto squat in first darkness\n—a little moon thinner than\n\nmemory\n\nfaint\n-er\n than all the whys\nwhich lurk\nbetween your naked shoulderblades.—Here\ncomes a stout fellow in a blouse\njust outside this window,touching the glass\nboxes one by one with his magic\nstick(in which a willing\nbulb of flame bubbles)\n see\n\nhere and here they explode\nsilently into crocuses of brightness. (That is enough\nof life,for you. I understand. Once\nagain....)sliding\n\na little downward,embrace me with your body’s suddenly\ncurving entire warm questions", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "three-v", "title": "THREE V", "first_line": "inthe,exquisite;", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "inthe,exquisite;\n\nmorning sure lyHer eye s exactly sit,ata little roundtable\namong otherlittle roundtables Her,eyes count slow(ly\n\nobstre peroustimidi ties surElyfl)oat iNg,the\n\nofpieces ofof sunlıgh tof fa l l in gof throughof treesOf.\n\n(Fields Elysian\n\nthe like,a)slEEping neck a breathing a ,lies\n(slo wlythe wom an pa)ris her\nflesh:wakes\n in little streets\n\nwhile exactlygir lisHlegs;play;ing;nake;D\nand\n\nchairs wait under the trees\n\nFields slowly Elysian in\na firmcool-Ness taxis, s.QuirM\n\nand, b etw ee nch air st ott er s thesillyold\nWomanSellingBalloonS\n\nIn theex qui site\n\nmorning,\n her sureLyeye s sit-ex actly her sitsat a surely!little,\nroundtable amongother;littleexactly round. tables,\n\nHer\n .eyes", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-v.txt" }, { "slug": "three-vi", "title": "THREE VI", "first_line": "candles and", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "candles and\n\nHere Comes a glass box\nwhich the exhumed\nhand of Saint Ignatz miraculously\ninhabits. (people tumble\ndown. people crumble to their\nknees. people\nbegin crossing people)and\n\nhErE cOmEs a glass box:\nsurrounded by priests\nmoving in fifty colours\n,sensuously\n\n(the crowd\nhowls faintly\nblubbering pointing\n\nsee\nyes)\nIt\nhere\ncomes\n\nA Glass\nBox and incense with\n\nand oh sunlight—\nthe crash of the\ncolours(of the oh\nsilently\nstriding)priests-and-\nslowly,al,ways;procession:and\n\nEnters\n\nthis\n church\n\ntoward which The\nExpectant stutter(upon artificial limbs,\nwith faces like defunct geraniums)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "three-vii", "title": "THREE VII", "first_line": "Paris;this April sunset completely utters;", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "Paris;this April sunset completely utters;\nutters serenely silently a cathedral\n\nbefore whose upward lean magnificent face\nthe streets turn young with rain,\n\nspiral acres of bloated rose\ncoiled within cobalt miles of sky\nyield to and heed\nthe mauve\n of twilight(who slenderly descends,\ndaintily carrying in her eyes the dangerous first stars)\npeople move love hurry in a gently\n\narriving gloom and\nsee!(the new moon\nfills abruptly with sudden silver\nthese torn pockets of lame and begging colour)while\nthere and here the lithe indolent prostitute\nNight,argues\n\nwith certain houses", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "three-viii", "title": "THREE VIII", "first_line": "will out of the kindness of their hearts a few philosophers tell me", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "will out of the kindness of their hearts a few philosophers tell me\nwhat am i doing on top of this hill at Calchidas,in the sunlight?\ndown ever so far on the beach below me a little girl in white spins,tumbles:rolling in sand.\nacross this water,crowding tints:browns and whites shoving, the doting millions of windows of thousands of houses—Lisboa. Like the crackle of typewriter,in the afternoon sky.\ngoats 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.\n\nthey are building a house down there by the sea,in the afternoon.\n\nrapidly a reddish ant travels my fifth finger.\na bird chirps in a tree,somewhere nowhere\nand a little girl in white is tumbling\nin sand\n Clouds over\nme are like bridegrooms\n\nNaked and luminous\n\n (here the absurd I;life,to peer and wear clothes. i am altogether foolish,i suddenly make a fist out of ten fingers\nvoices rise from down ever so far—\nhush.\n Sunlight,\n there are old men behind me I tell you;several,incredible,sleepy", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "three-x", "title": "THREE X", "first_line": "sunlight was over", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "sunlight was over\nour mouths fears hearts lungs arms hopes feet hands\n\nunder us the unspeaking Mediterranean bluer\nthan we had imagined\na few cries drifting through\nhigh air\na sail a fishing boat somebody an invisible spectator,\nmaybe certain nobodies laughing faintly\n\nplaying moving far below us\n\nperhaps one villa caught like pieces\nof a kite in the trees,here\nand here reflecting\nsunlight\n(everywhere sunlight keen complete\nsilent\n\nand everywhere you your kisses your flesh mind breathing\nbeside under around myself)\n by and by\n\na fat colour reared itself against the sky and the sea\n\n...finally your eyes knew\nme,we smiled to each other,releasing lay,watching\n(sprawling,in\ngrass upon a\ncliff)what had been something\nelse carefully slowly fatally turning into ourselves...\n\nwhile in the very middle of fire all\n\nthe world becoming bright and little melted.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/three-x.txt" }, { "slug": "two-i", "title": "TWO I", "first_line": "the season ’tis,my lovely lambs,", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "the season ’tis,my lovely lambs,\n\nof Sumner Volstead Christ and Co.\nthe epoch of Mann’s righteousness\nthe age of dollars and no sense.\nWhich being quite beyond dispute\n\nas prove from Troy(N.Y.)to Cairo\n(Egypt)the luminous dithyrambs\nof large immaculate unmute\nantibolschevistic gents\n(each manufacturing word by word\nhis own unrivalled brand of pyro\n-technic blurb anent the(hic)\nhero dead that gladly(sic)\nin far lands perished of unheard\nof maladies including flu)\n\nmy little darlings,let us now\npassionately remember how—\nbraving the worst,of peril heedless,\neach braver than the other,each\n(a typewriter within his reach)\nupon his fearless derrière\nsturdily seated—Colonel Needless\nTo Name and General You know who\na string of pretty medals drew\n\n(while messrs jack james john and jim\nin token of their country’s love\nreceived my dears the order of\nThe Artificial Arm and Limb)\n\n—or,since bloodshed and kindred questions\ninhibit unprepared digestions,\ncome:let us mildly contemplate\nbeginning with his wellfilled pants\nearth’s biggest grafter,nothing less;\nthe Honorable Mr.(guess)\nwho,breathing on the ear of fate,\nlanded a seat in the legislat-\nure whereas tommy so and so\n(an erring child of circumstance\nwhom the bulls nabbed at 33rd)\n\npulled six months for selling snow", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-i/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-i.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-i.txt" }, { "slug": "two-ii", "title": "TWO II", "first_line": "opening of the chambers close", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "opening of the chambers close\n\nquotes the microscopic pithecoid President\nin a new frock\ncoat(scrambling all\nup over the tribune dances crazily\n& &)&\nchatters about Peacepeacepeace(to\ndroppingly\ndescend amid thunderous anthropoid applause)pronounced\n\nby the way Pay the\n\nextremely artistic nevertobeextinguished fla\n-me of the(very prettily indeed)arra-\nnged souvenir of the in spite of himself fa\n-mous soldier minus his na-\nme(so as not to hurt the perspective of the(hei\n-nous thought)otherwise immaculately tabulated vicinity)invei-\ngles a few mildly curious rai\n-ned on people(both male and female\ncreated He\n\nthen, And every beast of the field", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ii.txt" }, { "slug": "two-iii", "title": "TWO III", "first_line": "“next to of course god america i", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "“next to of course god america i\nlove you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh\nsay can you see by the dawn’s early my\ncountry ’tis of centuries come and go\nand are no more what of it we should worry\nin every language even deafanddumb\nthy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry\nby jingo by gee by gosh by gum\nwhy talk of beauty what could be more beaut-\niful than these heroic happy dead\nwho rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter\nthey do not stop to think they died instead\nthen shall the voice of liberty be mute?”\n\nHe spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iii.txt" }, { "slug": "two-iv", "title": "TWO IV", "first_line": "it’s jolly", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "it’s jolly\nodd what pops into\nyour jolly tête when the\njolly shells begin dropping jolly fast you\nhear the rrmp and\nthen nearerandnearerandNEARER\nand before\nyou can\n\n!\n\n& we’re\n\nNOT\n(oh—\n—i say\n\nthat’s jolly odd\nold thing,jolly\nodd,jolly\njolly odd isn’t\nit jolly odd.", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iv/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iv.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-iv.txt" }, { "slug": "two-ix", "title": "TWO IX", "first_line": "little ladies more", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "little ladies more\nthan dead exactly dance\nin my head,precisely\ndance where danced la guerre.\n\nMimi à\nla voix fragile\nqui chatouille Des\nItaliens\n\nthe putain with the ivory throat\nMarie Louise Lallemand\nn’est-ce pas que je suis belle\nchéri? les anglais m’aiment\ntous,les américains\naussi....“bon dos,bon cul de Paris”(Marie\nVierge\nPriez\nPour\nNous)\n\nwith the\nlong lips of\nLucienne which dangle\nthe old men and hot\nmen se promènent\ndoucement le soir(ladies\n\naccurately dead les anglais\nsont gentils et les américains\naussi,ils payent bien les américains dance\n\nexactly in my brain voulez-\nvous coucher avec\nmoi? Non? pourquoi?)\n\nladies skilfully\ndead precisely dance\n\nwhere has danced la\nguerre j’m’appelle\nManon,cinq rue Henri Monnier\nvoulez-vous coucher avec moi?\nte ferai Mimi\nte ferai Minette,\ndead exactly dance\nsi vous voulez\nchatouiller\nmon lézard ladies suddenly\nj’m’en fous des négres\n\n (in the twilight of Paris\nMarie Louise with queenly\nlegs cinq rue Henri\nMonnier a little love\nbegs,Mimi with the body\nlike une boîte á joujoux,want nice sleep?\ntoutes les petites femmes exactes\nqui dansent toujours in my\nhead dis-donc, Paris\n\nta gorge mystérieuse\npourquoi se proméne-t-elle,pourquoi\néclate ta voix\nfragile couleur de pivoine?)\n with the\n\nlong lips of Lucienne which\ndangle the old men and hot men\nprecisely dance in my head\nladies carefully dead", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ix/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ix.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-ix.txt" }, { "slug": "two-v", "title": "TWO V", "first_line": "look at this)", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "look at this)\na 75 done\nthis nobody would\nhave believed\nwould they no\nkidding this was my particular\n\npal\nfunny aint\nit we was\nbuddies\ni used to\n\nknow\nhim lift the\npoor cuss\ntenderly this side up handle\n\nwith care\nfragile\nand send him home\n\nto his old mother in\na new nice pine box\n\n(collect", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-v/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-v.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-v.txt" }, { "slug": "two-vi", "title": "TWO VI", "first_line": "first Jock he", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "first Jock he\nwas kilt a handsome\nman and James and\nnext let me\nsee yes Will that was\ncleverest\nhe was kilt and my youngest\nboy was kilt last with\nthe big eyes i loved like you can’t\nimagine Harry was o\ngod kilt he was kilt everybody was kilt\n\nthey called them the kilties", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vi.txt" }, { "slug": "two-vii", "title": "TWO VII", "first_line": "lis", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "lis\n-ten\n\nyou know what i mean when\nthe first guy drops you know\neverybody feels sick or\nwhen they throw in a few gas\nand the oh baby shrapnel\nor my feet getting dim freezing or\nup to your you know what in water or\nwith the bugs crawling right all up\nall everywhere over you all me everyone\nthat’s been there knows what\ni mean a god damned lot of\npeople don’t and never\nnever\nwill know,\nthey don’t want\n\nto\nno", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-vii.txt" }, { "slug": "two-x", "title": "TWO X", "first_line": "16 heures", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "16 heures\nl’Etoile\n\nthe communists have fine Eyes\n\nsome are young some old none\nlook alike the flics rush\nbatter the crowd sprawls collapses\nsinging knocked down trampled the kicked by\nflics rush(the\n\nFlics,tidiyum,are\nvery tidiyum reassuringly similar,\nthey all have very tidiyum\nmustaches,and very\ntidiyum chins,and just above\ntheir very tidiyum ears their\nvery tidiyum necks begin)\n let us add\n\nthat there are 50(fifty)flics for every\none(1)communist and\nall the flics are very organically\narranged\nand their nucleus(composed\nof captains in freshly-creased\n-uniforms with only-just-\nshined buttons\ntidiyum\nbefore and behind)has a nucleolus:\n\nthe Prefect of Police\n\n(a dapper derbied\ncreature,swaggers daintily\ntwiddling\nhis tiny cane\nand,mazurkas about tweak-\ning his wing collar pecking at his im\n\n-peccable cravat directing being\nshooting his cuffs\nsaluted everywhere saluting\nreviewing processions of minions\ntappingpeopleontheback\n\n“allezcirculez”)\n\n—my he’s brave....\nthe\ncommunists pick\nup themselves friends\n& their hats legs &\n\narms brush dirt coats\nsmile looking hands\nspit blood teeth\n\nthe Communists have(very)fine eyes\n(which stroll hither and thither through the\nevening in bruised narrow questioning faces)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-x/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-x.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-x.txt" }, { "slug": "two-viii", "title": "TWO VIII", "first_line": "come,gaze with me upon this dome", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "come,gaze with me upon this dome\nof many coloured glass,and see\nhis mother’s pride,his father’s joy,\nunto whom duty whispers low\n\n“thou must!” and who replies “I can!”\n—yon clean upstanding well dressed boy\nthat with his peers full oft hath quaffed\nthe wine of life and found it sweet—\n\na tear within his stern blue eye,\nupon his firm white lips a smile,\none thought alone:to do or die\nfor God for country and for Yale\n\nabove his blond determined head\nthe sacred flag of truth unfurled,\nin the bright heyday of his youth\nthe upper class American\n\nunsullied stands,before the world:\nwith manly heart and conscience free,\nupon the front steps of her home\nby the high minded pure young girl\n\nmuch kissed,by loving relatives\nwell fed,and fully photographed\nthe son of man goes forth to war\nwith trumpets clap and syphilis", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-viii/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-viii.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-viii.txt" }, { "slug": "two-xi", "title": "TWO XI", "first_line": "my sweet old etcetera", "book_slug": "is-5", "book_title": "is 5", "text": "my sweet old etcetera\naunt lucy during the recent\n\nwar could and what\nis more did tell you just\nwhat everybody was fighting\n\nfor,\nmy sister\n\nisabel created hundreds\n(and\nhundreds)of socks not to\nmentions shirts fleaproof earwarmers\n\netcetera wristers etcetera,my\n\nmother hoped that\n\ni would die etcetera\nbravely of course my father used\nto become hoarse talking about how it was\na privilege and if only he\ncould meanwhile my\n\nself etcetera lay quietly\nin the deep mud et\n\ncetera\n(dreaming,\net\n cetera,of\nYour smile\neyes knees and of your Etcetera)", "html_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-xi/", "json_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-xi.json", "txt_url": "https://cummings.ee/book/is-5/poem/two-xi.txt" } ]