Thy fingers make early flowers
of all things.
thy hair mostly the hours love:
a smoothness which
sings,saying
(though love be a day)
do not fear,we will go amaying.
thy whitest feet crisply are straying.
Always
thy moist eyes are at kisses playing,
whose strangeness much
says;singing
(though love be a day)
for which girl art thou flowers bringing?
To be thy lips is a sweet thing
and small.
Death,thee i call rich beyond wishing
if this thou catch,
else missing.
(though love be a day
and life be nothing,it shall not stop kissing).
ee cummings
Notes on "Thy fingers make early flowers"
"Thy fingers make early flowers" is from Tulips and Chimneys, 1923.
Cummings' love poems are often informed by the urgency
of the human condition: death is what makes love beautiful and precious. The thread of death versus love and beauty
runs through many of his poems. Compare with since feeling is first
and more obviously
Where's Madge then,.
"Thy fingers make early flowers" - isn't Cummings
saying that her fingers open him, like flowers opening in Spring? Compare with,
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose
E. E. Cummings' (1894 - 1962) writing and approach
represented a new departure in poetry. He first flourished in the intellectually innovative and daring world of the
1920s. His work has never been fully appreciated by critics, but has an avid following among both connoisseurs and
"ordinary" folk, because his poems touch people directly, especially young people.
The modern era was born in the 1920s, out of the ruins
and desolation of World War I. The war smashed more than cities and people. It smashed Victorian conventions and class
distinctions. Suddenly, people were not afraid to speak and write about sex as something enjoyable and beautiful. This
was the era of James Joyce's Ulysses and Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, but also, especially in America, the era of
Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night." A time of daring and romance in literature.
His poetry is informed by his unique philosophy of life and
art. Cummings would laugh at most of the pedantic and trite dissections of his work by "objective" critics. Cummings had
nothing against science and logic, but he didn't think it applied to feelings. He was intensely against regimentation
and conventional thinking. His rebellion and unconventionality were symbolized superficially by his refusal to use capital
letters in his poems, but they went far beyond that.
Typography and layout of the poem were often very
important to Cummings, who was also an artist. Please note that we will not always be able to be faithful to the
original typography, because of limitations of the medium. Like some other modern poets, ee cummings' often
conveyed images and feelings by indirect allusions that would make readers see the images and feel the feelings
he was feeling, though he also made skilful use of poetic conventions. He also had the gift of making the English
language do unexpected and wondrous things, a gift that has made great poetry since the time of Shakespeare and
before.
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