being to timelessness as it's to time,
love did no more begin than love will end:
where nothing is to breathe to stroll to swim
love is the air the ocean and the land

(do lovers suffer?all divinities
proudly descending put on deathful flesh:
are lovers glad?only their smallest joy's
a universe emerging from a wish)

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear:
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star

- -do lovers love?why then to heaven with hell.
whatever sages say and fools,all's well

"being to timelessness as it's to time," was published as poem number 94 in 95 Poems (1958). Language is trying to express the illogic of love, which is beyond time and all else:

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear:
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star

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.