SOME INITIAL POEMS
From E. E. Cummings, Complete Poems 1904-1962, revised, corrected, and expanded edition, ed. George J. Firmage (New York: Liveright, 1994), p. 632. This poem first appeared in book form in Cummings's XAIPE: Seventy-one Poems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 34.
a thrown a-way It
with some-
thing sil
-very;bright,&:mys(
a thrown a-
way
X
-mas)ter-i
-ous wisp A of glo-
ry.pr
-ettily
cl(tr)in(ee)gi-ng
What difference, if any, would it make if this poem were printed -- as I first encountered it some thirty-four or so years ago, with "a" as it first line and "thrown a" as its second"? Think visually!
From Charles Cotton, Poems, ed. John Buxton, The Muses' Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958), pp. 25-27.
Rise, happy Mortalls, from your sleep,
Bright Phospher now begins to peep,
In such apparell as ne're drest
The proudest day-breake of the East:
Death's Sable Curtain 'gins disperse,
Rise Shepheards, leave your flockes, and run,
The Soule's great Shepheard now is come;
O wing your tardy feet, and fly
To greet this Dawning Majesty:
A glorious Starr shines in the East,
Riding upon the morning's wings,
The joyfull Aire Salvation sings,
Peace upon earth, tow'rds men good will,
Echo's from every vale and hill;
For why the Prince of Peace is come,
Att th' teeming of this blessed wombe
All Nature is one joy become;
The Fire, the Earth, the Sea, and Ayre,
The great Salvation doe declare;
The Mountaines skipp with joyes excesse,
Let each religious Soule then rise
To offer his best sacrifice,
And on the wings of pray'r and praise
His gratefull heart to Heav'n raise;
For this, that in a stable lyes,
From Englands Helicon, ed. Hugh Macdonald, The Muses' Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950), pp. 8-9.
For as the snowe, whose lawne did over-spread
Th'ambitious hills, which Giant-like did threat
To pierce the heaven with theyr aspiring head,
Naked and bare doth leave their craggie seate.
When as the bubble, which did emptie flie
The daliance of the undiscerned winde:
On whose calme rowling waves it did relie,
Hath shipwrack made, where it did daliance finde:
And when the Sun-shine which dissolv'd the snow,
Cullourd the bubble with a pleasant varie,
And made the rathe and timely Primrose grow,
Swarth clowdes with-drawne (which longer time doe tarie)
From Englands Helicon, ed. Hugh Macdonald, The Muses' Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950), p. 112.
From Sir Philip Sidney, Selected Poems, ed.
Katherine Duncan-Jones, Oxford Paperback English Texts (1973; rpt. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1982), p. 137.
From John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, The Complete Works, ed. Frank H. Ellis (New York: Penguin, 1994), pp. 28-29.
Compare Rochester's poem with the version by Sir George Etherege, also called "The Imperfect Enjoyment," which can be found in The Poems of Sir George Etherege, ed. James Thorpe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 7-8. Charles Beys, "La Iovissance Imparfaite. Caprice" (in Beys' Les ouevres poetiques [Paris, 1652]) is an immediate source for Etherege and for Rochester; but see, too, Ovid, Amores, III.vii, and Petronius, Satyricon, sections 128-140. Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment" is sufficient indication that the genre was not used only by male poets. You can find her text by clicking on Chadwyck-Healey's Master Index and searching author "Behn" and title keyword "disappointment" at Literature Online.
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