1. Kenley White Poetry Portfolio AP English Literature

2. Background Information Edward Estlin Cummings was born October 14, 1894 in Cambridge Massachusetts Earned his B.A. and his M.A. from Harvard University Served as a volunteer for the ambulance corps in World War I Served jail time for treason and wrote his first book, The Enormous Room, about his experiences

3. Awards and Honors Dial Award (1925) Guggenheim Fellowship (1933) Shelley Memorial Award for Poetry (1944) Harriet Monroe Prize from Poetry magazine (1950) Fellowship of American Academy of Poets (1950) Guggenheim Fellowship (1951) Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard (1952-1953) Special citation from the National Book Award Committee for his Poems, 1923-1954 (1957) Bollingen Prize in Poetry (1957) Boston Arts Festival Award (1957)

4. Famous Quotations “We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find at the sea”

5. Poem

6. Analysis Nature “deepening beach,” “foreverish time’s tide,” “tide shall turn,” “let ocean grow again” Time passing “how many moments,” “how many centuries,” “locked in foreverish time’s,” “treasures of reeking innocence are born,” “wisdom,” “child will dance,” “mysteries as men,” “do not conceive”

7. Analysis Fourteen lines (sonnet with rhyming couplet) “and when he’s plucked such mysteries as men do not conceive – let ocean grow again” Use of parentheses to add interest

8. Analysis Parentheses used as a poetic device (amazing each how many centuries) (myself’s own self who’s) Repetition “how many” “restroll and stroll” Alliteration “moments must” “time’s tide”