e. e. cummings

Edward Estlin “E. E.” Cummings (1894 – September 3, 1962), often styled as e e cummings was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright.
He is well-known for his radical experimentation with form, punctuation, and syntax, his unconventional orthography: he abandoned traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression.

Here is one of his poems: The Grasshopper

The real word appears only in the last line of the poem, which may be rearranged as follows:
The grasshopper who, as we look, is gathering up into a leap arriving to become (rearrangingly) a grasshopper.
It is difficult to perceive it: it is the same colour as the grass, and leaps suddenly. But, in the end when it leaps, the observer may distinguish it.
The motions of a grasshopper are suggested by various permutations of the letters of “grasshopper” and other typographical signs (parentheses, punctuation marks, and capitals).
The layout enacts the experience of a person looking at it, who will only be able to see the grasshopper completely at the last line.

 

 

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