he tendency he had to write in the heat of each transient, living moment is what gives hisworks their vitality. Cummings has explored creatively with his realist impulses. He has always foundnew ways to draw the reader in closer to the fleeting incident which he has written of.This inventiveness has led him to disregard many rules of fundamental grammar, anexample is his use of fragmentation. His poetic style has been associated with theseparation and deconstruction of words and sentences. A valid instance is his way ofexaggerating the word " soft " by typing it as follows:" so!f!t . . ."( Poems 1923 - 1954 )The isolation of the " so " gives the reader an unconscious insinuation of so soft. Equallyas effective are the exclamation marks around the " f ", they cause an intensification inpronouncing the letter and a subtle metaphor for the word itself.Cummings has made character sketches of the twentieth century. One ideadivulged in his poems is motion. His success at capturing the concept of birds fluttering,cars screeching, airplanes taking off, and a vastly increasing population is an importantpart of his works. Just as an artist can be dissatisfied with the mirror image he may haveproduced of a landscape, Cummings was dissatisfied with simply stating that whichexisted around him. Like an artist who endeavors to show action within his scenery,Cummings strives to instill movement within his writings. Both are attempts to prove theworks function. Just by briefly scanning one of his poetry books, the eye is attracted to hismost unorthodox movement portrayals. In No Thanks, poem number 46, Cummings forcesthe reader to not only read, but also see the movement of a bird against the sun:" swi(across! goldsrouNdly)ftblackl(ness)ya - motion upo - nmotionLess?thE(againstis)Swimming(w-a)sbIrdIt generates speed by the sudden parenthetical interruptions. The lack of clear,grammatical sentences leads the reader to believe the voice is almost struck s...
