since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis
ee cummings




"since feeling is first" is a serious romantic love poem. E. E. Cummings is expounding his favorite 
thesis - emotions, love, poetry, romance are all more important than pedantry, science and logic. "Feeling is first." Do 
and be, and don't worry about order and logic in love life. 

 


kisses are a better fate than wisdom
 
Should be everyone's favorite line, no? 


Of course, Cummings doesn't forget the flowers: "lady i swear by all flowers!" 

As in many other poems, Cummings evokes the urgency of 
life and love that is drive by death: 


death i think is no parenthesis
Compare with earlier poems, where the references is 
more overbearing, such as

if I believe. 

Don't be fooled. Cummings did not heed his admonition 
not to pay attention to the "syntax of things." The easy conversational tone and "casual" appearing layout of these 
poems was the product of enormous labor and planning, experiments with typography and layout, as attested by his copious 
notes. It takes an artist to produce a great work. It takes a master craftsman to make it look easy.

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.