Some of us love poetry all our lives. Others write it all of theirs. Edward Estling Cummings (a.k.a. E. E. Cummings) did both. After writing his first poem in 1897 at the tender age of three, Cummings went on to pen some 2,900 poems in his lifetime. By the time of his death in 1962, he had received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work and held the Charles Eliot Norton professorship at Harvard University, his alma mater. In addition to poetry,...
Read MoreThose who visit the Andrews’ family library may find themselves somewhat disappointed. Few first-edition, signed copies of the great works of the Western canon grace our shelves. Though our bookshelves burgeon with classics, our books bespeak a different kind of collection. Many were gathered painstakingly by treasure hunting at used bookstores, thrift stores, and garage sales. Some were gifts from friends and family. Others were acquired through liquidation sales at public libraries. Tattered and torn, the Andrews Library houses books our family has discovered, shared, read, and re-read through the changing years and seasons of our lives…
Read MoreIn Holy Sonnet III, Donne find himself in a state of violent and prolonged grief, yet unable to cry. He marks the tortuous effects of this condition, even as he admits responsibility for it. Speaking of tears as if they spring from a limited cask, he creates an image of his irresponsible and wasteful usage, which has left him with a water shortage when he most has need of the relief such “showers of rain” would afford him…
Read More“Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” questions Donne in this, his first Holy Sonnet. Using a poetic form that lends itself to question and answer, the poet poses the problem of personal sin even as he petitions his Creator for a solution. Will You allow Your own work to be compromised and destroyed? he asks. This provocative question recalls scriptures which proclaim the enduring nature of God’s work…
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