Haskell Springer, in his 1967 essay, “The Poetics of E.E. Cummings” (South Atlantic Bulletin), argues that Cummings is not revolutionizing subject matter in poetry, mostly running the gamut–sex, scathing critiques of society including science, philosophy, and theology, the idiocy of war, and the “timelessness” of nature sum up most of his themes. Springer goes as far as to suggest that, “even his best poetry does little more than explore their more obvious possibilities.” However, he cautions, it’s not his ideas that stand out, but rather “the way in in which he says it.” Cummings’ poems have a way of rising out of ideas and into the abstract sphere of language, much like a painter might–showing the paint in the painting, and making clear that medium matters.
Springer goes on to illustrate his point. It is Cummings craft which draws his attention. To this end, he lists scattered words, strange punctuation and capitalization, and line breaks that distort syntax as a few of the many ways Cummings brings language to the front of any reading of his poems. He mentions, rather light-hearted, that even the reader who dismisses his eccentricies cannot help but be “caught in the snare intentionally set for him.” Here, Springer reigns it in a bit, qualifying his point–upon closer study, Cummings deviations from the normal nuts and bolts of poems is in direct conversation with traditional poetics. He cites Cummings’ scantily disguised sonnets.
Springer then unravels the poem, “[o sweet spontaneous]” to prove some points. The poem’s first sentence:
o sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
finger of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
, has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
they
beauty .
Springer notes how the “pace, emphasis, and meaning” are manipulated by the positioning of words, the inclusion of punctuation, and the omission of punctuation. However, he discovers that underneath these mostly visual elements lies a “standard iambic pentameter.” In addition to this embedded pre-modern nugget, the two sentence-halves rhyme. That is, “thee” and “beauty”.