E. E. Cummings
guilt is the cause of more disorders
than history’s most obscene marauders
1. Discuss the following questions.
1) In what ways is this poem unconventional?
2) What is the meaning of the poem?
3) Why does the poet play on the words “disorders” and “marauders”?
4) Do you agree with the poet’s opinion?
2. Pair Work: Read the following lines of poem and try to analyze the poet’ s views about the feeling of guilt.
“If you want to transform
Your life radically
Then immediately give up
Your false sense of teeming guilt.”
(From Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, by Sri Chinmoy)
Notes
1.Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849): He is an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
2.Dark Romanticism: As a literary subgenre, Dark Romanticism is often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism. It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G. R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating“the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls.” For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.