E.E. Cummings: A Study of the Poetic Use of Deviant Morphology

Abstract

Yet, despite numerous studies by critics, literary scholars and linguists, the effectiveness of many of Cummings's major poetic techniques remains unexplained. Most linguistic studies have referred to Cummings's poetry only anecdotally. Oriented toward theoretical disputes, they have largely argued above the data rather than from substantial analyses of the poetry itself, and, even then, these theoretical controversies have been largely inconclusive. (See Thorne, 1965; 1969; Levin, 1962; 1965; Hendricks, 1969; see Fairley, 1975 for a welcome exception to this trend.) On the other hand, literary scholars have made considerable contributions to our understanding of Cummings's themes, images, visual presentation, historical and biographical background and traditional poetic devices, but have devoted little time to the more deviant aspects of his language. (See Wegner, 1965; Norman, 1972; Friedman, 1960; and Marks, 1964.) As a result, the effectiveness of a large portion of Cummings's deviant language remains unexplained. In the realm of morphology, this is particularly true. While Cummings created literally hundreds of words by the deviant manipulation of the morphological processes of English, linguists and critics have been remarkable in their reluctance to apply their analytical tools to this aspect of Cummings's language.1 On the other