Cummings Traces Human Creativity Through Growth

Stressing the natural value of the individual, E. E. Cummings '15 delivered his fifth Charles Eliot Norton Lecture in Sanders Theatre last night.

The poet, speaking on "i & him & me," emphasized the ideas of "selfhood and self-transcendence." He illustrated this with readings from "Antony and Cleopatra," and Dante's "Paradiso."

He read several of his own poems from a collection entitled "Chire, seventy-one poems." These represented different expressions of his main theme: what forces impel the artist to create. He compared the attitude of the artist to that of a lover toward his beloved, and a worshipper toward God.

Art Defined

Cummings began by reading from his own "him," and discussed the character of him as comparable to the artist of today. This artist is seen as "impelled by a fidelity to his own values," a man creating across the chasm of his individuality. "A poet," Cummings said, "is one who has solved the depths of horror to defend the sunbeams of architecture with his life."

The poet discussed the three mysteries of love, heart, and self-transcendence, saying that "the ultimate source of mysteries is love," and the lover is "the incarnation of mystery." Art, for Cummings, is a mystery which may be divulged only through love.