‘oride lesgo eckshun’: Spelling foregrounding in the experimental poetry of E. E. Cummings

Abstract

Unconventional linguistic features in E. E. Cummings’ poetic style have long been a focus of study. Linguists have researched this aspect of this poet’s technique mainly in connection to grammar, lexis and morphology; however, few approaches have looked at graphology in depth and even fewer at spelling. The present paper addresses this by analysing the use of lettering in E. E. Cummings’ experimental poetry. More concretely, two research questions are posed here: Which foregrounding devices are involved in E. E. Cummings’ unconventional use of spelling? And also, which effects are achieved by means of this particular use of lettering? To answer these questions, I first selected a group of 66 experimental poems displaying features of misspelling. After identifying and classifying the devices employed by Cummings for spelling foregrounding, I determined the meaning implications and functions produced through those misspellings. The research on these poems reveals that substitution, transposition, insertion and omission are the four basic patterns that permit such an unconventional use, and that this practice allows Cummings to reproduce linguistic varieties, create plays on words, control the reading process, indicate interruptions and create iconic effects.