since feeling is first
who pays any attention to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you:
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
and death I think is no parenthesis
Innovative American poet e. e. cummings (1864-1962) is known for his unusual capitalizations, distorted syntax and missing punctuation. These devices are employed in the service of emphasizing the sound of the words as much, and perhaps more than in the service of their meaning. At heart, though, cummings is a Romantic, and since feeling is first may well be his most traditionally Romantic poem. My setting is for baritone soloist, who presents the text in a straightforward manner through conventional pitch and rhythmic notation; accompanied by a chorus who sings isolated consonants and vowels taken from the sound material of the poem. My setting of since feeling is first is dedicated to my wife, Lorrie.
"since feeling is first" from COMPLETE POEMS, 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage, is used with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright (c) 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.