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Voice of the Poet: E.E. Cummings

This CD of Cummings reading his poetry, The Voice of the Poet: E. E. Cummings was has been released in 2005. The CD comes with a booklet that prints the texts of (almost) all the poems, plus a short introduction by the series editor, J. D. McClatchy. The following poems are not on the Harper Collins / Caedmon three-cassette compilation called E. E. Cummings Reads: A Poetry Collection (2001):

1. POEM,OR BEAUTY HURTS MR.VINAL
2. MEMORABILIA [inexplicably left off the 2001 cassette version of EEC Reads]
3. this little bride & groom are
4. love is more thicker than forget
5. one slipslouch twi
6. you which could grin three smiles into a dead
7. plato told
8. ("fire stop thief help murder save the world"

Not only does the new CD feature new readings, as far as I can tell, all but three (“Buffalo Bill ’s,” “in Just-,” and “next to of course god america i”) of the readings on Voice of the Poet: E.E. Cummings are different recordings from those done for the Harper Collins compilation. Thus for some of the poems, we can compare two versions of EEC’s performance of the same poem. There is also on the new Voice recording one curious anomaly: after the recording of “a salesman is an it that stinks Excuse” we hear EEC reading “a politician is an arse upon.” Apparently, the editor thought this was part of the same poem? At any rate, a bonus track.

Links:

• Liner Notes to E. E. Cummings Reading His Poetry (1953, Caedmon TC 1017)
• Webster, Michael. "Audio Cummings." EEC Society Blog (21 Aug. 2015). Web.
• Cummings reading at the 92nd Street Y (New York City, October 20, 1949). The 92nd Street Y has released Cummings' entire reading. They have also released a YouTube version of the same reading.
• The Poetry Foundation's podcast "E. E. Cummings: Essential American Poets" presents Cummings reading "anyone lived in a pretty how town" (CP 515), "as freedom is a breakfast food," (CP 511), and "love is more thicker than forget" (CP 530). These tracks are from the 92nd Street Y reading, recorded October 20, 1949. (The "1959" note on the podcast page is in error.)
• The Poetry Archive presents Cummings reading two poems: "anyone lived in a pretty how town" (CP 515) and " 'next to of course god america i" (CP 267). Recorded by the BBC, date unknown.
• The UBU web Cummings sound page offers recordings of "that melancholy" (CP 697) and "let's,from some loud unworld's most rightful wrong" (CP 745).

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The Voice of the Poet: E. E. Cummings

“E. E. Cummings” by J. D. McClatchy

Track List

1. in Just-
2. Buffalo Bill ’s
3. Spring is like a perhaps hand
4. POEM,OR BEAUTY HURTS MR.VINAL*
5. MEMORABILIA [*left off Harper Collins 2001 cassette version]
6. a man who had fallen among thieves
7. “next to of course god america i
8. i sing of Olaf glad and big
9. somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
10. this little bride & groom are*
11. as freedom is a breakfastfood
12. anyone lived in a pretty how town
13. love is more thicker than forget*
14. one slipslouch twi*
15. my father moved through dooms of love
16. you which could grin three smiles into a dead*
17. of all the blessings which to man
18. a salesman is an it that stinks Excuse [18a. a politician is an arse upon]
19. plato told*
20. pity this busy monster,manunkind,
21. (“fire stop thief help murder save the world”*
22. one’s not half two. It’s two are halves of one:
23. when god decided to invent
24. rain or hail
25. Hello is what a mirror says
26. nothing false and possible is love
27. except in your
28. all ignorance toboggans into know
29. dying is fine)but Death
30. so many selves(so many fiends and gods
31. jake hates
32. when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
33. who sharpens every dull
34. open his head,baby
35. this is a rubbish of human rind
36. no time ago
37. who were so dark of heart they might not speak,
38. when faces called flowers float out of the ground
39. now air is air and thing is thing:no bliss
40. crazy jay blue)
41. because you take life in your stride (instead
42. So shy shy shy(and with a

* not on EEC Reads

In certain poems the audio version differs from the printed text.