In the tumultuous landscape of early 20th century poetry, T.S. Eliot and E.E. Cummings—known for poetry that was inspired by industrialization, World War I, and the fallout from both—were at the forefront of the modernist movement.  Modernism can be defined as a movement that attempted to recognize changes in society, and was both literary and aesthetic. Modernists had a complicated relationship with poetry as it existed in its most popular forms, mainly romantic poetry, and experimented heavily with style and themes to draw away from the classic romantic style. Both Eliot and Cummings were immersed in tradition in different ways, with Eliot believing that mature poets transformed old work into something new and better, and relying heavily on allusions to literature like Dante’s Inferno in his poetry, while Cummings experimented with what poetry looked like on the page. They also had different attitudes towards the world around them: Eliot was cynical, and believed the world was headed towards spiritual bankruptcy, while Cummings celebrated individual resilience and the power of human connection. The contrasting perspectives of these two poets reveals the different reactions at the time to the seismic shifts occurring and illuminates our understanding of human existence as they explored the themes of individuality, social norms, love, death, and nature.

Eliot and Cummings approached their poetry differently due to their differing backgrounds, thus leading to their different impacts on modernism. Cummings was a part of the ambulance corps in France during WWI, and his disdain for bureaucracy ended with him imprisoned by French officials. This heavily impacted his poetry, which could be rather anti-establishment, and that experience, along with stanza patterns based on pre-Raphaelite and metaphysical writers, led to writing that focused on being widely accessible and balanced outrage at exploitation with celebration of humanity (Norton 608-609). Eliot, on the other hand, had a far more negative view of WWI, asking what kind of civilization could have allowed such a brutal and destructive conflict to take place. From this experience and into the 1930s his poetry developed an emphasis on order and hierarchy, with Eliot developing fascist sympathies that influenced his cynical poetry and his focus on tradition (Norton 352-354). These differing backgrounds led to Cummings and Eliot having different opinions on the changes in society, thus being almost directly opposing modernist writers that when compared, can demonstrate the wide and varied range of sentiments to the changes of the early 20th century.

When it came to the individual, Eliot perceived humanity as fragile and disconnected, while Cummings championed the individual goodness of people. Eliot pointed out the fragility of the individual with lines such as “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— / (They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’),” to emphasize how easily the narrator feels insecure and judged by society because of his age (Eliot 356, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock). Eliot’s disillusionment with society’s veer away from tradition comes out in lines such as “The zebra stripes along his jaw / Swelling to maculate giraffe,” where he compares the subject of the poem to animals like a zebra and giraffe, reflecting his belief that modern individuals were becoming animalistic instead of refined because they did not follow tradition (Eliot 358, Sweeney Among the Nightingales). His beliefs came from both rapid industrialization and the impact of WWI, and he wrote about how humans were disconnected from the world and how their existence had become pointless, asking “I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it / Since what is kept must be adulterated? / I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch” (Eliot 364, Gerontion). The narrator here is not a person, but more of a vessel for the concepts of memory and regret. In contrast, Cummings found hope in small individual actions of kindness in spite of industrialization and WWI, writing that “his flesh was flesh his blood was blood: / no hungry man but wished him food; / no cripple wouldn’t creep one mile / uphill to only see him smile” (Cummings 615, my father moved through dooms of love). In this poem, the people around the father wish him well because of his kindness. Cummings argues in this poem that kindness is part of the point of existence, and that the actions of other men when they kill or steal does not erase the impact of good actions of the father. While Eliot’s characters are trapped by society’s expectations, their individuality and sense of self eroded away as exemplified by bald spots or the loss of sensory connection, Cummings celebrated individual kindness as a transformative force that can transcend systematic constraints.

Cumming’s positivity extended to writings that critiqued social norms; where Eliot was cynical and only noticed the performativity of society, Cummings took a more nuanced approach that appreciated social and intellectual progress. Eliot viewed many social interactions as performative, especially when it came to intellectual showboating, writing “In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo” (Eliot 356, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock). The poem highlights the shallowness of society, and how upper-class women use knowledge to elevate themselves in the eyes of others. Cummings writes in direct opposition to this, stating “the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls / are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds… While permanent faces coyly bandy / scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D . . . / the Cambridge ladies do not care” (Cummings 611, the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls). He has a far more positive view of upper-class women and their studies, and lauds their ‘comfortable’ minds in a manner that is pro-intellectual. This aligns with their backgrounds—Eliot’s fascist leanings mean that he would tend towards anti-intellectualism for the masses, since that makes them easier to control, while Cumming’s progressive attitude would be far more pro-intellectual. Eliot did not approve of how the rapid industrialization of the early 20th century was overtaking tradition and changing the values that shaped society, writing “I had not thought death had undone so many. / Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, /  And each man fixed his eyes before his feet” (Eliot 367, The Waste Land). The first line not only references Inferno, but demonstrates how workers are practically dead already, working by rote. Cummings instead focused more on individual actions that bucked tradition for what was considered ‘right,’ stating “i sing of Olaf glad and big / whose warmest heart recoiled at war: / a conscientious object-or… / our president,being of which /  assertions duly notified / threw the yellowsonofabitch / into a dungeon,where he died… he was / more brave than me” (Cummings 612-613, i sing of Olaf glad and big). This poem not only mirrors the emotions that got him thrown in jail by the French army, but demonstrates his admiration of conscientious objection to WWI and the bravery he found in defying social norms and opposing the brutality of war. Olaf has a ‘warm heart’ and is ‘brave,’ instead of being considered a coward. Their divergent approaches are evident: where Eliot critiques social performance in the upper-classes and the dullness of factory work for the lower-classes, Cummings finds strength and progress within these existing structures, celebrating individual resistance to oppressive norms.

The impact of WWI on Eliot and Cummings is further seen in their writings on death: where Eliot focuses on the inevitability of death, Cummings focuses on the beauty and meaning of life before death. In The Waste Land, Eliot writes “A current under sea / Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell / He passed the stages of his age and youth / Entering the whirlpool” (Eliot 374, The Waste Land). He explains how death is as inevitable as the currents of the ocean, life and death swirling in a whirlpool, and asks us to consider the dead, who are now bones but were once as alive and handsome as the reader. Eliot had a very poignant way of describing death: one of his most infamous lines is “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper” as a way of explaining how the death of tradition at the hands of industrialization, among other factors, creeps up on humanity so slowly they do not notice (Eliot 381, The Hollow Men). Cummings is more optimistic, telling readers to relish in life and in love despite the brevity of it all: “though love be a day / and life be nothing,it shall not stop kissing” (Cummings 609, Thy fingers make early flowers of). The relationship between love and death is far stronger here, whereas Eliot argues that love is “not in itself desirable; / Love is itself unmoving” (Eliot 386, Burnt Norton). To Eliot, the temporary nature of love devalues it, while to Cummings, this temporality makes it all the more valuable. Even when it came to war, Cummings asks “what could be more beaut- / iful than these heroic happy dead / who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter / they did not stop to think they died instead / then shall the voice of liberty be mute?” (Cummings 612, “next to of course god america i). The poem is not about the sadness of death, but the bravery of the soldiers who fought for ‘liberty’ and to defend democracy. While Cummings looked at this collective death and found power in their solidarity and purpose, Eliot channels the moral and emotional fallout of WWI and says “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together” (Eliot 378, The Hollow Men). Eliot focuses on the suffering of the surviving soldiers, calling them ‘hollow men’ instead of ‘heroic happy lions’; focusing on the lost human connections and lives. Ultimately, when it came to matters of death, Cummings was far more focused than Eliot on finding beauty in the brief, passionate moments of life before death. 

Industrialization heavily impacted how Eliot and Cummings discussed the natural world, but while Eliot focused on the negative impact of humans on nature, Cummings focused instead on its grandiose beauty. Eliot used metaphors to compare nature to “a patient etherised upon a table” in order to describe how industrialization has anesthetized and dulled the environment (Eliot 355, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock). In other poems, he inverts traditional descriptions of the seasons and says that “April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, / mixing Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain. / Winter kept us warm” (Eliot 365, The Waste Land). By describing spring as cruel and winter as caring instead of the inverse, Eliot demonstrates how industrialization is shifting the world rapidly, harming the environment and changing the seasons. Cummings, on the other hand, writes about nature as more all-powerful, as above human kind completely. In Cummings poetry nature passes by humans in the blink of an eye: “Women and men(both dong and ding) / summer autumn winter spring / reaped their sowing and went their came / sun moon stars rain” (Cummings 615, anyone lived in a pretty how town). To Cummings, nature is inevitable, and humanity can only study it. He asks “O sweet spontaneous / earth how often have / the / doting / fingers of / prurient philosophers pinched / and / poked / thee / ,has the naughty thumb / of science prodded / thy / beauty” (Cummings 610, O sweet spontaneous). These differing attitudes towards the changing environment still hold true in the 21st century, to a certain extent, with some believing that nature is all-powerful and cannot be hurt by humanity, and others believing that climate change will destroy us all if we do not preserve the world we have been given.

Ultimately, Eliot’s cynicism and Cumming’s celebration of individual resilience demonstrate two popular opinions held in the 20th century and two popular reactions to the change occurring around them. These differing opinions were shaped by their histories, reflected heavily in the thematic imagery in their poetry, and visible on the page in the form their poetry took. While Eliot mainly adhered to traditional formats of poetry, such as quatrains, or long stanzas, Cummings experimentation, where he turned poetry not just into something written but into a visual experience on the page, reflected changes in literature occurring at the time. Experimentation in the style of E.E. Cummings became far more common because its rebellious nature celebrated the author’s individuality and escaped conventionality. Regardless of differences, both T.S. Eliot and E.E. Cummings heavily influenced the modernist movement and ultimately, revealed how poetry could be used to capture the world around them in new, radical ways that reflected the rapid transformation the world around them was undergoing.

Works Cited

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “anyone lived in a pretty how town.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 614-615.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “i sing of Olaf glad and big.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 612-613.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “my father moved through dooms of love.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 615-616.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “next to of course god america i.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 612.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “O sweet spontaneous.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 610-611.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 611.

Cummings, Edward Estlin. “Thy fingers make early flowers of.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 609.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “Burnt Norton.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 382-386.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “Gerontion.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 363-364.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “Sweeney Among the Nightingales.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 358-359.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “The Hollow Men.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 378-381.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 355-358.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “The Waste Land.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. 2, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 365-378.