XLI Poems - Free Audiobook

XLI Poems is a book of verse by the American poet E. E. Cummings, published in 1925. It belongs to his early period and was drawn from the large manuscript he had prepared under the title Tulips and Chimneys, much of which his first publisher left out of the 1923 book of that name. These leftover poems appeared in two volumes in 1925, of which this is one.

As the Roman numeral in the title suggests, the collection contains forty-one poems. They include love lyrics, songs, portraits of people and places, and short sequences, some looking back to older forms such as the sonnet and ballad and others breaking apart line, spelling and punctuation in the way that would become his trademark. Spring, the moon, the sea and the streets of the city recur, and the tone moves easily between tenderness, sensuality and mischief.

Cummings is often thought of as a poet for the eye, because of his unusual typography, but many of these early poems are strongly musical and come across well when spoken. The collection is a good introduction to how he began, before his style grew more experimental, and it will appeal to listeners who enjoy modern poetry, love poems or the American writing of the 1920s.