please help me find a poem

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please help me find a poem

1SamMiles
Mrz. 7, 2008, 2:09 am

Forty years ago a teacher read a poem in class. It started with a sentence, and each succeeding line had the last word dropped from the perevious line until the last line had just one word, the first word of the original sentence. Each line makes sense on its own. The whole poem also makes sense.

I thought it was by e e cummings. but I could never find it.
If you can help me I would appreciate it greatly.

Thanks.

2chellerystick
Mrz. 7, 2008, 2:48 pm

Hmm. Do you remember anything else about it? I don't have a complete Cummings, but I have a 95 Poems and a couple of Selecteds I can look at. I could also imagine someone like May Swenson or perhaps even Marianne Moore doing something like that. Or it could even be someone before the 20th century. I will try to poke around and see if I stumble across it. Anyone else have any ideas?

3avaland
Mrz. 11, 2008, 10:41 am

The subject matter of the poem would be helpful in searching.

4zentimental
Apr. 16, 2008, 4:24 pm

Oh, George, let's not park here.
Oh, George, let's not park.
Oh, George, let's not.
Oh, George, let's.
Oh, George.
Oh.

(doubt you learned this in school, but... )

5zentimental
Apr. 16, 2008, 4:26 pm

Diese Nachricht wurde vom Autor gelöscht.

6jesslyncummings
Apr. 16, 2008, 6:00 pm

I'm positive that ee cummings doesn't have a poem like this, but I hope you find it.

7zentimental
Apr. 16, 2008, 7:41 pm

The devil made me do it.

8grimumor
Jan. 22, 2023, 2:12 am

It's a Sam Cornish poem, and I while I can't quote verbatim, it involved:

- there will be no more winter
- the branches will spread
- the earth turns / on the plow?
- we are drifting westwards
- where no landmarks are visible