anyone lived in a pretty how town

Cummings had a number of artistic influences. As a child, he showed an affinity for Transcendentalism, a 19th-century American movement focused on the divine nature of the individual human soul, a connection to nature, and the polluting effects of society on the individual. Cummings developed his relationship with God through Transcendentalist ideas, and this early influence helped develop his intense commitment to individualism and his disdain for conformity.

As he continued his education, Cummings became familiar with the Romantic poets of the 19th century, and he identified with their commitment to intense emotion, individuality, and romantic notions of the soul and the individual human spirit. Romanticism was a heavy influence on Transcendentalism, so Cummings’s affinity for both was a natural development.

However, by the time Cummings became an adult, the artistic world was in the midst of the Modernist revolution. Inspired by industrialization, the rise of cities, and the horrors of World War I, the Modernists embraced a new kind of art defined by subjectivity, fragmentation, and new ways of looking at the world. While Cummings wrote most of his work in classical formats like sonnets, he embraced this new movement in his writing and art. He exemplified it by modifying his use of language and defying traditional syntax and grammar. However, Cummings also wrote about many traditional subjects like love and flowers.

Critics have often noted that one of Cummings’s main appeals to readers is his unique, Modernist approach to classical formats and subjects. Another draw is his frank and honest depiction of love and sexuality. Cummings often depicted long-lasting love and commitment in almost sacred, religious ways, and “anyone lived in a pretty how town” is a prime example of that.