FOREWORD
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n the assumption that my technique is either complicated or originalor both, the publishers have politely requested me to write anintroduction to this book. At least my theory of technique, if I have one, is very far fromoriginal; nor is it complicated. I can express it in fifteen words,by quoting The Eternal Question And Immortal Answer of burlesk, viz.“Would you hit a woman with a child?--No, I’d hit her with a brick.”Like the burlesk comedian, I am abnormally fond of that precision whichcreates movement. If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter verylittle--somebody who is obsessed by Making. Like all obsessions, theMaking obsession has disadvantages; for instance, my only interest inmaking money would be to make it. Fortunately, however, I should preferto make almost anything else, including locomotives and roses. It iswith roses and locomotives (not to mention acrobats Spring electricityConey Island the 4th of July the eyes of mice and Niagara Falls) thatmy “poems” are competing. They are also competing with each other, with elephants, and with ElGreco. Ineluctable preoccupation with The Verb gives a poet one pricelessadvantage: whereas nonmakers must content themselves with the merelyundeniable fact that two times two is four, he rejoices in a purelyirresistible truth (to be found, in abbreviated costume, upon the titlepage of the present volume.) E. E. Cummings.
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