The Poetry of E. E. Cummings E. E. Cummings, who was born in 1894 and died in 1962, wrote many poems with unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and unusual line, word, and even letter placements - namely, ideograms. Cummings' most difficult form of prose is probably the ideogram; it is extremely terse and it combines both visual and auditory elements. There may be sounds or characters on the page that cannot be verbalized or cannot convey the same message if pronounced and not read. Four of Cummings' poems - l(a, mortals), !blac, and swi( - illustrate the ideogram form quite well. Cummings utilizes unique syntax in these poems in order to convey messages visually as well as