Spring is like a perhaps hand

E.E. Cummings was an important poet in American modernism. He originally wrote “Spring is like a perhaps hand” for his debut work of poetry, Tulips and Chimneys (1923). After his publisher forced Cummings to remove the ampersand in the original title Tulips & Chimneys and cut many poems from the manuscript, Cummings self-published the poem (along with the others cut) in a collection cheekily entitled & in 1925. “Spring is like a perhaps hand” is a reflection on the spring season, a topic which fits neatly into Cummings’s focus on nature and love. The poem is characterized by its innovative use of punctuation, lineation, and play with syntax. These are all standard poetic practices for Cummings, who is perhaps most well-known for his particular style of syntactical and formal play. “Spring is like a perhaps hand,” written and published early in E.E. Cummings’s long literary career, is a good example of what made him a key figure in 20th century American poetry.

Poet Biography

Edward Estlin Cummings was born in 1894 to upper class parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts. E.E.’s father was a professor at Harvard University, and both of his parents encouraged the young Cummings to explore art and poetry.