The Two modes of his poetry, lyricism and satire, he joined in a unified vision of the modern world; in this he was unique. A New England aristocrat, he was in the great tradition of the dissidence of dissent: it was dissent from all that was easy, liberal, and vulgar: he was his own man. Estlin Cummings was a non-political, radical reactionary who in a dehumanized world went back to the roots of our humanity. He was first and last a deeply religious poet.