Hello Beautiful People,
I am Riddhi Bhatt.This blog is one of the activities of our academics. And this time it is based on Modernist Literature. This thinking activity task about Modern Poems & assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU).
As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper called The Twentieth Century Literature (paper-106). So, let’s start friends.But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…
Here I have tried to interpret ten Modern poems according to my understanding. Before proceeding forward here I put a brief description of what is Modernism?
What is modernism?
According to the University of Toledo, Modernism is a period in literary history which started around the early 1900s and continued until the early 1940s. Modernist writers in general rebelled against clear-cut storytelling and formulaic verse from the 19th century. Instead, many of them told fragmented stories which reflected the fragmented state of society during and after World War I.
The 20th century was like no time period before it. Einstein, Darwin, Freud and Marx were just some of the thinkers who profoundly changed the Western culture. These changes took distinct shape in the literature of 20th century. Modernism, a movement that was a radical break from 19th century Victorianism, led to post-modernism, which emphasized self consciousness and pop art.
20th Century English Poetry Development The 20th century development poetry emerged in the early of the 20th century through various schools, style and influence. There are three main phase of the modernist poetry movement
Characteristics of Modernist Literature:
1) Experimentation
Modernist writers broke free of old forms and techniques. Poets abandoned traditional rhyme schemes and wrote in free verse. Novelists defied all expectations. Writers mixed images from the past with modern languages and themes, creating a collage of styles.
2) Absurdity
The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of the period. Several great English poets died or were wounded in WWI. At the same time, global capitalism was reorganizing society at every level. For many writers, the world was becoming a more absurd place every day. The mysteriousness of life was being lost in the rush of daily life. The senseless violence of WWII was yet more evidence that humanity had lost its way.
3)Symbolism
The Modernist writers infused objects, people, places and events with significant meanings. They imagined a reality with multiple layers, many of them hidden or in a sort of code. The idea of a poem as a riddle to be cracked had its beginnings in the Modernist period. Symbolism was not a new concept in literature, but the Modernists' particular use of symbols was an innovation.
4) Formalism
Writers of the Modernist period saw literature more as a craft than a flowering of creativity. They believed that poems and novels were constructed from smaller parts instead of the organic, internal process that earlier generations had described. The idea of literature as craft fed the Modernists' desire for creativity and originality.
5) Individualism
In Modernist literature, the individual is more interesting than society. Specifically, modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual adapted to the changing world. In some cases, the individual triumphed over obstacles. For the most part, Modernist literature featured characters who just kept their heads above water. Writers presented the world or society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. Ernest Hemingway is especially remembered for vivid characters who accepted their circumstances at face value and persevered.
Very Short Modernist Poems:
1) " The Embankment" by T.E.Hulme:
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.
This poem is about the homeless poor people and 'fallen gentleman' reflects on his past, it is may be related to sexuality. In this poem speaker wants warmth and and shelter to live that is why he request to the God that gave warmth me. So, we can say that this poem is about the basic requirement. There are many metaphor, symbol and images like "Finesse of fiddles", :Flash of gold hills", "Star eaten blanket", Fallen gentlemen"his poem has completed into 7 lines. According to my point of view In this poem has may be central thought is lust and falling of man. How any types of lust leads man towards the decayed. This types of addiction became man's life completely weak and dull. So that this types hopeless people prays to god for shelter. It means that here arise question of existence. Here I will add one more thing that in the poem may be that man wants to decide to die because he doesn't bear himself and may be he wants to hide himself everywhere.
2)Darkness- by Joseph Campbell:
I stop to watch a star shine in the boghole –
A star no longer, but a silver ribbon of light.
I look at it, and pass on.
Campbell was an Irish poet writing a similar kind of poetry to Hulme at around same time. Poetry doesn't come much more understated than this. This poem has completed into only 4 lines. According to my point of view I get some thing from title. Darkness also connected with death and something happening bad. Here I can say that Speaker will feel depression. As a part of depression Speaker face mental illness so that speaker don't like to see shining of stars but likes to see light.
In this poem also we can find the modern metaphor like "Silver ribbon" and image like "Boghole". Joseph Campbell strict modern poet, his poem against the Victorian themes. The present poem's title itself suggest the contradiction between darkness and shiny star. speaker might be tell about the illusions in the life.
3) Image- by Edward Storer:
"Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon
upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought".
The title suggest itself the image of Victorian age. Poem is depiction of forsaken lover is described. The poem as per its title “Image” presents an image of the modern people and their way of living, they requires purity like moon.
4) "In a station of the metro" by Ezra Pound:
"The apparition of these faces in a crowd,
petals in wet, black bough
Pound arrived at this two lines poem after writing a much longer draft which he then cut down, line by line. The poem describes the sight of the crowd of commuters at the Paris Metro Station. In the poem using vivid and original image. So that this poem also based on imagination As the title suggested the image of Metro-station. There are crowded people and everyone rushing. This poem has completed in only 2 lines. In the poem Faces are compared with the petal of the black and wet bough. It means that after the rain when branches becomes black. Here I found some point like as,
* Apparition :- Ghost, Imagery
* Petals :- Flowers, Faces
* Black and Wet Bough :- After the rain
5)The pool- by Hilda Dolittle:
"Are you alive?
I touched you
you quiver trembling like a sea fish
I cover you with my net
What are you banded one?
Very first line of the poem, 'Are you alive? arise the question of existence which is one of the important aspect of modern literature. People of modern time became like sea fish that they are controlled or bound by some chain that they can't free from them. The title "Pool" is also symbolize the stillness like water store in it which don't have flowness which is most important things in the life to flow from one to another.n a very different way this poem start with a question which is related existentialism and it is considered as a one of the important aspect of modern literature. The metaphor seafish seems to suggest that the life of modern people is controlled by authority.
6) "Insouciance"- By Richard Aldington:
"In and out of the dreary trenches
Trudging cheerily under the stars
I make for myself little poems
Delicate as a flock of dovesin
Thy fly away like white-winged Doves.
In this poem the poet presents that how people are living their life insouciance way with carelessness. They try to express their feeling in literature as poet says "I make for myself little poem" the way of living is with no excitement "In and out of the dreary trenches" but though all are walking on their path with such cheer, the reference of "White-winged Doves" is used for modern culture of living life and feeling of isolation is there. Aldington and H.D. were husband and wife in the 1910-1920." Insouciance" is about writing poems in trenches. Aldington, like many men of his generation, saw action at the at the Western front during WWI. I think it is poem of soldier because they lives without fear of death. Title of the also suggest that thing but in the dreary trenches soldiers are might feel boring. Here used metaphor of doves as a death because one day we all gone as white winged doves. This poem has completed into 5 lines only..
7) “Morning at the Window”- T.S.Eliot:
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemais
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
The whole poem has negative words. The word 'Rattling' means vibrating, shaking plates and 'Damp' means in low spirits from loss of hope or courage. The fog and twisted faces gives negative glimpse and an aimless smile suggests artificiality of Modern civilization. This poem gives images and symbols of the dead spirit in people.
8) "The Red wheelbarrow- William carols William:
so much depends
Upon
a red wheel
Barrow
glazed with rain
Water
beside the white
It is most difficult poem for understanding. We can't say properly that this poem about for that.This poem is best example of Imagination and metaphor. " The Red Wheelbarrow " Which used in farming and for transferring something. Here poet try to used rural imagery. Here In the poem bird of White chicken comes near for look beauty of wheelbarrow. This poem has completed into 8 lines.
* Red Wheelbarrow
* White Chicken
9) Anecdote of the Jar- Wallace Stevens:
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
Anecdote of the Jar is an imagist poem in which Stevens explores the question of the superiority between art and nature: Is nature superior to human creations, or does human creativity surpasses nature in some way? This is an age-old and puzzling question. This poem solves the riddle by recognizing the unique differences between art and nature: art may sometimes be more beautiful than nature but it cannot be as creative as the nature.
10) “ I” – E.E.Cummings:
"A leaf falls with loneliness"
This poem appeared in 1958 in Cummings' collection 95 poems, so it's really a late modernist work. Although it's nine line long, it's only contains four words - cleverly arranged so that 'a leaf falls' appears parenthetically within the word ' loneliness'. It was creative poem with imagination. In the poem few lines but it's gives the feeling of loneliness. It's good idea about one single leaf fall on the ground which make poem very interesting.
THANK YOU..................
(WORDS:2093)
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