Modernism & modernist poems

 Hello friends !

         Warmly welcome you to my blog.This is my thinking activity task given by Dilip Barad sir. In this blog I have discussed about the modernism and various modernist poems. In this  I have to identify modern metaphors in these short poems. Before starting this, it is necessary to understand about Modernism.

👉 CLICK HERE to view about this task.

💠 Modernism :-

"Perpetual modernism

 is the measure of merit in 

every work of art."     

                                                             ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

             The term modernism is also used to refer to literary movements other than the European and American movement of the early to mid-20th century. This movement rejected traditional values and techniques, and emphasized the importance of individual experience. Modernism, in general, includes the activities and creations of those who felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and sciences, were becoming ill-fitted to their tasks and outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world.

   👉 Some features of modernism :-

• High degree of complexity in structure.
• Rework tradition
• Works are intensity self -reflexive exploring the process their own compositions.
• A great deal of experimentation with language and form.
• An interest in subjectivity and the working of the human consciousness.
• Often rejects realism and the idea that art has to capture really.

👉  While reading this modern poems it takes too much thinking and sometimes we can not get the core meaning of the poems. This poems are very short but meanings are difficult to get. So, these ten modern poems are below.  let's try find out the it's meaning.

💠 "The Embankment" by T. E. Hulme :-

                    T. E. Hulme (1883-1917) was an influential poet and thinker in the first few years of the twentieth century. He revolutionized the way English poetry approached issues of rhyme,meter and imagery. So, in this poem poet used many modern metaphors like ‘fallen gentleman’, ‘Finesse of fiddles’, ‘Flash of gold hills’, ‘Star eaten blanket’. And also through this metaphor poet described the poverty of people. It may be related with sexual temptation. 

💠"Darkness" by Joseph Campbell :-

Darkness.

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.

                     Joseph Campbell  (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. This poem completed into only 4 lines .  In this poem we find that the title of the poem " Darkness" itself connected with death or negativity. And also we find the contradictions between dark and shiny star, by using this it may tell about the illusion of life. Star in boghole may be symbolize as modern civilization.

💠"Image" by Edward Storer :-

Forsaken lovers,

Burning to a chaste white moon,

Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.

In this poem the poet uses white moon as a symbol. To connect hearts of two lovers used white moon. opposite side they can't cheat each other but something burn lovers. We also find loneliness in it. This poem also reflects the disillusionment and the brokenness of civilization especially after the World war

💠 "In a Station of the Metro‘" by Ezra Pound :-

THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

This is very short modern poem written by Ezra pound. It is considered as a first haiku written in English. Petals on wet black bought" is a very good metaphor used by poet. Through this metaphor poet tells about the faces of individual in the metro. we also find loneliness of the people. Lifelessness of the people of city is reflected in this poem.

💠 "The Pool‘" by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) :-

Are you alive?

I touch you.

You quiver like a sea-fish.

I cover you with my net.

What are you—banded one?

Here we find that the 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 "sea-fish" seems to suggest that the life of modern people is controlled by authority.

💠 "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 doves.

They fly away like white-winged doves.

Aldington was known best for his First World War poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy resulting from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry. This poem speaks about how people were living in modern age. The word dreary trenches presents the loneliness in the life of modern people. In that isolation they try to relief themselves by writing down their feelings in a words. As poet says that, ‘I make for myself little poems’ through this poet express his feeling in isolation.

💠 "Morning at the Window" by 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 housemaids

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.

This poem written in London, Shortly after the outbreak WWI. We can find modern metaphors like , ‘brown waves’, ‘twisted faces’, ‘aimless smile’ and ‘muddy skirt’ – it also gives an idea about the poverty. This poem gives images and symbols of the dead spirit in people, doing everything aimlessly.

💠 "The Red Wheelbarrow‘s" by William Carlos Williams :-

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

               

                            This poem very difficult to understand and find modern metaphors. The words 'rain' and 'water' also symbolises positive and negative. The colours 'red' and 'white' are also used in dual way. 

💠 "Anecdote of the Jar" by 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.

                           This  is  a imaginative poem which exaggerate the picture of jar. Poet placed that jar upon hill, jar reminds us the "Grecian Urn" by Keats.  Poets sing the glory of the jar and also ask the question that which is superior 'a work of art or nature?' 

💠" l(a" by E. E. Cummings :-

l(a... (a leaf falls on loneliness)

                 This poem is to short. In this poem we find only few lines but it's gives the feeling of loneliness.  The leaf is fallen because of loneliness that’s why we can connect this idea with the idea of death. 

Thank you..........