Modernist Poem

Hello friends,
This blog is a part of my classroom activity.

In the modernist poem, poet uses metaphors and symbols without realizing it. At the first when we read the poem we can’t understand properly, but when we read deeply into it we got the meaning of the words. Most interesting thing  in modernist poem  is that, a small group of intelligent can understand poem not each and every people. If all reader can understand the poem, so it is like a common thing not very interesting.

Characteristics  of modernist literature:

1. Use of negative word

2. Brokenness

3. Nothingness

4. Effect of 2 world war

Here I present my point of view about the 10 modernist poem.

1. “The Embankment”- T.E. Hulme

              Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy, 

              In the 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 tell us about the Universal things and also connected with the human life. Here poet broken things to see the Universe. ‘The hard Pavement ’,’The old-star eaten’ reflects the harshness of life. But in the last line, ’that I may fold it round me and in comfort lie’ draw us to the negative sense.

2. “Darkness”- 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.

The title itself reflects the dark side of the Age. The ‘star shine’ symbols as a brightness and success but now there is the downfall of human being and its all getting dark. ‘I look at it and pass on’ this line suggest that there is nothingness in life. Sometime he or she see the beauty of night but here there is no hope to see natural things. Here we can see that people were hopeless now. 

3. “Image” – Edward Storer

                    Forsaken lovers,

                   Burning to a chaste white moon,

                   Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.

Here in the first line of poem we see that, ‘forsaken lovers, burning’ this line gives us several meanings. Burning with the lust, isolation, ideal thoughts .Here we see that the burning of the humanities and civilization after the world war. ‘loneliness’ and ‘drought’ both words are also tell us the situation of people after the world war.

4. “ In a station of the Metro”- Ezra Pound

        The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

        Petals on a wet, black bough.

In this poem we can see that after the world war people become machine. Lifeless people going to their work without any ambition. ’Patals’ word use for the people who live their life aimlessly. ‘black bough’ word give us meaning  the culture of living dead people.

5. “Pool”- 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?

The name  of poem ‘pool’ itself suggest a stored water at somewhere. Water suggests the ‘rebirth’ and ‘purity’. In the third line ‘quiver like a sea fish’ means that after the world war people afraid of and trembling like a sea fish. In the last line we see that there is the question ‘what are you?’ also suggest that human kind also lost their identity after the world war.

6. “Insouciance”- 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.

This poem has many contrasting images. Here we see that the ups and downs of human life. In our life we doing some unwillingly work  without any purpose so we got failure. Hopeless people are think negative we see in this poem. Downfall of humanity we see after the world war, people do not willing to live. Poet wrote this poem about the era of world war.

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 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.

Selection of language is totally different in this poem the words are so hard to understand poem. Eliot talking about hopeless humans and their feeling how they behave like after the world war.’ Fog’ the word tell us that after the war there is no clear atmosphere to live good and healthy life. ‘twisted faces’. ‘tear’, ‘muddy skirts’, ‘aimless smile’ that words tell us that the dead feelings of live people. 

8. “The Red Wheelbarrow”- William Carlos Williams

                              so much depend upon

                              a red wheel barrow

                              glazed with rain water

                              beside the white chickens.

The title focus on the meaning of the word ‘wheelbarrow’ it means that small cart which is mostly used in the area of garden. Here poet symbolize the ‘red’ color for the wheelbarrow. Here he use the metaphor like’ glazed with rain water’ here ‘glazed’ means that shiny like glass, so how we shine with the rain water that is thing to think. Combination of colors are also there, white-chickens, and red-wheelbarrow.

9. ‘Anecdote of 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.

The meaning of ‘Anecdote’ a small story, and the ‘jar’ means that war. We don’t know that it is really held or not may be it is only an illusion of poet. ‘Tennessee’ word suggest some place name. poet elaborate the whole war in their poem. 

10. ‘I’- E.E. Cummings

                     l(a

                     le

                     af

                     fa

                      ll

                     s)

                    one

                      l

                   iness

Modernist poet has this specialty that they wrote poem in few words but it gives a deep sense. The whole line ‘a leaf falls on loneliness’ gives us the negative sense about poem, we can say that the sense of depression. ‘leaf fall’ also suggest that the fall of humanity. Also we can say that fall of spirituality and civilization. Loss hope to live life.

I hope that you all are enjoying to read my interpretation of these 10 Modernism poem. 

Thank you.