Literary modernism, or modernist literature, has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America, and is characterized by a very self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction. (wikipedia)
As the Gauri Kapoor one of the Research scholar at Delhi Uni. She says that... "The period witnessed two world wars, and that is what led to bursting of this bubble. The loss of human lives and property led to questions regarding the meaning of life. As an escape from the harsh realities that emerged in the aftermath of the wars, many modernist poets use myths in their poetry.
Apart from this mainstream discourse on modernism, it is imperative to identify its underbelly. It was during the same time that women and working classes started demanding more rights. It is also the period during which many nationalist movements began in the colonies. The universalisation of human suffering that one finds in modernist poetry can thus be questioned from these margins."
://www.quora.com/What-are-the-features-of-modern-poetry
What are the Characteristics of Modern poetry?
-Irregular sentence structure
-Nagativity
-Isolation and Brokenness
-Effects of war
-sexual perversion
-Spiritual Degradetion
-Use of Myth and classical refrences
-Sense of alienation from world
-Stream of consciousness in which the narrator presents the thoughts that come to his/her mind without regard to sequence or logic.
Some example of Modern poem with analysis of poem as Modern poem.
1.The Embankment
By_T.E.Hulme.
(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night)
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
In a 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.
The Embankment is pace in london, an area well known for homeless people sleeping rough.
Hulme was resolute that poetry in the hands of the victorians had become stale and old. It shows the central theme of poem and it's reflect as modern poem.
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.
This poem Written towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, they are among the first poems written in English which can be confidently labelled ‘modern’.
'Silver Ribbon of light' is the symbol of brokenness. Poet look at it and pass on it shows his disinterested toward it.
3.Forsaken lovers
By_ Edward Storer, one of the first imagist poet.
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
Loneliness and draught is the words which is represent the nothingness in life and the White moon is highly metaphorical word,it is the symbol of purity.
4.In a Station of the Metro
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Here, Station of Metro is the symbol or representative of science and industrialization. Faces in the crowd shows the routine of people or workers how mechanic their life is.
5.The Pool
The Pool
Are you alive?
I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish.
I cover you with my net.
What are you—banded one?
The pool is the symbol of store water where is no flowness. Are you alive? With the reading of this line the question of existance, and the in Net covered Sea fish is equall to peple of 20th century , whose lives is controll by clock and they fit in somekind of routin chain, and can not be free from them.
6.Insouciance (1916–1918)
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.
Here, the word Dreary Trenches is used as metaphor for the ups and down or the cycle of life.
Trudging cheerily gives contrasting meaning , image of life where we are doing many things unwillingly, just because they are only as part of life or rituals.
7. Morning at the Window
By_ T. S. Eliot, 1888 - 1965
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.
Eliot's Use of Stream of consciousness makes poem much complex but his poetic persona is highly intellctual.
Here, the word Damp is symbolically used... Low spirit from loss of hope or courage it can be one interpretation. Death of spirituality or soul has become like Damp, lifeless. Fog is also stand for unclear vision or when the path is full of barreness. Overall Whole poem is full with nagativity.
Nagativity present through words like fear, aimless smile, muddy skirt...
And the symbol of Dead spirit in people, as they doing everything aimlessly just doing for the sake of doing. Absence of enthusiasm.
8. The Red Wheelbarrow
By_ William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
May here poet wants to talk about craftsmanship in compare of factories. one wheel is the symbol of craftsmanship and hardwork. Color of red and white is also symbolically used. May be poet wants to show downfall of humanity during war.
9. 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 poem is about Jar, which was in the state "Tennessee" in United States of America. 'jar' means that war and, Anecdote means a small story.
10."I (A- E. E. Cummings
A leaf falls with loneliness.
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