Modernist Poems

 Thinking activity :

Modernist Poems : Activity - Identify modernist metaphors in these short poems.

Hello readers!

Here is my blog on 10 Very Short Modernist Poems. This task is given by Dilip Barad sir. Activity is to read these small poems and identify "Modernist" symbols, imagery and metaphors.

Characteristics of modern poetry :

-Diverse Variety of Themes

-Realism

-Love

-Pessimism

-Romantic Elements

-Nature

-Humanitarian and Democratic Note

-Religion and Mysticism

-Diction and Style.

"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 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.

        In this poem man wants to decide to die because he doesn't bear himself and maybe he hides himself everywhere. In the poem I found some symbols like….

Gold Heels - Ambition, prostitution

Blanket - Shelter, Hide, Protection

In the last two lines I can interpret as a modern poem is some line " The old star- eaten blanket of the sky that fold it round me and in comfort lies" this line interprets that some reality of the life which is around us that's why we came to know about the things and  comfort with that.

"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.

         

 In this poem we can find modern metaphors like "Silver ribbon" and images like "Boghole". Joseph Campbell a strict modern poet, his poem against the Victorian themes. The present poem's title itself suggests the contradiction between darkness and a shiny star. the speaker might be told about the illusions in life. Here I found some key points like…

Darkness - depression and death, negativity, evilness, dullness.

Boghole -

1)Which can't sustain the weight because of the softness. 

2) A hole or depression in a land surface having a miry or spongy bottom.

Silver Ribbon - Mental illness

"Image"

By Edward storer

Forsaken lovers,

Burning to a chaste white moon,

Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.

Edward Storer  was clearly influenced by Japanese forms such as the haiku, This poem has been completed into only 3 Lines also.According to my point of view in the short poem seems like an image. We can't bind in one certain idea about any Image. but  here may be the Image of Sorrowful condition and everything looks varnished. I can imagine that situation becoming like a desert with full moon light. There are somebody on pyre and due to the lake of love and everyone certainly has paid the price.

 Moon :- As a land of Desert with full moon

Pyre   :- Bad happening, Death, Drought,Loneliness

 

"In a Station of the Metro"

By Ezra Pound

THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;     

Petals on a wet, black bough.     

In the poem Faces are compared with the petal of the black and wet bough. It means that after the rain when branches become black. Here I found some point like as,

Apparition  - Ghost, Imagery

Petals -  Flowers, Faces

Black and Wet Bough -  After the rain

"The Pool"

BY H. D.

Are you alive?

I touch you.

You quiver like a sea-fish.

I cover you with my net.

What are you—banded one?

Here I can read the sarcasm. It's about overpowering or colonising someone. First it was asked whether you are alive or not. Very sarcastically, we can see that no. It is not alive. Because now it is there in the net of somebody. Fish after going in the net, cannot survive for longer.

"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.            

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"

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.

The present poem about the modern view of England. The main idea of the poem is poverty, it presents the picture of poor people. who have to face several hardships from morning to late night. It is connected with the 20th century. Because poverty is the main concern nowadays because of covid 19. We can find modern metaphors like , ‘brown waves’, ‘twisted faces’, ‘aimless smile’ and ‘muddy skirt’ – it also gives an  idea about poverty.

"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

The poem sings a song of craftsmanship. Poet says, 'so much depends upon a red Wheelbarrow. It glazes in rain like white chickens. Though industry and factories have taken place, craftsmanship is also important.

H"Anecdote of the Jar"

By Wallence 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 an imaginative poem which exaggerates the picture of the jar. Poet placed that jar upon the hill, jar reminds us of the Grecian urn of Keats. Poets sing the glory of the jar and also ask the question, which is superior, 'a work of art or nature?'

" I "

By E.E. Cummings

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

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

This has many images, readers can interpret anything which they want. The image in the poem is loneliness and a leaf. We can connect the death of humans with fallen leaves.