Hello !
I am Nidhi Jethava. In this blog I am going to discuss very well known ten modern poems. The term modern poetry is very interesting. In a first look it is hard to elaborate any modern poetry. For new readers it is very hard to understand the modern poem. It needs more and wider knowledge.
Modem is poem most of an imagism
What does it mean by imagism ?
Imagism was a poetic movement that flourished in England. It was more vigorous in America, which lasted only for six years. Imagism was organized by a group of English and American writers in London.
Ezra pound is the first leader of the Imagism Movement.
Modern poems are very short but it is hard to understand. So I tried to elaborate some poems.
1,‘The Embankment‘ T. E. Hulme :-
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.
Thomas Ernest Hulme was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence on modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the 'father of imagism'. This poem is about an old man who has experienced the ups and downs of life. This poem is about sexual perversion and spirulina degradation. Old Man remembers the days of his youth and shows how he wasted money on prostitution and money. Eventually he realizes that spirituality is necessary in life. Increased age and poverty explain the meaning of life. Here the poet uses the word warmth, it means spirituality. “ Blanket of the sky “It refers to the blessings of god. On the other hand Blanket is connected with warmth, warmness connected with spirituality.
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.
Joseph John Campbell 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 itself reveals the meaninglessness of life. Darkness seems death. The start is a metaphor for human beings. Poet is watching the star in the sky and the star is silver ribbons of light and suddenly it passon. Here the poet talks about somebody that he is the light but he himself saw them that he passed on. Here ‘boghole’ is a modern metapher.
3. ‘Image’ Edward Storer :-
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
Edward Augustine Storer (1880–1944) was an English writer, translator and poet.
These three lines are about two lovers. In this poem ‘ white moon’ is the modern symbol. Generally moon is a symbol of love and peace but modernists use this term in contradictory meaning. Two lovers abandoned and now in their chest burn with fire of loneliness and drought.
4. ‘In a Station of the Metro‘ Ezra Pound
5. ‘The Pool‘ 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?
The beginning lines of the poem raise the question ‘ Are you alive ? it is about existence. In modern literature the term existentialism is very famous. Humans have found their existence in the world. The pool is a symbol of stillness. It has no feeling, no emotions. In a modern time people become like a pool. In life the most important thing is growing up and freshness but pools make a stability and there is no flow of water it means no growing up.
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.
In this poem, the poet talks about the war situation. How war affects the particular generation. It brings so many absurdities and strange situations but still poet have freedom like doves to write his poem. In it, Aldington describes life in the trenches and how poetry kept him alive and happy. It is oddly light-hearted when compared with modern ideals of war poetry. The personification of poems as “white winged doves” that fly away is liberating and helps understand his perspective on the arts and why they kept him alive and happy during trying times.
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.
Thomas Stern Eliot, one of the greatest modern poets, who is the writer of this poetry was awarded by the nobel prize. In this poem he talks about the situation after war How all lawlam were afraid with that situation. Poet use the word ‘ damp soul ‘ as a metaphor Meaninglessness of life. fog' is a very important image in which we can't see anything clearly. The same people can't see their aim of living life, other images like ' muddy skirt', 'aimless smile' give that spirit of nothingness of life to people.
8. ‘The Red Wheelbarrow‘ William Carlos Williams :-
so much depends
Upon
A red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
Poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright William Carlos Williams is often said to have been one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement. In the first look the poem is quite unclear in the mind. We can say that it is a scene from a rural area. Barrow suggested carrying a lot of load. Chicken is white and white is the symbol of peace and calmness.
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.
In this poem, the poet talks about one jar which is placed on the hills of Tennessee. Jar is the modern symbol. We can connect it with freedom or may Tennessee be the symbol of jar and we can interpret that now Tennessee has achieved freedom. In a way it is about one state
10. ‘l(a E. E. Cummings :-
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
Iness
This is a very interesting and totally confusing poem. At a first look it is very hard to give interpretation. Reading and rereading will make us know the meaning of the whole poem. The lines are ‘ a leaf falls on loneliness’ when we look at the modernist structure to write to write a poem is also like a leaf falling down. It is also suggested the dream and feeling are falling down. Another interpretation is that death of somebody. It is also suggested the disconnection between nature and science.
Thank You ........
Characters :8118
Words :1363
Sentences :171
Paragraphs :102
No comments:
Post a Comment