Modernist Poems:
Modernism is a literary and cultural international movement which flourished in the first decades of the 20th century. Modernism is not term to which a single meaning can be ascribed. It may be applied both to the content and to the form of a work, or to either in isolation.
The term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the 'traditional' form of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social and political condition.
10 very short Modernist Poem:
1) The Embankment by T.E Humble:
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.
This poem deals with the theme of nostalgia. The poet presented with contrast between past and present.
Metaphors: Old star-eaten blanket, a flash of gold heels.
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.
These poem shows disinterestedness and nothingness of life. It gives image of meaninglessness life of modern man. People are doing things for sake of doing not for any meaning.
Darkness, boghole, silver ribbon...
3) Edward Storer's 'Image':
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
This poem described the spiritual drought of human life.
Chaste white moon, loneliness and drought symbol of modern times.
4) Ezra Pound's In a station of the metro:
THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
This poem also based on imagism.
Apparition, Petal and wet, black bough...
5) The Pool by 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?
Each line contains a different type of imagery used by an author to allow the engaged reader to create a mental image of their text appealing to the five senses of the reader. Here the poem appeals to touch, hearing and seeing.
6) Richard Aldington's Insouciance:
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 has many different images 'Dreary trenches' use as metaphor for the up and downs of life.
Imagination, dreary trenches, flock of doves, white winged doves....
7) Morning at the Window by T.S Eliot:
They are ratting breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaid
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.
In this poem poet tries to bring everyday life of people. Living in city life.
Basement, Trampled edges, Damp soul, Twisted faces,......
8) William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chicken.
Wheelbarrow means a smallcart in single wheel here poet present meaning barrow alone means an ancient burial.
Red wheelbarrow, white chicken....
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,
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.
Anecdote of the Jar is a imagist poem. Superiority between art and nature.
Jar, Bush....
10) E.E Cumming's I:
l(a...(a leaf falls on loneliness)
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
The image of a single falling leaf is a common symbol for loneliness.
Leaf, Loneliness....
Thank You,
