The word modern creates an attractive image in our mind. When we think about it we can realize that it's something new among all. In the field of poetry we can also see the modern poems, which gives a new idea and new things to think. Here is a blog about modern poems. This task is given by our professor dr. Dilip sir, the head of the department of English, MKBU. So let's discuss some of the modern poems.
The first thing which we have to understand is ,
What is Modernism ?
Modernism is a period in literary history which started around the early 1900s and continued until the early 1940s. Modernist writers in general rebelled against clear-cut storytelling and formulaic verse from the 19th century. Instead, many of them told fragmented stories which reflected the fragmented state of society during and after World War I.
Many Modernists wrote in free verse and they included many countries and cultures in their poems. Some wrote using numerous points-of-view or even used a “stream-of-consciousness” style. These writing styles further demonstrate the way the scattered state of society affected the work of writes at that time.
Imagist poets generally wrote shorter poems and they chose their words carefully so that their work would be rich and direct. The movement started in London, where a group of poets met and discussed changes that were happening in poetry. Ezra Pound soon met these individuals, and he eventually introduced them to H.D. and Richard Aldington in 1911. In 1912, Pound submitted their work to Poetry magazine. After H.D.’s name, he signed the word "Imagiste" and that was when Imagism was publicly launched. Two months later, Poetry published an essay which discusses three points that the London group agreed upon.
After clearing the concept of modernism let's have a look at modern poetry.
Modern poetry refers to the verse created by the writers and poets of the 20th and 21st centuries. Modern movements such as Beat poetry and poetry slams also would be included. Modern poetry emphasizes less of a reliance upon the use of rhyme. Poetry is one of the oldest forms of literary art. Here are some modern poems. So let's see,
1)"The Embankment"
-T. E. Hulme
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
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 narrator’s calling himself a ‘fallen gentleman’ and using the antiquated ‘poesy’ make us think of him as a romantic, the first line seems, in rhythm and with the word ‘fiddles’, rather Irish. His ‘fantasia’ might be golden and ecstatic, but it’s contrasted with the ‘hard pavements’ and the need for ‘warmth’, ‘comfort’, and his anguished cry ‘Oh, God’, the grim reality of life on the streets. There is something of that wonderful, expansive sense of the world’s beauty which one feels when nicely drunk. A drunkard who dreams. But I also think that Hulme is referring to Oscar Wilde’s line from Lady Windermere’s Fan:
‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’
2)"Darkness"
-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.
Title itself presents negativity. The combination of darkness and boghole negativity in the air but then there is a star which is shining in boghole. Star in boghole may be symbolize as modern civilization in boghole, and no chance to rescue from that boghole that is why poet says a star no more. A silver ribbon may be as a symbol of hope. But when he just look at it and pass on it signifies disinterest, or may be with only hope poet don’t want to stay there and wait he wants his life to go on. “Boghole” is modern metaphor.
3) "Image"
-Edward Storer
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
The poem has a love theme and talks about abandoned lovers. Whom society cast off because of all beliefs of purity. Chaste white moon here symbolizes purity. Because they are abandoned they are suffering from loneliness and facing drought like life. It also can be about modern and new generations, whom past puritan generations don’t accept, they are burning because of their ideas about purity and they are alone and life has become like drought. White moon normally pursues a symbol of peace but here this moon is burning. “Forsaken lovers”, “burning chaste white moon” are modern metaphors.
4) "In a Station of The Metro"
-Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on wet, black bough.
Here the poet talks about life on a metro station. The crowd of people in which no one is clear to eyes everyone is looking like a ghost. Poet here connects nature and modern busy life by comparing petals with crowds of people. After being for so long in water the bough of the tree becomes black same with a constant crowd of people the station has also become like black sick bough. “Black bough” is a modern metaphor.
5) "The Pool"
-Hilda Doolittle
"Are you alive?
I touched you
you quiver trembling like a sea fish
I cover you with my net
What are you banded one?
We see in the poem that the title “pool” suggests something which has boundaries. May be here a poet talking about lack of freedom and the first question is “Are you alive?” which can be interpreted as the death of someone in shackles. Then it refers to the sparkle of sea fish may be here poet wants to say the capacity of a person is like sea fish but the person has to be in a cage. Cover with net also symbolizes restriction.
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 dovesin
Thy fly away like white-winged Doves.
We see the effect of world wars and also have pictures of war in this poem. The location is France. Then the poet talks about the trenches which are on borders though all soldiers live in trench then even poet feel it like lifeless. In these lifeless trenches soldiers are marching cheerfully under the stars which means they have only one shelter, sky. On borders all soldiers are together but far away from family, here poets can entertain themselves by making poems. The soldiers are tough like rock but the poems created by him are as delicate as a flock of doves which stays for a while and then fly away.
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.
This poem has the effect of world war and the poverty which war has brought to the nation. The jiggling plates in the kitchen, the edges of the street which is injured because of its over use. Souls of housemaids are wet, poverty increases without any hope. The fog is also brown. Twisted faces, as the poet is looking through the window on the streets faces twisting up to look at him. Passer by has dirty clothes and tears in eyes, smile is also aimless which vanishes in a few seconds. “rattling plates”, “brown fog”, “twisted faces”, “aimless smile” these all are modern metaphors here used.
8) "The Red Wheelbarrow"
-William Carlos Williams
so much depends
Upon
a red wheel
Barrow
glazed with rain
Water
beside the white
chickens
This is quite a difficult poem to understand. I'm not getting the meaning of it but maybe it seems to say that too much dependency on anyone should be avoided. May be the example of a wheelbarrow that it can not move by itself, it is fully dependent on someone. Last lines are so confusing. “wheelbarrow” is a modern metaphor.
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.
We see here that poet is mixing nature and culture. Here the jar is doing dirty wilderness it surrounds the hill. Maybe the jar is transparent and as it is placed on a hill it can reflect everything in itself. Now it is more spread out, it is not wild but it is on the ground. Jar has its dominion everywhere it did not spare anything in Tennessee. The poet here may be talking about the government or any other nation and then 'I' becomes the people as we can assume by voting someone is selected, then hill here considered as crown or highest authority. Slovenly wilderness can be dirty politics. Then from that highest authority it took control over everything. At last poet says bird and woodlands are also under the control. “Jar on the hill” is a modern metaphor.
10) "I(a"
-E. E. Cummings
“A leaf falls with loneliness”
Here we can see that the structure of the poem also suggests fall by loneliness as many characters are separated from each other and to make a word they have to be together. Here the poet talks about a leaf which is lonely means all other lives have already left the tree. Tree is barren and the only leaf remains which also falls because of loneliness. This poem also shows how a lonely human can not survive. It also reminds me of the short story by O’ Henry, “The Last Leaf” , about how the last leaf is a symbol of hope and that hope also dies. Maybe the poet also wants to talk about dead hope.
Here is some interesting facts about modernism and modern poetry :
