Thinking Activity: Identify Modern Images, metaphors - Short Modern Poems

 

·        What is Modernism?

 

Modernism is a period in literary history that started around the early 1990s and continued until the early 1940s. This movement rejected traditional values and techniques and emphasized the importance of individual experience. This movement has also been driven by various social and political agendas. The modern Age has been called “the age of anxiety” Modernism includes Imagism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Existentialism. After 1900, we could find a lot of tremendous activities in the field of poetry as well as in the other field of literature.

 

·        Characteristic of modern poetry

 

Modern poetry often features disrupted syntax which refers to irregular sentence structure. Intertextuality is also an important aspect of modern poetry. In addition, many modern poems feature a stream of consciousness and use of allusion and multiple associations of words which are borrowed from other culture. The modern poet also conveys a sense of alienation from the worlds. The most common characteristic of modern poetry is open form and free verse which is quite different from the fixed forms and meters of traditional poetry as well as it is marked by fragmentation and juxtaposition. 

 

 

1.) ‘The Embankment‘- T. E. Hulme

 

Once, in the 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.

 

An analysis of this short poem, available on the Internet, says: Flann Gentleman reflects on his passage and how he found pleasure in worldly social activities such as musical gatherings and dances. Here the “Flash of Gold Heels” represents beautiful women and the “hard pavement” represents the hard and rough side of society. The poem depicts the poverty of the people through the use of metaphors like ‘fall gentleman’, ‘fidelity of fiddles’, ‘flash of golden hills’, ‘blanket eating star’. A symbol like the "star-eating blanket" here shows that the stars, in general, represent beauty in the dark sky and we can also say that the star represents hope in a situation of darkness.

 

2.) "Darkness" - Joseph Campbell

      

Darkness

I stop to watch a star shine

in the bog hole -

A star no longer, but a silver

ribbon of light.

I look at it and pass on.

In this poem, the poet talks about the night scene and the importance of the stars in the black sky. The theme of this poem seems to be quite the opposite of the Victorian theme of poetry. There is the word “star” which signifies the beauty of the stars in the dark sky and the sky without the stars is all dark and “darkness” itself is a symbol of “fall”. But the star is a symbol of brightness and hope. The title of the poem as well as the 1st and 2nd lines of the poem represent the contrast between the dark and the shining stars, using which he can tell about the illusion of life.

 

3.) 'Image' - Edward Storer

  

Forsaken lovers,

Burning to a chaste white moon

Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and

drought.

 

The dictionary "abandoned" means "to give up" so here "abandoned lovers" represents the fall. It introduces the idea of ​​loneliness to modern people. Here is the sentence "burn abandoned lovers" so here we can say that they are lost, because T.S. Elliott discusses this in the third part of "The Sermon on Fire", which introduces the idea of ​​loneliness among modern people. Here the poet used it as something that burns lovers.

 

4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound

      

The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough

 

This is a very short modern written by Ezra Pound. It is considered to be the first haiku written in English but lacks the traditional structure of haiku ... so we can say here that it represents people who live physically but mentally all of them have died due to their daily hasty schedule. Through this metaphor, the poet tells about the individual faces in the metro. The lifelessness of the people of the city is seen in this poem.

 

5.) 'The Pool' - Hilda Doolittle

     

Are you alive?

I touch you

You quiver trembling like a sea-fish

I cover you with my net

What are you- banded one?

 

In a very different way, this poem begins with a question that deals with existentialism and is considered an important aspect of modern literature. But here we have T.S. We can relate Elliott's "Fish of the Sea" to "The Westland" in which he discusses unrealistic cities such as "London". We all know that the water in the pool does not flow like a river which symbolizes the stability of the society and the rigidity in the minds of the people. The metaphor selfish suggests that the lives of modern people are controlled by authority.

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.

There are many images in this poem such as "Drainage Trench" which means digging in a dark hole or ground, it is used as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life, or we can say that life is two sides of the same coin, one is negative and One is positive. . In that solitude, they try to comfort themselves by writing down their feelings in words. As the poet says, ‘I do a few poems for myself’ through this poet expresses his feelings in solitude.

 

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 a 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 with the level of the roofs.

This short poem has negative words. The word 'Rattling' means vibrating, shaking plates and 'Damp' means in low spirits from loss of hope or courage. The fog and twisted faces give a negative glimpse and an aimless smile suggests the artificiality of modern civilization. This poem gives images and symbols of the dead spirit in people.

 

8.) The Red Wheelbarrow -William Carlos Williams

 

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chicken.

 

Here we can see that the poet uses “chicken” which is the younger one of hen/cock. So we can say that it is a poem about the sacrifice of a younger one in this modern age. It is a well known short poem by William carols, William. In this poem, we find a modern metaphor like a red wheelbarrow’ and ‘white chicken’.  This metaphor is connected to the field of agriculture. It represents the craftsmanship of farmers.

 

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.

 

By this sentence, the poet wants to say how the outsider comes as a different place and owns that place or we can say that the outsider made that place slowly and steadily. There is the word “wild” that represents the unsettling way of an outsider. There is a line “scattered outsider” which means the disorder spread in fashion. Like John Keats's "The Grecian Urn", this poem is an exaggeration of the picture of the jar. Absolutely this poet also mocks the industrial industrialization of the modern century. Using metaphors the poet gives us a vision of seeing nature better.

 

10.) ‘l (a‘- E. E. Cummings

“A leaf falls with loneliness”

 

The poem is very short but it has very deep and various meanings. In this one line poem isolation is at the central idea of it. Loneliness represents the separation from the entire world. So here we can say that this poem represents the state of separation from the entire world and also represents the state of self-centeredness.