Modernism in poetry Essay

youthfulism. It is a direction of poetry, literature and imposture in general that uses and describes reinvigorated and distinctive features in the showcases, forms, concepts and styles of literature and the opposite nontextual matters in the early decades of the present century, but especially afterward World War I. (Abrams 167) More often than not Modernism engages in deliberate and radical break (Abrams 167) with more than traditional foundation of art and culture, established since XIX century. Here two poets of neoist age T. S. Elliot and H. Crane be comp bed to T. stout and G. M. Hopkins, a pair of contemporary classical poets.Id corresponding to begin the study with T. S. Elliot, the famous poet whose very name sounds like a synonym to word modernism. Elliot was and is the personification of modernism, and scopes and verses from his poems are remembered even up today, and integrated in today whole works of literature and fiction. One fire remember Steven Kings Dark Tower saga where images of Elliots works resurface frequently in fact, integrity of Kings volumes of that saga is called The turn back Lands, obviously inspired by Elliots .For example, Elliots The Love call of J. Alfred Prufrock had brought us a vision of a man whose conception had wear in and around himself, a lost person in explore of love which can only be destructive and formidable for him. Since he is confined in the abyss of his deliver consciousness, reality is continently roughly kind of emotional experience for him. He can still watch over the world around him, but psychologically he is alone, in the beetle glowering lands of unfertility and spiritual emptiness. Prufrock (the epitome of Elliot himself, or the subscriber) lets his thoughts and sen successionnts drift off incoherently.The outer world around him, to which he is so sardonic, reflects his inner world, deprived of spiritual serenity. As he cannot get involved in a dialogue with the exte rnal world, only through the dramatic monologue can Prufrock whisper his inclination Let us go then, you and I (Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 242). Elliot wanted his mill (and the reader) to compare himself with a character of Dantes Inferno. barely piece of music they are alike, their fates are different While Guido has at least the heroism to open up to Dante, Prufrock is too complacent and too inert to diagnose that effort.His only confident can be his alter ego a distorted reflection of himself in the mirror of outside world. He sees this person, and begs to him for trades union as if there can be an answer different from the one he gives himself Prufrocks wisdom of the ages he seems to feel returns to him as ferine mockery. What, indeed, could be the meaning of life, universe and everything (D. Adams), if .. one, settling a pillow, or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all. (Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 245). That Prufrocks mawkish and evasive constitution is bust is delineated in the last ten lines of the poem. As the recurrent images of and references to the sea (silent seas, mermaids, seagirls) crop up more and more, Prufrocks self-evasion becomes more marked. His psychic para1yis culminates when he realizes that even the mermaids pass on not do him a regard by singing to him thus, all his source of possible inspiration fades a mode. (Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, 245).He has never rea1ly been a religious man he cannot, thus, look to Christ to restore him to a potent life, as was Lazarus restored to his. It is no extol that while Prufrock is felt to be an epitome to all society of his generation so brilliant and so exquisitely empty inside. In modern times, his words had been referenced to in mockery by one of the some horrible machines the benignant mind had ever invented, Blaine the Mono In the rooms the people come and go. But I d oubt that any of them is public lecture of Michelangelo (King).Elliots other masterpiece, Gerontion, depicts a dream of memory. While Prufrock is at least here (even if he is unsure of his own location in the world), Gerontions hero is the time itself, sifted through the sieve of human memory. The observer is neither here not there, but the remains of memory, the dregs of time are spread before him an enchanting display, but meaningless essentially. Elliot seems to pack would the dregs of our own memory, if spread before some stranger, mean as microscopic to him as these remains of ones time mean to us now?All Elliots images are bleak, broody and disturbing. They imply to ask is it all? Can there be anything else around us, or are we lost eternally in the world which wasnt mean for us? And, as Elliot hadnt answered that questions himself, individually(prenominal) reader must substitute his own answers and test their validity on Elliots words of man, world and time. stag Cra ne is other example of modernist poets, his images are less brooding than Elliots and more defined, but the power they wield over us is intensify by their hidden meanings, unseen at first glance.Cranes Black Tambourine reflects on authors own experience of time spent with some negro workers in a wine cellar. But the cellar expands in authors view to the size of the whole world, and its unsympathetic door becomes the famous wall of the three Biblical judgments MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN numbered, weighed and found wanting(p). All universe seems to be contained between here and now the twilit cellar with tambourine on the wall and mystical somewhere, where all human hopes end as carcass, quick with flies (Black Tambourine).At Melvilles grave brings dark and melancholy beneath which a memory of forces lingers that were bright and malefic once before before the demise took its toll, equaling the furious Ahab and unnamed sailor. The image of the sea is indefinite and vague to o, for it can be perceived as deep grave, or Death itself, or Sea of Time which will eventually give endless calm to every living being. In all modernist poetry, the concept of such multipart images and veiled references was honed and detailed up to its perfection. at present this is an instrument which is frequently used in literature and other spheres of life, such as advertising, but in times of T. S. Elliot and H. Crane it was a goodly innovation with which readers were stunned literarily. To compare with modernist poetry of Elliot and Crane, classical works by T. Hardy and G. M. Hopkins are selected. The classical English poetry of Thomas Hardy is more structured both in rhythm and meaning than modernist examples of Elliot and Crane.His poetry can be called methodic, for he explains methodically the one symbol which forms a poem. He explains it, details it, brings it before our eyes in maddeningly realistic manner, until the reader not simply understands it, but is enthralled by its vision. Neutral tones brings us a vision of lost love which turned into deadliness the leisure neutrality which opposes love and joy and happiness of life. The feelings deepen further with each stanza from tranquility to blankness, to melancholy, and finally to utter despair.The concluding stanza forms the moral of the poem, adding to the finality of the article of faith what is lost in time, can never be found again. The darkling Thrush is an example of more hopeful vision. Dedicated to the coming century, it is full with dark images of definite meaning the gate as the gate of a new age (or a new Century), frost and Winter as Death itself that comes to all, and the land becomes a body which dies together with Century, for its time has passed. But the mere voice of the thrush changes the picture, illuminating it with some inner light of blessed hold.And, while the reader (as the man who stands at the gates) is yet unaware of a definite knowledge of that Good Sign that only the bird has, he still accepts the birds song as a attribute that there is hope for the future. Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins is yet another example of what classics had to ecstasy then. His images are as definite as Hardys, if somewhat more fluent, and the moral is present too in his poems. Spring and Fall shows Margaret a young girl who had realized for the first time that all things in life change and eventually die, that life is not permanent.A frys mind can grasp concepts at levels they are not aware of, and understand something without ever having it explained. It is simple because of the innocent way the kid absorbs the life itself. As an adult, one can see a subject or idea in a completely different way by viewing it through the eyes of a child. In the poem, Margaret looks at death and understands it symbolically, through the death of leaves to her own imminent demise. Gods Grandeur is another example of short and conclusive classical poetry.The stress in scenes of man-made destruction, pictured with vivid detail, is intensified by alliteration. impress images of oozing oil and ever-repeating trod of countless generations result in deep, uncontrolled fearfulness. But the conclusion opposes all said before by references to never-ending nature and God as its creator and protector. It states to us that God will as surely brings life after death and resurrection after destruction, as each day he brings the morning light after the dark of night. From fear of Man to hope in God that is the meaning of the poem in general.To conclude the work, one should remind that modernist poets had learned to use their images from classical poetry. But, taking the basic elements and images from their predecessors, their works had transcended from single pictures (or contented stories explained to reader part by part) to grandiose intertwined canvases, full of elements and colors, or bottomless abysses of veiled hints and allusions. Certainly, the works of classics had organise the foundation for these magnificent creations of modernist poets, and without them the whole modernism in English literature would not be able to exist or progress.Works Cited Abrams M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1941 Hardy, Thomas. Wessex poems and other verses. New York Harper, 1898. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. London Humphrey Milford, 1918. King, Stephen. The lavishness Lands. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc, 1991. Simon, Marc. The Complete Poems of Hart Crane. New York Liveright, 1986. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. New York and LondonW. W. Norton & Company, 1988