There was another man whom the speaker perceived as an arrogant, good-for-nothing drunkard. This man was abusive towards people the speaker cared for very deeply. But the speaker admits that he must respect and acknowledge even this man. This man left also behind the unimportant activities of everyday life. This man also was completely, totally transformed by his participation in the Rising. He says that Major MacBride has "resigned his part" and died like many of the other revolutionary leaders. Nonetheless, Yeats says that MacBride has "been changed" through his sacrifice. He's no longer just a living jerk. Now he's a dead hero. This event was highly destructive but also helped bring about profound change.
Monday, September 9, 2019
Modernist poetry in brief
Modernist poetry is a mode of writing that is characterised by two main features. The first is technical innovation in the writing through the extensive use of free verse. The second is a move away from the Romantic idea of an unproblematic poetic 'self' directly addressing an equally unproblematic ideal reader or audience.
Modernist
poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early
years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagist poets.
In common with many other modernists, these poets were writing in reaction to
what they saw as the excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis
on traditional formalism and overly flowery poetic diction. In many
respects, their criticism of contemporary poetry echoes what William
Wordsworth wrote in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads to instigate
the Romantic movement in British poetry over a century earlier.
In
general, the modernists saw themselves as looking back to the best practices of
poets in earlier periods and other cultures. Their models included
ancient Greek literature, Chinese and Japanese
poetry, Dante and the medieval Italian philosophical poets (such
as Guido Cavalcanti), and the English Metaphysical poets.
Much of
the early poetry produced by these writers took the form of short,
compact lyrics. However, as modernist poetry in English developed, longer
poems came to the fore. These long poems represent the main contribution of the
modernist movement to the 20th century English poetic canon.
The
questioning of the self and the exploration of technical innovations in
modernist poetry are intimately interconnected. The dislocation of the
authorial presence is achieved through the application of such techniques
as collage, found poetry, visual poetry, the juxtaposition of
apparently unconnected materials, and combinations of these. These techniques
are used not for their own sake but to open up questions in the mind of the
reader regarding the nature of the poetic experience. These developments
parallel changes in the other arts, especially painting and music, that were taking place
concurrently.
Additionally,
Modernist poetry disavowed the traditional aesthetic claims
of Romantic poetry's later phase and no longer sought "beauty"
as the highest achievement of verse. With this abandonment of the sublime came
a turn away from pastoral poetry and an attempt to focus poetry on urban,
mechanical, and industrial settings. The new heroes would not be swains laboring
in the fields, but office workers struggling across London Bridge, and the new settings would
not be "romantic chasms deep and wide," but vacant lots, smoked-over
cities, and subways.
Another
important feature of much modernist poetry in English is a clear focus on the
surface of the poem. Much of this work focuses on the literal meaning of the
words on the page rather than any metaphorical or symbolic meanings that might
be imputed to them. This approach to writing is reflected in Ezra Pound's advice to young writers
(in his 1937 book The ABC of Reading) to 'buy a dictionary and learn the
meanings of words' and T.S. Eliot's response when asked the meaning of the
line 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the
day...' from Ash Wednesday (1927); he said "It means 'Lady, three
white leopards sat under a juniper tree in the cool of the day...'". Also
pertinent is William Carlos Williams' 1944 statement that 'A poem is a
small (or large) machine made out of words'.
T S
Eliot
S. Eliot
was an American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor. He
is best known as a leader of the Modernist movement in poetry and as the author
of such works as The Waste Land (1922) and Four Quartets (1943).
T S
Eliot is considered as one of the most important modernist poets. The content
of his poem as well as his poetic style give elements of the modern movement
that was famous during his time. In fact, modernism was viewed as “a rejection
of traditional 19th-century norms, whereby artists, architects, poets and
thinkers either altered or abandoned earlier conventions in an attempt to
re-envision a society in flux.”
Modernism
was also mainly represented by orientation towards fragmentation, free verse,
contradictory allusions and multiple points of view different from the
Victorian and Romantic writing. These modern features appear greatly in the
works of Eliot. Two of the most prominent poems where Eliot shows his modern
orientations are “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land.”
He was
also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and
The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day
poetry".
“The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is regarded as one of the basic modernist
poems. It shows the modern elements of disintegration of life and mental
stability. The poem speaks about the problem of the modern man, Prufrock. He
laments his physical and intellectual shortcomings, the lack of opportunities
in his life in addition to the lack of spiritual progress. What is impressive
is that the setting of the poem can be understood to be either as a real place
or a mental state reflecting the sub-conscious of the person.
The most
important modernist technique in the poem is the stream-of-consciousness
technique. This technique reflects the fragmentary nature of the modern man’s
mentality. It also allows the reader to
explore the inner self of the character. As seen in the poem, Prufrock’s
thought shifts very often from trivial to significant issues and vice versa.
This explains the idea of subjective time in modernism which is contradictory
to historical time of past, present and future.
As
modernism stresses the ideas of pessimism and loneliness, the negative aspects
of modern life are also stressed in the poem. In fact, Prufrock seems to be
only able to see those negative aspects. Death is also dominant in the poem
showing Prufrock as an insect pinned against the wall. It is even personified
as ‘the eternal Footman.’ What is important is that Prufrock is viewed as a
representative of all modern men. He is indecisive. He cannot even decide about
eating a peach. It is in this sense that the poem is seen as a record of the
random thoughts in the mind of Prufrock.
Finally,
modernist writers were interested in showing characters having multiple
personalities. This is clear in Prufrock who functions as both the speaker and
the listener. In addition, modernist texts are full with allusions to other
texts. This is also found in the poem where there is much reference to Dante,
Shakespeare and the Holy Bible.
Although
Eliot is known as an outstanding modernist poet, some critics argued that he
uses some traditional medieval techniques in his works. Those critics argued
that “While T. S. Eliot might be called a medieval modernist because of his
admiration for the organic and spiritual community of the Middle Ages together
with his “impersonal” conception of art, his elitist and formalist views
isolate him from several of the central terms of the tradition as I have
defined it.” In other words, some characteristics of Eliot’s work exhibit
medieval themes and style; at the same time, these works are also rooted in the
modern orientation of literature. That is why some critics called him a
“medieval modernist.”
The
point is that Eliot seems to have nostalgia for the medieval tradition linked
with his interest in modern life. In his poetry, Eliot combines both, concern
with religious issues (medieval theme) and a trend towards contemporary issues
(modern theme). So as critics observed, Eliot seeks some sort of “integration”
between the two aspects.
This is
actually clear in “The Waste Land” where Eliot shows his discomfort for modern
life by contrasting it with medieval traits. He shows the difference between
the divinely religious medieval life which modern life lacks and the fall in
spiritual matters in modern life. In fact, “The Waste Land,” can be considered
as a fundamental modernist text. The major modernist element found in the poem
is the clear reliance on images, which is a basic characteristic of modern
texts. The poem shows many fragmented images that reflect the feeling of loss
in modern man. Although the reader understands nothing of these images, the
narrator promises to show the reader how to make meaning from fragmentation.
This construction of meaning from fragmentation is one of the essential
features of modernism.
The poem
clearly describes the modern world, or what the narrator terms as “the immense
panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.” The frequent
images of falling and decay are representative of modern life. Life is
represented as trivial, suffering from the problems of war. This all happens on
both the real physical level and the inner psychological level of the modern
man.
The
fragmented images, the stream-of-consciousness and all the other strange
stylistic features in the poem are used to help convey the message of the poet.
For Eliot, modern life is fragmented and illogical; so he conveys this through
his style. That is why in “The Waste Land” he tends to break the logic and
conventions. So the poem may be clearly viewed as a representation of the
modern life and modern man psychology both in terms of its content and style.
To
conclude, both The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land” are
considered as critical texts representing the modern thought. In more specific
terms, they are examples of modernist poetry. The poems’ content and style
reflect the modern life, especially in its influence on the individual. Eliot
is skillful in showing this through his style in both poems. He use stream-of-
consciousness to show the chaos in of the modern man’s thinking. In addition,
he uses many techniques such as imagism, repetition, fragmentation and other
modernist techniques. All these techniques help depict the modern life for the
reader and reflect its status in real manner. That is why one can easily say
that Eliot is considered as one of the most influential modernist poets in
English literature.
W B Yeats
William
Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet,
dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish
literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey
Theatre, and in
his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish
Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward
Martyn and
others.
Though
three common themes in Yeats’ poetry are love, Irish Nationalism and mysticism,
but modernism is the overriding theme in his writings.
Yeats
started his long literary career as a romantic poet and gradually evolved into
a modernist poet. As a typical modern poet he regrets for post-war modern world
which is now in a disorder and chaotic situation and laments for the
past. Yeats as a modern poet is anti-rationalist in his attitude
which is expressed through his passion for occultisms or mysticism. He is a
prominent poet in modern times for his sense of moral wholeness of humanity and
history.
Now, a
comparative study of Yeats with his contemporary poets is necessary. Yeats
and Eliot are two famous contemporary poets and it is believed that, Yeats is
the seed of modernism where, Eliot is the tree of that seed. Eliot has a great
influence on Yeats. Both have certain things in common. Both are intensely
aware of man in history and of the soul in eternity. Both at times see history
as an image of the soul writ large. Another important similarity of Yeats with
other modern poets such as Eliot, Pound is that they lament for the past and
tend to escape from present miserable condition toward an illusionary Eden. In
this regard Yeats differs from Auden, who celebrates all disorder conditions of
his time into his poetry.
Yeats as
a modern poet: Yeats, like T. S. Eliot, is a representative modern poet
and presents the spirit of the age in his poetry. Like Eliot, Yeats also uses
myth, symbolism, juxtaposition, colloquial language and literary allusions as a
device to express the anxiety of modernity. After the World war-I people got
totally shattered and they suffered from frustration, boredom, anxiety and loneliness.
Yeats has used different type of landscape to symbolize the spiritual and
psychological states of modern man.
Maud Gonne with MacBride
and Yeats
In 1889,
Yeats met Maud Gonne, a 23-year-old English heiress and ardent Irish
nationalist. She was eighteen months younger than Yeats and later claimed
she met the poet as a "paint-stained art student." Yeats began
an obsessive infatuation, and she had a significant and lasting effect on his poetry
and his life thereafter. Yeats's love was unrequited, in part due to his
reluctance to participate in her nationalist activism.
In 1891
he visited Gonne in Ireland and proposed marriage, but was rejected. He later
admitted that from that point "the troubling of my life began". Yeats
proposed to Gonne three more times: in 1899, 1900 and 1901. She refused each
proposal, and in 1903, to his dismay, married the Irish nationalist Major
John MacBride. His only other love affair during this period was with Olivia
Shakespear, whom he first met in 1894, and parted from in 1897.
Yeats
derided MacBride in letters and in poetry. He was horrified by Gonne's
marriage, at losing his muse to another man; in addition, her conversion to
Catholicism before marriage offended him; Yeats was Protestant/agnostic. He
worried his muse would come under the influence of the priests and do their
bidding.
Gonne's
marriage to MacBride was a disaster. This pleased Yeats, as Gonne began to
visit him in London. After the birth of her son, Seán MacBride, in 1904,
Gonne and MacBride agreed to end the marriage, although they were unable to
agree on the child's welfare. Despite the use of intermediaries, a divorce case
ensued in Paris in 1905. Gonne made a series of allegations against her husband
with Yeats as her main 'second', though he did not attend court or travel to
France. A divorce was not granted, for the only accusation that held up in
court was that MacBride had been drunk once during the marriage. A separation
was granted, with Gonne having custody of the baby and MacBride having visiting
rights.
Yeats's
friendship with Gonne ended, yet, in Paris in 1908, they finally consummated
their relationship. "The long years of fidelity rewarded at last" was
how another of his lovers described the event. Yeats was less sentimental and
later remarked that "the tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual
virginity of the soul." The relationship did not develop into a new
phase after their night together, and soon afterwards Gonne wrote to the poet indicating
that despite the physical consummation, they could not continue as they had
been: "I have prayed so hard to have all earthly desire taken from my love
for you and dearest, loving you as I do, I have prayed and I am praying still
that the bodily desire for me may be taken from you too." By January
1909, Gonne was sending Yeats letters praising the advantage given to artists
who abstain from sex. Nearly twenty years later, Yeats recalled the night with
Gonne in his poem "A Man Young and Old".
Analysis of his poems:
Now, let
us analyze some of his poems individually to trace out modern elements –
“The
Second Coming” is a superb example of Yeats’ modernism as in this poem
Yeats portrays the modern chaotic and disordered condition after World War I and
the poet tends to escape from this situation.
The very
begging lines of the poem represent the chaotic situation of the modern world—
“TURNING
and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/ Things
fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”
The
first image with which we are presented in the poem is an image of disaster; a
falcon cannot hear the call of safety, and begins to spiral wider and wider,
more out of control. The falcon which represents civilization is no longer in a
position to listen to intellect. The centre is unable to hold its own. As a
result, things are falling apart and what results from this disintegration is a
kind of complete anarchy bringing alone with it a lot of bloodshed. Such
disorderly condition also effects the religion that Yeats
believes much chaos has entered in Christianity as it has lost its
effect and now it is about to end. The good people sadly lack conviction, while
the bad pursue their wicked ends with passionate intensity. The second coming
is at hand. This coming prophet will be the prophet of destruction. The falcon,
symbolizing intellectual power, has got free of the control of the falconer,
representing the heart or soul.
Then, a
powerful expression of Yeats’ agony facing old age appears at the beginning
of “Sailing to Byzantium”:
“That is
no country for old men. The young/ In one another’s arms, birds in the tress/
Those dying generations – at their song.”
In
Yeats’ poem there is no place for old things. Yeats sees old age as a symbol of
the tyranny of time. Rage against the limitations of age and society upon an
old man occurs frequently in his poetry.
In “Among
School Children” he considers himself a comfortable scarecrow. The heart
becomes ‘comprehending’, unfortunately attached to a ‘dying animal’.
In “The Tower”, Yeats calls the aged body an ‘absurdity’.
In the
poem “A Prayer For My Daughter”, Yeats is ever so worried with the
present disorder situation and moreover the upcoming dangerous future that is
near to the next generation. In this poem Yeats wishes to his daughter some
abstract qualities with those she will be able to face the upcoming challenges
of future. In the poem, Yeats’ prayer is not only for his daughter but also for
all people of future generation.
In “Easter
1916”, Yeats’ sense of humanism is seen which is another modern trait in
literature. The horrible effects of war cast a gloomy shadow on the poetic
sensibility of the modern poets. The sad realities of life paved the way of
humanitarian aspect in modern literature. Yeats’ poetry also abounds in
humanism. In this poem, he feels even for his rival. He says:
“He had
done most bitter wrong/ To some who are near my heart,”
Yeats’ use
of symbols is another modern trait in his poetry which is complex and
rich. He is the chief representative of the Symbolist Movement. He draws his
symbols from Irish folklore and mythology, philosophy, metaphysics, occult,
magic, paintings and drawings. Several allusions are compressed into a single
symbol. His symbols are all pervasive key symbols. His key-symbols shed light
on his previous poems and “illuminates their sense”. ‘The Rose’, ‘Swan’ and
‘Helen’ are his key-symbols. Symbols give ‘dumb things voices, and bodiless
things bodies’ in Yeats’ poetry.
Thus, on
the basis of our above discussion we can rightly say that Yeats is one of those
celebrated modern poets, who flourished in the beginning of the twentieth
century and created their own style of poetry in order to show their
dissatisfaction with the world.
W H Auden
Wystan
Hugh Auden was a British-American poet. He was born in York, England,
on February 21, 1907. He moved to Birmingham during childhood and was educated
at Christ Church, Oxford. As a young man he was influenced by the poetry
of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley
Hopkins, and
Old English verse. At Oxford his precocity as a poet was immediately apparent,
and he formed lifelong friendships with two fellow writers, Stephen Spender and Christopher
Isherwood.
In 1928,
his collection Poems was privately printed, but it wasn't until 1930,
when another collection titled Poems (though its contents were
different) was published, that Auden was established as the leading voice of a
new generation.
Ever
since, he has been admired for his unsurpassed technical virtuosity and an
ability to write poems in nearly every imaginable verse form; the incorporation
in his work of popular culture, current events, and vernacular speech; and also
for the vast range of his intellect, which drew easily from an extraordinary
variety of literatures, art forms, social and political theories, and scientific
and technical information. He had a remarkable wit, and often mimicked the
writing styles of other poets such as Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, and Henry James. His poetry frequently
recounts, literally or metaphorically, a journey or quest, and his travels
provided rich material for his verse.
He
visited Germany, Iceland, and China, served in the Spanish Civil war, and in
1939 moved to the United States, where he met his lover, Chester Kallman, and
became an American citizen. His own beliefs changed radically between his
youthful career in England, when he was an ardent advocate of socialism and
Freudian psychoanalysis, and his later phase in America, when his central
preoccupation became Christianity and the theology of modern Protestant
theologians.
A
prolific writer, Auden was also a noted playwright, librettist, editor, and
essayist. Generally considered the greatest English poet of the twentieth
century, his work has exerted a major influence on succeeding generations of
poets on both sides of the Atlantic.
W. H.
Auden served as a chancellor of the Academy of
American Poets from 1954 to 1973, and divided most of the second half of his
life between residences in New York City and Austria. He died in Vienna on
September 29, 1973.
Both
thematically and structurally, Auden’s poems show the very essence of
modernism. The characteristics that are needed to consider him as a modern
poet are all in profusely blended in his poems. In the following passages,
I have tried to demonstrate the elements of modernism both thematically and
structurally to prove him as a modern poet.
The most peculiar quality of the modern poetry is the poet’s
tendency is to experiment with different kinds of metre and versification.
Auden is also modern in this respect. He has experimented with free verse,
blank verse, the ballad metre etc.
Auden’s
social concerns are mostly expressed in the context of war. Auden is an avid
observer of war. He surveys different social, political, and economic
upheavals caused by World Wars. He argues that most of the ills of the
contemporary society results from war., Modern age is marked by violence and
war. Auden says that war and violence had always been in the primitive age but
they were not as brutal as the modern savages. In “The Shield of Achilles”, he
says,
‘Iron –hearted man-slaying
Achilles
Who would not live long.’
In “In Memory of W. B
Yeats”, he refers that all Europe is in the grip of the terror of war and the
bloodthirsty leaders of Europe are threatening each other. Nations live in
isolation in constant dread of each other,
‘In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequence in his hate.’
Auden is
here indicating that all the European nations are crying for war, like the dogs
barking loudly. There is no fellow-feeling among the European nations. Rather
they are separated from each other by their hatred.
Auden
portrays in his poems modern people’s lack of morality. In Musée des Beaux
Arts, Auden presents the philosophical truth about human suffering.. Moreover,
people generally remain indifferent to the pain and suffering of an individual.
While a man suffers, others are engaged in their usual labour In Musee Des
Beaux Arts, the poet upholds the lack of morality through the mythical incident
of Icarus. Here he shows that in the human suffering. “Human is indifferent”.
The painting painted by Brueghels shows that while some people of the worlds
suffer, others are busy doing their work. The pains are generally so much
absorbed in their lives that they remain unconcerned rather people eat, drink
and enjoy and the children enjoy and play without any concern. This human
condition leads our poet to the worlds of suffering.
Auden
portrays that modern people have lost their love or sympathy towards other.
Even when a man dies, they do not care about it but continues their daily life
style.
The
above mentioned passages indicate that Auden is a true modern
poet expressing the very ideals of modernity through his poems. Both
thematically and structurally, his poems are landmark in modernism.
Ref
http://www.literary-articles.com/2013/08/wb-yeats-as-modern-poet.html
https://englishliterature24.blogspot.com/consider-auden-as-modern-poet