Modernists

Literature has evolved time and time again as individuals and societies experiment and explore different themes and techniques in writing. Modernism is a particular literary fecal matter that follows the Romantic and Victorian eras of metrical composition. While its definition composes many different elements, such as the recrudesce of pessimistic judgment caused by postwar disillusionment, and the rise in appeal of the imagist movement.Davis and Jenkins cite Peter Brooks who claims that lectors have to adjudge a plurality of youngisms which sought to innovate on different aesthetical and cultural fronts (3) while continuing to argue that modernism is an unfinished experience (4). lee side and Jenkins overly argue that modernism is a function to a greater extent of place than timeThree poets forged the way for this movement in English poetry William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Dylan Thomas. As evidenced by these poets, modernist poetry is a multifariousness of many d iverse elements, including pessimistic themes, disjointed time and recurring exemplary cyphers whose understanding may depend more upon psychology than the intrinsic apricot of nature.William Butler Yeats is the antiquatedest of these three, precisely not the start-off to write in the modern style. As he began experiencing with the poetic transitions, he came to be known as a realist-symbolist who revealed meaning by dint of symbol. T.S. Eliot is often credited as atomic number 53 of the poets that began the movement, along with Ezra Pound, and is known also for his symbols and haunting poetic images.Dylan Thomas is also known for his highly ordered images which represented the cycling of life for humankind. all(a) three presented themes that would have turned the poets of in front eras, known for complimentary elegies, pure pastorals, and c befully ordered time, to drink.Eliots rime, The dash off gain, considered by most literary re take iners as the quintessential mo dernist poesy, offers a unearthly yet disconnected view of fraternity which mirrored the wasteland produced the spiritual disillusionment felt during the twenties and the physical hardships associated with the Depression, the rise of Hitler and the threat of another war (Abrams 2137). Eliots poems investigation into the psyche of man that could live during any time period. They leave lav the romantic and the beautiful to deal with the obscure and the dark aspects of humanity.The first quadruplet lines of Waste Land, illuminate the ideas of precise images and theme. The suggestion that April is the cruelest month (The Waste Land ln. 1) runs counter to the idea that spring is a time of re naturalal and re bear. The image of lilacs growing from the arid land and of roots withering from the lack of fall support the initial assertion of the first line. Throughout this lengthy poem, Eliot twists images from what the reader expects to see into something unexpected and thought-provoki ng.Likewise, in Yeats Leda and the Swan, past history would suggest that this poem might be in praise of a Greek deity, when it actually, through its images, seems to be chronicling a rape. The first four lines suggest this image kind of clearlyA sudden blow the great wings tanning stillAbove the staggering girl, her thighs c bessedBy his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,He holds her helpless tit upon his breast (lns. 1-4).Similarly, Thomas images of a misshapen man in the park are juxtaposed with images of animals. He slept at night in a train kennel(ln.11) and was eating bread from a newspaper (ln. 7). None of these images are veiled in the rosy light of Romanticism and present sort of sad, violent and pessimistic images of parliamentary procedure.In contrast with the chronological narratives of Romantic and Victorian poetry, these poets work are essentially nonlinear. The words are broken and fragmented, and only at the end do these seemingly unrelated bits come tog ether, if at all. fourth dimension and structure in these poems are fragmented. F.R. Leavis in T.S. Eliots later on poetry discusses this concept of fragmented time in depth as required to presenting the realism sought after by these poets. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock clearly reveals this disjointed and disorganised voyage through the mind of an everyman. The poems shifts time periods and locations several(prenominal) times, but remain an imagistic representation of England with its nightlife, discussions of Renaissance art, and references to Shakespeares Hamlet.The action takes place entirely within the head of the loudspeaker system, who is deliberating about attending a loving function. He ponders as his brain wonders chaotically from one topic to the next. ). In line 69, the speaker becomes aware of his own ramblings and muses, And how should I begin? Later, he queries, almost nonsensically, as if he, himself, has become the embodiment of the chaos of swiftly pi tiable timeI grow oldI grow oldI shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled (lns. 120-121). This fragmentation of time seems to lead, as it does in The Waste Land to disastrous results as evidenced by the come through line of the poem and we drown (ln. 130). The disjointedness of time and thought seems to be interpretive program of a confused state of mind, both in individuals and in society.The Waste Land begins in arid desolation, both physically and spiritually for its inhabitants. In the first stanza of Part I, the chronology moves swiftly from the present reflection of the speaker to a childhood memory, back to the reflection, and then to another incident a family in the past. This style is much like that of an interior monologue, in which the thoughts of the speaker are presented just as they flow, without any organization, to help the reader understand. Yeats presents a similar confusion in The Second Coming. This poem projects to the return of a god figure, but not wit h rejoicing. The society is described by the first four lines as fragmented and chaoticTurning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconerThings fall apart the totality cannot holdMere anarchy is loosed upon the world (lns. 1-4).Again, the vision of fragmentation is created by the images presented in the first four lines of this poem.A common theme among the modernist poets is that of the individual disaffect from his society, a society that is generally as fragmented and dysfunctional as time. The grandeur to which Prufrock ascribes his place in the world, as exhibited by Dare I dare/Disturb the universe? (lns. 45-46). Prufrock, with all of his insecurities, ineptitude and physical shortcomings, and the heap of individuals he represents, will never be able to actually disoblige the inner machinations of the universe. Similarly, The Waste Land offers no heroic figure for the readers to rate the speaker can be anyone, but his demise is certain to drop de ad and certain to happen alone.Likewise, all three of these poems seem to be mesmerised with death, not as the ultimate redemption as presented by earlier poets, but as a frightening, even horrible, reality that should be challenged. Eliots Love Song ends with the figurative death of not only Prufrock but of society as a whole. The Waste Land describes a society that is in a state of apocalypse. Yeats poem, The Second Coming describes, as discussed above, a disjointed society that fear the return of a savior, the new deityThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at work,Slouches towards Bethlehemto be natural? (lns. 18-22).This example parallels Eliots Journey of the Magi which adopts the persona of the Biblical magi who describe their journey as not joyful, but full of hardship. They question their dedication to the birth and actually equate it with death, seemingly contradicting the traditional Chr istmas story The linesthis Birth was overweight and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,With an alien people clutching their gods. Ishould be glad of another death (lns. 38-43). Reveal this questioning that has resulted from the disillusionment and interrogation with the classical views of religionlThomas actually suggests battling with death almost physically in his poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. He continually exhorts those near death to Rage, Rage against the dying of the light in the last line of each stanza. Instead of accepting death as a reward for a Christian life, these poets present death as a time of fear and uncertainty which could be representative of a spiritual disillusionment. Even theological elements of Christianity and life-after-death are no longer held sacred by the modern poets.While modernism, at least as Yeats, Eliot, and Thomas present it, may b e a reflection of many different eras of poetry, it deviates in its themes, symbols and chaotic presentation of time. The pessimistic themes and perplexing images they create are reflective of the societal and spiritual disillusionment prevalent in this postwar era. These poets are icons of modernist thought and poetry. Their complex works reject the focus on beauty and story that other genres utilize and paint a picture of mankind and society as a spiritually arid and ghastly.Works CitedAbrams, M.H. Ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature The major(ip) Authors. 6thEd. New York Norton, 1996Eliot, T.S. The Journey of the Magi. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Waste LandJenkins, Lee M. and Alex Davis. Locations of Literary Modernism Region and Nation inBritish and American Modernist Poetry. Cambridge, UK Cambridge UniversityPress, 2000.Leavis, F.R. T.S. Eliots Later Poetry. T.S. Eliot A Collection of Critical Essays. HughKenner, Ed. New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1962.Thoma s, D. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night The Hunchback in the ParkYeats, W.B. The Second Coming. Leda and the Swan