Modernists

publications has evolved conviction and time again as singles and societies audition and explore assorted themes and techniques in writing. Modernism is a particular literary movement that follows the Romantic and straight-laced eras of poetry. While its definition composes many distinct elements, such as the rise of pessimistic thought caused by postwar disillusion, and the rise in appeal of the imagist movement.Davis and Jenkins cite Peter Brooks who claims that ratifiers nurture to acknowledge a plurality of modernisms which sought to innovate on different artistic and cultural fronts (3) while continuing to argue that modernism is an rough-cut project (4). Lee and Jenkins also argue that modernism is a responsibility more of place than timeThree poets forged the way for this movement in position poetry William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Dylan doubting Thomas. As evidenced by these poets, modernist poetry is a mixture of many diverse elements, including pessimistic themes, disjointed time and go on symbolic frames whose understanding may depend more upon psychology than the intrinsic debaucher of nature.William Butler Yeats is the oldest of these three, but not the graduation to write in the modern style. As he began experiencing with the poetic transitions, he came to be know as a realist-symbolist who revealed meaning through symbol. T.S. Eliot is often credited as one 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 re layed the cycling of flavor for hu human being. All three sacrificeed themes that would have turned the poets of earlier eras, known for praiseful elegies, harmonious pastorals, and c arefully ordered time, to drink.Eliots poem, The pine away lend, considered by near literary reviewers as the quintessential modernist poem, offers a spiritual yet disoriented view of society which m irrored the wasteland produced the spiritual disillusionment mat up during the 1920s and the sensual hardships associated with the Depression, the rise of Hitler and the threat of another war (Abrams 2137). Eliots poems probe into the psyche of man that could live during any time period. They relinquish behind the romantic and the beautiful to deal with the obscure and the dark aspects of humanity.The first four lines of Waste Land, illuminate the ideas of precise images and theme. The adviseion that April is the cruelest month (The Waste Land ln. 1) runs counter to the idea that spring is a time of regeneration and rebirth. The image of lilacs pay offing from the arid land and of roots withering from the pretermit of rain support the initial assertion of the first line. Throughout this prolonged poem, Eliot twists images from what the reader expects to see into something unexpected and thought-provoking.Likewise, in Yeats Leda and the Swan, past history would suggest that t his poem might be in praise of a classical deity, when it very, through its images, seems to be chronicling a rape. The first four lines suggest this image rather clearlyA sudden blow the great move beating stillAbove the staggering girl, her thighs caressedBy his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,He holds her helpless dope upon his breast (lns. 1-4).Similarly, Thomas images of a misshapen man in the common land are juxtaposed with images of animals. He slept at night in a dog 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 rather sad, violent and pessimistic images of society.In contrast with the chronological narratives of Romantic and Victorian poetry, these poets works are essentially nonlinear. The words are broken and fragmented, and moreover at the end do these seemingly unrelated bits come together, if at all. Time and structure in these poems are fragmented. F.R. Leavis in T .S. Eliots by and by Poetry discusses this concept of fragmented time in depth as necessary to presenting the realism sought after by these poets. The Love melody of J. Alfred Prufrock clearly reveals this disjointed and chaotic journey through the mind of an everyman. The poems shifts time periods and locations several 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, who is deliberating about attending a social function. He ponders as his brain wonders chaotically from one stem to the next. ). In line 69, the speaker becomes aware of his own ramblings and muses, And how should I demoralise? Later, he queries, almost nonsensically, as if he, himself, has become the embodiment of the chaos of swiftly moving timeI grow oldI grow oldI shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled (lns. 120-121). This atomization of ti me seems to lead, as it does in The Waste Land to disastrous results as evidenced by the last line of the poem and we drown (ln. 130). The disjointedness of time and thought seems to be representative 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 year 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 approach. This poem projects to the soften of a god insure, but not with rejoicing. The society is nominated by the first four lines as fragmented and chaoticTurning and move in the widening gyreThe fa lcon cannot hear the falconerThings fall apart(predicate) the centre 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 alienated from his society, a society that is generally as fragmented and impaired as time. The grandeur to which Prufrock ascribes his place in the world, as exhibited by presume I dare/Disturb the universe? (lns. 45-46). Prufrock, with all of his insecurities, ineptitude and physical shortcomings, and the masses of individuals he represents, will never be able to actually disturb the inner machinations of the universe. Similarly, The Waste Land offers no heroic figure for the readers to identify the speaker can be anyone, but his demise is received to occur and certain to happen alone.Likewise, all three of these poems seem to be fascinated with death, not as the ultimate redempt ion 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 when 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 last,Slouches towards Bethlehemto be born? (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 lettering to the birth and actually equate it with death, seemingly contradicting the traditional Christmas story The linesthis induce wasHard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.We returned to our places, these King doms,But no all-night 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 doubt 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 numinous by the modern poets.While modernism, at least as Yeats, Eliot, and Thomas present it, may be 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 pensive 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 narration 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 Authors. 6thEd. New York Norton, 1996Eliot, T.S. The Journey of the Magi&8212. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock&8212. 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 scholar Hall, 1962.Thomas, D. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night&8212 The kyphosis in the ParkYeats, W.B. The Second Coming&8212. Leda and the Swan