Remake of Characteristics of Modernist Poetry by

Characteristics of Modernist Poetry

annamarieyoung_ — 2021-03-23 23:32:14 UTC

Our goal is to make connections across poems. Include support from Eliot's "The Waste Land" and 3 additional poems that represent modernism

Characteristic #1 Here: Interest in politics and the political problems of the age.

annamarieyoung_ — 2021-03-23 23:32:14 UTC

Since Modernist poems and works were written during the first war, many of the works, if not all, reflect the poets' thoughts about the social climate during this time period. A common characteristics of all these works is the poet adding their own thoughts about the effects that the war had on both the soldiers and civilians alike. -Anna Y

Characteristic #3: Ambiguity

annamarieyoung_ — 2021-03-23 23:32:14 UTC

Most of the modern poetry is ambiguous, open to more than one interpretation. This leads to many people forming different opinions about the work, which can be a good thing.

Characteristic #2: Fragmentation

annamarieyoung_ — 2021-03-23 23:32:14 UTC

Fragmentation in Modernist Poetry is broken up bits of a poem. Often this displays itself as an idea that doesn't quite add up to a full thought or picture before moving onto the next line or idea all together. - Julia N

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

annamarieyoung_ — 2021-03-23 23:32:14 UTC

"What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water" 
(Eliot 19-24).

This quote from T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" uses imagery of a lifeless and barren wasteland as a metaphor for the country during the war. He emphasizes the "broken images" and death to show the harsh conditions and horrors that came from the war. -Anna Y

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

devinkennedy8 — 2021-03-24 23:49:43 UTC

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
(Eliot 426).

This quote from T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" alludes to the famous nursing rhyme by the same name. It could mean more than just one thing, as there are many different iterations of the work. In one, there is more emphasis on the citizens of London trying to put the bridge back together, while another implies that the rhyme is about a specific medieval torture method. No matter how you interpret it, Eliot has succeeding in making you think hard about this one line.

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

devinkennedy8 — 2021-03-24 23:50:33 UTC

"And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock"
(Eliot 346-351)

One of many displays of fragmentation in T.S. Elliot's "The Wasteland" where the thoughts seem to almost skip from one idea to the next with each line break. Fragmentation makes almost for a skipping of thoughts in reading it. (At least when I do) -Julia N

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

jnelson691 — 2021-03-25 01:10:07 UTC

" Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master."
(Bishop 4-6)

In the highlighted part above there is an incomplete thought due to fragmentation. It leaves you wondering because it leaves out details you would normally find in a complete thought. - Julia N

Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

jnelson691 — 2021-03-25 01:36:33 UTC

"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright"
(Thomas 7)

Here you can see three ideas separated by commas that appear to have no correlation to one another in a sentence or sequence. -Julia N

The Waking by Theodore Roethke

jnelson691 — 2021-03-25 01:50:23 UTC

" What falls away is always. And is near. "
(Roethke 17)

In this instance of fragmentation by Roethke, it makes the reader wonder: what is near? Questions like these make it super easy to spot fragments in a modernist piece. The idea is missing its full thought. -Julia N