Interepretation of ten short modernist poems

Hello Reders,

This blog is part of my classroom activity on modern poetry.

           Modernist Literature is difficult to define and understand also, generally when we are talking about Poem, its quite difficult form or genre of literature. we easily read and understand other forms like drama, novel, etc but poem says more in less words which requires more intellect to understand it and when we come on Modernist poetry its more difficult to interepret it as generally we see any poem or painting and we don't understand anything , we say its modern painting or poem. It requires great deal of thinking , deep understanding and visualization.

Here is my interpretation of ten short poem,

1)  'The Embankment' by T. E. Hulme

Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,

In a flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.

Now see I

That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.

Oh, God, make small

The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,

That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.

       In this poem, modern  metaphors are used like 'finesse of fiddles', 'flash of gold heels' and star- eaten blanket'. The picture of situation of people after the  World Wars clearly shown in the modernist poems as in this the poet ask God for blanket which shows the basic requires of people wether its food, cloth and house or sexual warmth. which give the comfort to people, ask for blanket is more valuable that beauty of sky that suggests that modern poets believe in 

'art for life's sake'.Here  Wilde's line that ' we can all look at the stars but some of us are in the gutter' means that we talk about beauty but unaware  about our real condition.

                                   Continuous as the stars that shine 

                                         And twinkle on the milky way, 

these lines from the Daffodils by Wordsworth give the clear image of beauty of night or nature but here  when poet use image of star it give opposite image that  it eaten up the  blanket in form of sky. so the  modern poets are quite different from Romatists , who used same images but in different way.

2)"Darkness" - Joseph Campbell

      

               Darkness

        I stop to watch a star shine

        in the boghole -

        A star no longer, but a silver

         ribbon of light.

        I look at it and pass on.

  

    This poem has very symbolic title 'Darkness' which gives the picture of destruction because of Wars, suggests failure that are done, but port used the  symbols like star , it symbolies the brightness or succeess which is no longer because of war. Poet is not interested in the silver riboon of light , he just look and pass on which suggests the pessimistic view of poet and aspect of escapism are there.

3) 'Image' - Edward Storer

   

          Forsaken lovers,

       Burning to a chaste white moon

       Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and

       drought.

  

         In this three line poem,  poet uses the symbol of white moon as it connects heart of two lovers, while here the poet use it in opposite side that it burns lovers that they can't chaste each other, their loneliness is there though they are together , this shows the modern aspect that people are alone though they are in crowd.

4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound

       

  The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;

  Petals on a wet, black bough

        This poem is about the hasty life style of modern working people in urban area not in rural, who are  so busy in their routines that they are in crowd but can't notice eachother, its like loneliness in crowd as in above poem, image of petals on a wet blake bough suggest that the people are together though they are alone and don't have their individual identity in crowd.

5.) 'The Pool' - Hilda Doolittle

      

       Are you alive?

       I touch you

       You quiver trembling like a sea-fish

       I cover you with my net

       What are you- banded one?

       Very first line of the poem, 'Are you alive?' arise the quistion of existence which is one of the important aspect of modern literature.  People of modern time became like sea-fish that they are controlled  or bound by some chain that thy can't free from them. Title Pool is also symbolise the stillness like water store in it  which don't have flowness which is most important thing in life to flow from one to other it gives freshness to life , otherwise it wasted. Water which stored in pool is not good or clean, it spoiled.

6.) "Insouciance" – Richard Aldington

      

      In and out of the dreary trenches

       Trudging cheerily under the stars

       I make for myself little poems

       Delicate as a flock of doves

       They fly away like white-winged

        Doves.

     This poem shows the carelessness of people , its also seems like war poem and poet talks about life of Soldier as Ajit said earlier in his blog. The metaphor like ' dreary trenches', 'flock of doves' and 'white winged dove' etc used by poet to express his thought about lifestyle of people that how they are unaware and don't have any exitement but still they are going on to live their life.

7.) Morning at the Window - T. S. Eliot

They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,

And along the trampled edges of the street

I am aware of the damp souls of housemaid

Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me

Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,

And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts

An aimless smile that hovers in the air

 And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

       The poem has many symbols and metaphors like 'rattling' means vibreting its suggests the modern way of living people opposite to Romantics  who are give clear images by their poem while here poet give complex image  which we have to deep thinking and visualization. we see the life of poor people  by these images that how they live their whole day like 'sprouting despondently at area gates', 'Damp souls' , hopeless who have no any aim in life, 'fog' is very important image in which we can't see anything clearly same people can't see that what their aim of living life, other images like ' muddy skirt', 'aimless smile' give that spirit of nothingness of life of people.

8.) The Red Wheelbarrow -William Carlos Williams

so much depends

 upon

a red wheel

barrow

 glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chicken.

     Poem is quite confusing as we see it in normal way  it give the  picture of rural scene where the Rainwater, chicken and cart are found but its different from it that it talks about dependence and independence that we are depend on many thing here red wheel barrow suggestd the it carrying loads of different things, white Chicken suggests the pure and peaceful atmosphere.

9)Anecdote of the Jar- Wallace Stevens

I placed a jar in Tennessee,    

And round it was, upon a hill.  

It made the slovenly wilderness  

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.  

The jar was round upon the ground  

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.  

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,  

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

       The poem as titli suggest talks about Jar compare with the state 'Tennessee' in America , which suggests its independence that poet placed Jar upon hills its tall and its dominion in that area , so its about that state.

10.) ‘l (a‘- E. E. Cummings

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

    The poem seems like confusing at first sight but when we carefully read it it is line that 'a leaf falls on loneliness', when we look at the  modernist structure to write a  poem it also look like leaf falls down , it also suggest the feelings or dreams of people after wars that are broken in small pieces. It also suggest the disconnection with nature as science developed in modern age. Fall suggest many that fall of civilization and loss of hope for betterment is no longer.