Modernism

What are the distinctive features of literary modernism?

Literary modernism is deemed to have its origin in the late 19th and 20th centuries mostly in North America and Europe. Literary modernism gets characterized by a self-conscious break from traditional styles of poetry and verse.  Modernists use literary form and expression. A conscious longing to overturn traditional modes of expression and representation drove the movement. Early modernist writers broke the implied contract with the general public that artists represented the mainstream ideas and culture.  They exposed irrationality that existed in the supposedly rational world. Innovative literary techniques such as interior monologue, stream-of-consciousness and other multiple points-of-view also characterize literary modernism.

What sets modernist apart from previous forms of poetry?

There are various factors that set modernism apart from previous forms of poetry. Early modernist poetry got written in the form of short, compact lyrics. Longer poems came into the foreground as it developed. Secondly, dramatic monologues in which the monologue appears as verses are found in many early works of modern literature. Modern poems procured the consciousness of the past.

Early poems originated from folk songs or from a need to retell oral epics. Ancient attempts to define poetry focused on the uses of drama, comedy, speech in rhetoric and song. Later attempts concentrated on features such as verse form and rhyme and repetition. Modernists employ a fundamental creative language in their art. It uses forms and conventions to evoke emotive responses and suggest differential interpretation to words.  Devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhythm and onomatopoeia are at times used to achieve incantatory or musical effects.

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song made by Alfred Prufrock can get regarded as a modernist poem. The first hint can get seen in the title of the poem.  "J. Alfred Prufrock" is a farcical name.  Also, Eliot sets "Prufrock" in the poetic form of a dramatic monologue.  Thirdly, the allusions and Images are not the only fragmented features of "Prufrock."  But also the rhythm of the lines is deliberately irregular.

References

Poetry (2015) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock By T. S. Eliot

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in custom speech writing companies services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from affordable term papers services.