Modernist Poets

Modernist Poets

Modernist’s poems were different from other forms of poetry because they managed to reflect this world’s tumult in various ways. The poems rebelled against the artistic past of the post-medieval West dealing with the imitation of external reality. Modern artists of all types and nations made a choice of not copying from nature or reproducing reality. Instead, they distorted the natural forms and rejected the single perspective principle that was prevalent since the days of Michelangelo. Some features of literary modernism include proving new insights to the new field. New features in the sense of reality, focusing on the unconscious, focus on linguistic concern and epistemology. There was also less emphasizing on the external reality and placing more emphasis on the reflection of art. Lastly, there was the turning away from the teleological way of thinking about time. That is time as overlapping, discontinuous and non-chronological.

Prufrock’s poem, “The Love Song”, demonstrates some qualities of modernism. The poet shows a mastery of conversation rhythms, which he gives in the form of a verse. He shows his witty use of colloquialisms and rhyme as well as his allusion to Shakespeare, Dante and other writers. Though this poem was written in 1910-11, it does not reflect war experience. The poem's features include hopelessness, questioning and fragmentation that contribute to a range of examples that imply modernism. These elements show a new way of appreciating and looking life and its components. When we read the poem, we experience a mental struggle of the speaker who is feeling hopeless, anxiety and despair and desperately trying to overcome the feeling of meaninglessness. The speaker perceives his surrounding as disorderly, chaotic and highly fragmented. Thus, Eliot is trying to show his critical vision of a modern life as one filled with complications, hopelessness and despair.

Work Cited

Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Monroe, Harriet (editor), Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (June 1915), 130–135.

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