Thinking Activity on Modernist Poetry

■ Interpretation and identification of various metaphors, symbols and images from modernist poetry:-

                This Task is given by Dr.Dilip Barad.And view original blog click here,
                       

 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, there is some symbols like Gold heels on the hard pavement and the old star- eaten blanket of the sky. This poems spoken by a man fallen in hard time or fallen on a old butter night.  The words like hard pavement and star- eaten blanket shows the very bed condition of life from which poet may be passed. Star is used here in a negative meaning.

2: 'Darkness' by Joseph Campbell

       

        "I stop to watch a star shine

        in the bog hole -

        A star no longer, but a silver

         ribbon of light.

        I look at it and pass on."

                           When we  read the title Darkness, we feel something negative or the feeling of downfall.  Stars is symbol of brightness and success, but the silver ribbon of light which is suggest broken stars,means success or brightness may be not stay for long time. And it will pass suddenly.  So, the title Darkness symbolize many things. Here we find modernist metaphors like star shine in big hole and  silver ribbon etc.

3: ' Image' by Edward storer

     " Forsaken lovers,

  Burning to a chaste white moon,

  Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought."

     

                     The title itself present the image of modern people and their life style, and also present the people of civilization. Here is the word forsaken lovers, burning to chaste, strange etc. are the modernist metaphor used by poet. white moon used as a symbol.

4: 'In a Station of the Metro' by Ezra Pound

"The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;

  Petals on a wet, black bough."

                      Metro station is the modernist metaphor. In this poem poet also show the relationship between people and machines. it also show the way of living life of modern people. petals, black bough etc. the words are used as a symbols.

5: The Pool by Hilda Doolittle 

Are you alive?
I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish.
I cover you with my net.
What are you—banded one?

                   speaker asking person that ‘are you alive?. Person shivers like a sea fish.
which indicates that someone is dying and presents liflessness.


6:Insouciance by 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. "

                  Here poet have used metaphors like deary trnches, trudging cheerily flock of doves, white winged doves.


7:Moring at the window by 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 housemaids
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.

                  At first reading of this poem way feel that this poem is about everyday life. But we also can say that this line:- ‘” tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts.”

1. 8:The Red Wheelbarrow  by William carol Williams 

"so much depends
upon a red wheel 

barrow
glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens"

                   This poem is difficult to understand. But if we go on by words like Barrow(stones raised over a grave) Glazed (showing no liveliness) chicken(young man); these words indicates a young man’s death.

9: Anecdote of the jar by 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."

             Here in this poem metaphor is jar. And poem is about the Tennessee( a state of the united states of America)

10:I(a,  by E.E.Cummings

"l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness"


                   A falling leaf is symbol of loneliness. The word ‘fall’ symbolized in any way. Fall means death, fall of spirituality; fall word also presents the damage caused because of world war and its effect on people.
Modernist literature is difficult to understand, it is absurd, there is hidden meaning, it becomes hard to get the whole meaning of poem.