Modernism is a literary and cultural international movement which flourished in the first decades of the 20th century. Modernism is not term to which a single meaning can be ascribed. It may be applied both to the content and to the form of a work, or to either in isolation.
The term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the 'traditional' form of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social and political condition.
10 very short Modernist Poem:
1) The Embankment by T.E Humble:
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.
This poem deals with the theme of nostalgia. The poet presented with contrast between past and present.
Metaphors: Old star-eaten blanket, a flash of gold heels.
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.
In this poem poets talks about darkness.darkness is symbole of night so,night also present darkness in sky.There is word “star”wired.
3.) 'Image' - Edward Storer
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon
Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and
drought.
.'Forsaken' meaning is 'renounce’ and 'Forsaken’ lover denot the full.image word also used for modern people and they living own way .the word 'Forsaken’ is metaphor in this poem.
4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough
The poem very essentially contrasted the mechanical of people and a machine , station is a place where many people meet each day yet at the same time there is no connection between them.’petals’ is used as metaphor for people.branch of tree poet used metaphor that 'patals on bough 'petals develops on bloom not on branch and the black and wet bough recommends something wired.
5.) 'The Pool' - Hilda Doolittle
Are you alive?
I touch you
You quiver trembling like a seafish
I cover you with my net
What are you banded one?
Here water is in pool it's not flowing which symbolises the rottenness of the civilization. Water in sea or in river has life but pool has not. Sometimes we do not understand our own feelings. First it was asked that are you alive or not. Very sarcastically, we can see that no. It is not alive. Because now it is there in the net of somebody. Fish after going in the net, cannot survive for longer.
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 whitewinged
Doves.
In this poem, poet compares his poems with dove. Here the words like 'Trudging' and 'cheerily' gives contrasting meaning. These words give the image of life where we are doing many things unwillingly. Poems can not fly but here poet says he has made poems that can fly away like white winged doves. It looks he want to be free.
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.
Here Eliot has presented the routine life of people who are totally detached with the nature and its morning beauty. And they are working mechanically without any excitement. The wind which gives pleasure is presented as an aimless smile of emotionless people.
8.) The Red Wheelbarrow -William Carlos Williams
so much depends upon a red wheel
barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chicken.
9). Ancedote of the Jar-Wallace Stevens
The title suggest that the pome is about Jar. Poet placese the Jar at a hill of Tenessee and that kind of story is begun.
10.) ‘l (a‘- E. E. Cummings
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
-- This is the best poem amongst all given here. Poet have marvelously captured the image of falling leaves in the poem. Words even are falling in the poem, just like leaf. . Broken into pieces, and with that word and leaf, loneliness also fals and spreads in the mind of reader.
