Mass media ethics case studies

AnswersQuestions How does Pound feel about Walt Whitman?

In studying this selection, you will focus on the following:

• analyzing literary periods • monitoring comprehension with questioning • analyzing imagery

OBJECTIVES

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1 The Metro refers to the Paris subway.

New Poetics What does line 6 suggest about Pound’s understanding of Walt Whitman’s rela- tionship to modern poetry?

Big Idea

654 UNIT 5 BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE

apparition (aṕ ə rish ən) n. a ghostlike or nearly invis- ible appearance bough (bou) n. tree branch

Vocabulary

detest (di test) v. to greatly dislike or loathe sap (sap) n. a watery source of nutrients that flows through a plant’s circulatory system commerce (kom ərs) n. exchange of ideas and opinions

Vocabulary

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman— I have detested you long enough. I come to you as a grown child Who has had a pig-headed father; 5 I am old enough now to make friends. It was you that broke the new wood, Now is a time for carving. We have one sap and one root— Let there be commerce between us.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

S11-219-01C-635423 Kingsbury CnBkSG David Reed

S11-112-01C-635423 Kingsbury CnBkSG David Reed

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EZRA POUND 655

AFTER YOU READ

Respond 1. Which of these poems do you think reveals more

about the poet? Explain.

Recall and Interpret 2. (a)In the first line of “In a Station of the Metro,”

what word does the speaker use to describe how the faces look to him? (b)What might that word suggest about the faces?

3. (a)In the second line, to what image does the speaker compare the faces? (b)From this image, what can you infer about the speaker’s feelings?

4. (a)In “A Pact,” to whom is the poem addressed? In what way have the speaker’s feelings changed about that person? (b)What might be the reason?

5. (a)What is the extended metaphor used in the last four lines of “A Pact”? (b)What idea do you think the speaker expresses in these lines?

Analyze and Evaluate 6. Pound once wrote, “The image is the poet’s

pigment.” How is “In a Station of the Metro” like a painting? Explain.

7. (a)Briefly describe the most important differences in tone, form, and content of these two poems. (b)Which poem seems more compelling? Explain.

Connect 8. Big Idea New Poetics How do these poems

embody the values and stylistic goals of Modernism and Imagism?

RESPONDING AND THINKING CRITICALLY

Literary Element Imagery While most of the imagery in literature appeals to the sense of sight, imagery can appeal to all five senses. Sometimes the same image will involve more than a single sense. For example, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (page 244) includes the following line: “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple cur- tain.” In this line, Poe appeals to the senses of touch, hearing, and sight.

1. Which senses does Pound appeal to in “In a Station of the Metro”?

2. Identify one image from “A Pact” that appeals to the sense of sight.

Writing About Literature Compare and Contrast Tone Write a brief essay in which you compare and contrast the tones of “In a Station of the Metro” and “A Pact.” Consider how word choice and imagery work together to create a specific tone for each poem. You might want to organize your ideas in a Venn diagram before you begin.

Reading Strategy Questioning Questioning can help you determine an author’s pur- pose and the parts of a selection that are the most important. As you read a text, be sure to continually ask yourself whether you understand the ideas the author is trying to convey.

1. What do you think was Pound’s purpose for writing “A Pact”?

2. Write and answer two questions you might ask about the poem that could help you determine Pound’s purpose. Give evidence for your answers.

Vocabulary Practice Practice with Context Clues For each blank identify the appropriate vocabulary word.

1. Anger never solved anything; we need healthy dialogue and ____ to solve the problem.

2. I highly doubt that some ghostly ____ stole your homework.

3. The heavy storm caused the ____ of a tree to fall and crash into my windshield.

4. I have never enjoyed travel in an airplane; in fact, I have always ____ it.

Web Activities For eFlashcards, Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to www.glencoe.com.

LITERARY ANALYSIS READING AND VOCABULARY

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BEFORE YOU READ

Author Search For more about Author Name, go to www.literature.glencoe.com.

MEET T. S. ELIOT

T. S. Eliot revolutionized poetry more than any other twentieth-century writer. His experiments in language and form and his introduction of the scenes and concerns of every- day life into poetry changed literary tastes and influenced future poets.

Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, into a distinguished family that provided him with the best education available. In 1906 he matriculated at Harvard, where he steeped himself in literature and published his first poems. At Harvard, he studied under Irving Babbitt, the New Humanist critic of Romanticism, who helped Eliot develop his taste for classicism in literature. Eliot then studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Harvard, and at Oxford. He eventually settled in England.

The First Modernist Poet In his youth, Eliot was influenced by the French Symbolist poets. In England, Eliot met the Imagist poet Ezra Pound, another American expatriate. Pound had an even stronger influence on Eliot. He championed Eliot’s writing

and served as his editor. In 1915 Pound per- suaded Poetry magazine to publish “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Often called the first Modernist poem, “Prufrock” captures the emptiness and alienation many people experienced

while living in impersonal modern cities. The poem baffled and angered many

readers. They found its subject mat- ter “unpoetic,” its fragmented struc- ture off-putting, and its allusions, difficult to understand.

The outbreak of World War I prevented Eliot’s return to Harvard for his final doctoral

examinations. He remained in England, where he mar-

ried Vivien Haigh- Wood, taught school, and

worked for Lloyds Bank. He also continued to write poetry and literary essays. His best-known work, The Waste Land, was published in 1922; in it he expresses the disillusionment that many people felt after World War I and decries the inability to find meaning and purpose in life. The work brought him international acclaim, but not happiness. Eliot was facing great strain in his marriage and in his job.

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

—T. S. Eliot

Finding a Purpose Eventually, Eliot began a new, more satisfying career as a book editor and joined the Church of England. In Christianity he found a purpose in life, and in his poems, such as “The Hollow Men,” “Ash Wednesday,” and Four Quartets, he described the importance and diffi- culty of belief in a spiritually impoverished world.

In his later years, Eliot wrote several plays, attempting to adapt verse drama to the modern stage. Murder in the Cathedral (1935), about the martyrdom of Saint Thomas à Becket, was a great success in both England and the United States. He also wrote literary criticism. In recognition of his achievements, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Eliot’s