Which feature is most closely associated with modernist poetry

Modernism And Imagism As Its Byproduct: Ezra Pound And T.S. Eliot As The Most Vivid Representatives Of Same

American Landscape, c. 1930. Charles Sheeler. Oil on canvas, 24 x 31 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during a moment.”

—Carl Sandburg, “Poetry Considered”

MODERN POETRY

The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

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LITERARY H ISTORY

Symbolist and Imagist Poetry

PHOTOGRAPHERS CAPTURE MOMENTS in time. Painters depict visual ideas through arrangements of colors and shapes. What methods allow writers to use words as someone else might use a camera or a paintbrush? In the beginning of the modern age, a group of poets called the Imagists developed new, influential techniques for presenting visual impressions. Much of their inspiration came from the Symbolists, across the Atlantic Ocean, in France.

The Symbolist Foundation The avant-garde, or experimental, Symbolist move- ment in Paris dominated French poetry and art in the late 1800s and inspired the Imagists. Symbolist poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine reacted against Realism by focusing their attention inward on moods and sensations. These poets believed that direct explanation could not capture emotion. They sought access to the inner workings of the mind through sug- gestion, metaphor, and symbols. The Symbolists took inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe, whose work is rich in symbolism.

“No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer thinks from books, convention and cliché, and not from life.”

—Ezra Pound “A Retrospect”

The American Imagists Contrasting with the Symbolists’ abstract, atmo- spheric poetry, the Imagists presented a concrete, tangible image that appeared frozen in time. “Essentially, it is a moment of revealed truth,” wrote critic William Pratt on Imagism. In that sense, the

Imagist method is similar to photography. Beyond that, however, Imagist poetry explores the effect of the image on an observer at a precise moment.

“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound (see page 654) is a classic example of an Imagist poem. Pound responded to the sight of faces in a train station. Pound deleted words to condense a first draft of thirty lines into two lines of fourteen words and two striking images. He believed that the poet should “use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not reveal something.” He found a model for this intense com- pression in Asian poetry, such as in this haiku (three lines, seventeen syllables, in the original) by Japanese poet Matsuo Basho:

On a dead limb squats a crow– Autumn night. (Lucien Stryk translation)

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The Flatiron Building, Evening, from Camera Work, April, 1906. Edward Steichen.

RÈunion des MusÈes Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

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LITERARY HISTORY 651

In 1912 Pound submitted three poems by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) to Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. One of the published poems was “Oread” (following). In Greek mythology, the Oreads were nymphs, minor female divinities of nature, from the mountains. Notice the irregular, jagged look of the lines and how the line breaks are determined by the poet’s sense of imagery.

Whirl up, sea— Whirl your pointed pines, Splash your great pines On our rocks. Hurl your green over us— Cover us with your pools of fir.

H.D. and Amy Lowell were central figures in the Imagist movement. At a poetry reading, Lowell reportedly said to her audience, “Well, clap or hiss, I don’t care which, but . . . do something!” Such bold statements energized American poetry, which often displays the Imagist method of compressing an emo- tion or idea into a sharply observed image.

Imagist Principles The Imagists issued manifestos, or public declarations on their poetic principles. The following are sample manifestos in the style of those issued:

• The image is the essence, the raw material, of poetry.

• Poetry should be expressed in brief, clear, concrete language that forms precise images.

• These images should instantly convey to the reader the poem’s meaning and emotion.

• The language of these poetic images should sound like simple speech—not be made up of predictable rhythms and rhymes but of freer, more-modern verse forms.

• Topics for poems need not be high-minded or “poetic.” No topic is unsuitable for a poem.

Sudden Rain Shower on Ohashi Bridge, from One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1850. Ando Hiroshige. Woodblock print. Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris. Viewing the Art: This wood-block print recalls the style of Japanese haiku masters such as Basho. What does this print have in common with Imagism?

Literary History For more about Symbolist and Imagist poetry, go to www.glencoe.com.

RESPONDING AND THINKING CRITICALLY

1. Why did the Symbolist poets refrain from directly explaining their themes?

2. What did the Imagists want to eliminate from poetry? Why?

3. What type of images does H.D. create in “Oread”? What impressions and associations do they evoke?

4. Compare and contrast the ways in which the poems on these two pages reflect the themes of Imagist poets. Which do you find most interesting?

Ando Hiroshige/Art Resource, NY

• Compare and contrast authors’ messages. • Analyze historical context. • Evaluate argument.

OBJECTIVES

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David Lees/CORBIS

BEFORE YOU READ

In a Station of the Metro and A Pact

MEET EZRA POUND

Though Ezra Pound’s literary accomplish-ments were immense, many hated him. As his friend and protégé William Carlos Williams wrote, “Pound is a fine fellow, but not one person in a thousand likes him, and a great many people detest him.” Nevertheless, T. S. Eliot claimed that Pound was “more responsible for the twentieth-century revolution in poetry than [was] any other individual.”

Imagism Pound was born in a small town in Idaho, but two years later his family moved east. When he was still young, he determined that “at thirty [he] would know more about poetry than any living man.” Pound entered the University of Pennsylvania at age fifteen but completed his undergraduate education at Hamilton College. As a student, he immersed himself in the Latin, Greek, and French classics.

“I have weathered the storm, I have beaten out my exile.”

—Ezra Pound, “The Rest”

After receiving his master’s degree in 1906, Pound briefly taught languages at a small Presbyterian college in Indiana. His eccentric manner did not fit well with the school’s character, and, at the age of 23, Pound left for Europe. He settled first in London, then Paris, and finally in Italy. There he wrote poetry and criticism and translated verse from nine languages. He also served as an overseas editor for Poetry magazine—a position he used to nurture the careers of Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot, among others. In 1912, Pound helped establish Imagism’s manifesto. It called for “direct treatment of the ‘thing’” and the use of “the language of common speech, but . . . always the exact word.”

A Complex Writer Though Pound declared that writers should “Make it new!” he did not believe in newness for its own sake and relied heavily on the literature of the past. In The Cantos, his longest and best-known work, Pound combined materials from different cultures and languages, historical texts, and newspaper articles. The Cantos is an extremely complex work, notorious for its diffi- culty and uneven quality.

Politics, Prison, and Exile During World War II, Pound supported Fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and made radio broadcasts openly criti- cizing the United States and the efforts of the Allies in the war. After Italy fell, Pound spent six months as a prisoner of war near Pisa. Here he wrote The Pisan Cantos, generally considered the greatest section of his long work.

After being declared mentally unfit to stand trial for treason, Pound was sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the criminally insane in Washington, D.C. He spent the next twelve years at the hospital, after which the charges against him were dropped. Pound then left the United States, returning to Italy, where he stayed until his death in Venice in 1972.

Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in 1972.

Author Search For more about Ezra Pound, go to www.glencoe.com.

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LITERATURE PREVIEW READING PREVIEW

EZRA POUND 653

Connecting to the Poems Have you ever experienced a moment in which an image, a sound, or an idea grabbed your attention and changed how you saw the world? This is what the speaker in each of the following poems experiences. Think about the following questions:

• Have you ever looked at something that you see every day as if for the first time? Explain.

• How can striking images change the way we think about mundane aspects of the world?

Building Background “In a Station of the Metro” and “A Pact” were originally published together in Poetry in 1916. Pound was impressed with the brief but evocative Japanese haiku form (see Literary Terms Handbook, p. R1). After experiencing the moment that inspired “In a Station of the Metro,” Pound composed a thirty-line poem. He destroyed this first attempt, calling it a work “of second intensity.” After two other tries, he created a short, haiku- like poem with a single powerful image.

Setting Purposes for Reading Big Idea New Poetics As you read, notice how Pound employs free verse and the rules of Imagism in his work.

Literary Element Imagery Imagery is the “word pictures” that writers create to make their subject more vivid or to evoke an emotional response in the reader. In creating effective images, writ- ers use sensory details, or descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five sense: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. As you read the poems, examine how Pound uses imagery to heighten the effect of his words.

• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R9.

Reading Strategy Questioning Questioning is asking yourself regularly whether you’ve understood what you have read. In an Imagist poem such as “In a Station of the Metro,” it is impor- tant to use questioning to slow down your reading in order to fully understand the poet’s meaning.

Reading Tip: Taking Notes As you read “In a Station of the Metro” and “A Pact,” note in a double-entry jour- nal any questions that occur to you.

Vocabulary

apparition (aṕ ə rish� ən) n. a ghostlike or nearly invisible appearance; p. 654 Those who saw the shadowy apparition in the cemetery believed it was a ghost.

bough (bou) n. tree branch; p. 654 The baby bird clung to the bough as it waited for food.

detest (di test�) v. to greatly dislike or loathe; p. 654 I have detested television ever since my favorite show was canceled.

sap (sap) n. a watery source of nutrients that flows through a plant’s circulatory system; p. 654 I decided never to park under a tree again after finding my car covered in sap.

commerce (kom� ərs) n. exchange of ideas and opinions; p. 654 Through lively debate and com- merce, the two opposing political sides were able to reach an agreement.

Vocabulary Tip: Context Clues When you look at the words and sentences surrounding a new or unfamiliar word to define it, you are using context clues. Interactive Literary Elements

Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements, go to www.glencoe.com.

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

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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

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

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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 poetry has been praised for the power of its symbolism, its precise, often ironic language, and its mastery of form. At the time of his death in 1965, Eliot was considered by many to be the most important and influential poet and critic writing in the English language.

T. S. Eliot was born in 1888 and died in 1965.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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Author Search For more about T. S. Eliot, go to www.glencoe.com.