Modernist Poems Short But Dramatic

Part of our Study Task

Modernist Poems of selected poets are analyzed here. Poets have written short poems but very dramatic. Means they are very much effective. Let's see one by one.

1. The Embankment

 

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.

By T. E. Hulme (1883-1917) 

Analysis:

First, a short paraphrase of the poem: on London’s Embankment (an area well-known for homeless people sleeping rough), a ‘fallen gentleman’ reflects on his past and how he found pleasure in worldly social activities (the ‘finesse of fiddles’ suggesting musical gatherings, such as dances) and beautiful women – probably (given the ‘flash of gold heels on the hard pavement‘) courtesans or prostitutes. But now, down on his luck and most probably sleeping rough on the streets, he realizes that warmth is what really matters and is what poets should be singing about. The poem then ends with a heartfelt entreaty to the heavens, with the poem’s speaker beseeching God to make a blanket of the starry sky so that the speaker’s wish for warmth might be granted. 

2. Darkness 

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.
By Joseph Campbell
Analysis: Poet says that Darkness is itself symbolic. In one's life and out of one's life. We found some illusion in darkness as he (poet) has the same. As he passed from the street he found a star in a boghole!! He went nearer and saw that it was not a star but only a silver ribbon of light. 


3. Images

Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
By Edward Storer
Analysis: Poet is describing here the condition of forsaken lovers. Generally in love both gets calmness through the light of moon. But for them who are forsaken, moon light is like a burning chaste. And it seems that lovers are burning on pyres of lonliness and drought not of wood.


4. In The Station of The Metro

THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
By Ezra Pound
Analysis: As the petals on black bough is not live even it is wet. The same situation is happening with all men. Who are habituated to work daily without any feeling or expression. Crowd has no face of feeling that seems to be true here.


5. The Pool

Are you alive?

I touch you.

You quiver like a sea-fish.

I cover you with my net.

What are you—banded one?

By H.D.

Analysis: As a bi-sexual person, Doolittle faced just such a situation. She played many roles; but, ultimately, she became a many faceted person.  Sometimes, we have difficulty, especially as adolescents, understanding our feelings.  We do not know what our emotions mean.  We question who we are and what we want from life.  It might be satisfying to have someone pull us close and help us to understand as the poet says in the last line: "What are you-banded one?"

6. Insoucians

In France (1916–1918)

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.

By Richard Aldington

Analysis: 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 Windoe

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.

By T.S.Eliot

Analysis: The poem is a set of striking images of poverty; the poet says nothing but shows them. The poor people are rattling (making sound) breakfast plates early in the morning. It is an obligation for poor people to go to work early and work till late. Sun or shower, frost or fog, they have to set out early. The image brings to mind similar images of poverty. The speaker says that he is aware of the condition of the households' minds and souls, or their psychology. He doesn't describe that. Such housemaids are appearing one after another at the city gate. Maybe they come from villages. They have no identity, dignity and meaningful life. They are 'despondent', or extremely sad.

The poem is a set of striking images of poverty; the poet says nothing but shows them. The poor people are rattling (making sound) breakfast plates early in the morning. It is an obligation for poor people to go to work early and work till late. Sun or shower, frost or fog, they have to set out early. The image brings to mind similar images of poverty. The speaker says that he is aware of the condition of the households' minds and souls, or their psychology. He doesn't describe that. Such housemaids are appearing one after another at the city gate. Maybe they come from villages. They have no identity, dignity and meaningful life. They are 'despondent', or extremely sad. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/morning-at-the-window.html#.V6xdUY-Kg8o

The poem is a set of striking images of poverty; the poet says nothing but shows them. The poor people are rattling (making sound) breakfast plates early in the morning. It is an obligation for poor people to go to work early and work till late. Sun or shower, frost or fog, they have to set out early. The image brings to mind similar images of poverty. The speaker says that he is aware of the condition of the households' minds and souls, or their psychology. He doesn't describe that. Such housemaids are appearing one after another at the city gate. Maybe they come from villages. They have no identity, dignity and meaningful life. They are 'despondent', or extremely sad. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/morning-at-the-window.html#.V6xdUY-Kg8o

8. The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

By William Carlos Williams

Analysis: Three images are involved: the wheelbarrow, described simply as red, the qualifying adjectival phrase “glazed with rain/ water,” which relieves the excessive severity of the second stanza, and the contrasting white chickens of the final stanza. The first line is colloquial and open in its invitation; the second line, the preposition “upon,” prepares the reader for the specifics to follow. Each two-line stanza has two stressed syllables in the first line and one in the second, and yet there is lively variation in where the stresses fall.

9. Anecedote of the Jar

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.

By Wallace Stevens

Analysis: Anecdote of the Jar is an imagist poem in which Stevens explores the question of the superiority between art and nature: Is nature superior to human creations, or does human creativity surpasses nature in some way? This is an age-old and puzzling question. This poem solves the riddle by recognizing the unique differences between art and nature: art may sometimes be more beautiful than nature but it cannot be as creative as the nature.

Anecdote of the Jar is an imagist poem in which Stevens explores the question of the superiority between art and nature: Is nature superior to human creations, or does human creativity surpasses nature in some way? This is an age-old and puzzling question. This poem solves the riddle by recognizing the unique differences between art and nature: art may sometimes be more beautiful than nature but it cannot be as creative as the nature. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/anecdote-of-the-jar.html#.V6xez4-Kg8o

Anecdote of the Jar is an imagist poem in which Stevens explores the question of the superiority between art and nature: Is nature superior to human creations, or does human creativity surpasses nature in some way? This is an age-old and puzzling question. This poem solves the riddle by recognizing the unique differences between art and nature: art may sometimes be more beautiful than nature but it cannot be as creative as the nature. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/anecdote-of-the-jar.html#.V6xez4-Kg8o

10. I (a... (a leaf falls on lonliness)

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

By E. E. Cummings
Analysis: The image of a single falling leaf is a common symbol for loneliness, and that this sense of loneliness is enhanced by the structure of the poem. He writes that the fragmentation of the words "illustrates visually the separation that is the primary cause of loneliness". The fragmentation of the word loneliness is especially significant, since it highlights the fact that that word contains the word one. In addition, the isolated letter l can initially appear to be the numeral one. It creates the effect that the leaf is still one, or "oneliness" whole within itself, even after it is isolated from the tree. 

Thank You

Note:Images are symbolic