On a basic, etymological level, "sympathy" means "feeling-together," and thus is perhaps the best way to describe the experience Stevens hopes audiences will have, in which they feel and sense each other together through their humanity: critic David Walker calls it "imaginative sympathy." We find poems about nature as well as eating plums, myth as well as satire of an old Christian woman, single characters as well as poor people, meaning of art as well as erotic memories of a woman, spiritual crisis as well as guilt of abortion, feminist movement as well as neurotic despise of a father, allegory of life-journey as well as the irony of death, and so on. Stevens says that in earlier ages it was easier for the poetic mind to "find" meaning: "the scene was set; it repeated what / Was in the script." Moreover, poetry "has to think about war"—especially the two World Wars that had occurred since the Modernists started writing poetry—and be pragmatic about that evil and darkness. For instance, Dylan Thomas’s poem “This Bread I Break” is at the same time about nature, about spirituality, and also about art. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Critic Mark Halliday notes that, especially in comparison with other Stevens work, "Of Modern Poetry" gives a definite "encouragement concerning interpersonal relationships." "Of Modern Poetry" follows that technique, but steps into a more outward-looking mode temporarily, and is a bit more socially conscious: the poet must also frankly assess the real world around him, and speak to real people's real-life experiences. These characteristics are widely believed to be feelings brought on by the Industrial Revolution and the many social, political and economic changes that accompanied it. The multiplicity of styles is the characteristic of modernist poetry. But in modernist poetry, we read poems about just any topic and theme. "Of Modern Poetry Themes". Modernism includes all such experimentations in the technique of expression. In general, modernist literature is characterized by the radical break with the traditions of literary subjects, forms, concepts and styles. Of Modern Poetry Themes . The most striking element of modernist poetry is the invention and experimentation of new modes of expression. One of the duties of poetry, in this view, is to pay attention to ordinary people, the "men of the time and...women of the time." So, in modernist poetry, the meaning of a poem is the ‘differing’ interpretation of different readers. When it all comes down to it, Wallace Stevens doesn't want to write about beautiful things like flowers and love. Contact Us One of the ideal effects of the modern poem, as described in the poem's middle section, is that the audience members listen to themselves and experience "an emotion as of two people, as of two / Emotions becoming one." Each poet makes his own rules. This meaning can come in different forms, and must be responsive to its audience; Stevens rather straightforwardly writes that sometimes poems need to tell an audience "exactly that which it wants to hear." These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of On Modern Poetry by Wallace Stevens. There is a reason why this poem is titled "Of Modern Poetry," and its first few lines give clues as to the importance of differentiating "modern poetry" (poetry of the 20th century) from what came before. Traditional poetry had to be limited to subjects of universal significance, general human appeal, and so on, even when the poems were romantically personal on their surface. The different ways of expressing include the imagist way of presenting just concrete images for the readers to understand the idea and experience the feelings themselves; the symbolist way of presenting things in terms of deeply significant symbols of ideas and feelings for readers to interpret them intellectually; the realist way of truly reflecting the reality of the world; the naturalist way of going to the extreme of realism by showing the private, psychological, fantastic and the neurotic; the impressionistic way of presenting unrefined first impression of everything by the observer; the expressionistic way of probing deep into one’s own psyche and trying to express the hidden and deepest feelings, as in confessional poems; the surrealist way of imposing the mood of madness, intoxication and neurosis to excite the illogical ‘language’ of the unconscious; to name a few. | The poem suggests that something worthwhile and meaningful can be found in each person, and that an effective poet must engage with the people around them. Besides being written on a large range of subjects and themes, modernist poems tend to be multiple in themes. For Stevens' early writing, this new way was primarily to look within the mind itself and to cultivate the human powers of perception and creativity. Literature & Writing "Of Modern Poetry" is about one thing: what poetry is supposed to be doing in the modern age. There have been blank verse poems, pictorial poems, remixed rhythms, and so on. On Modern Poetry study guide contains a biography of Wallace Stevens, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Also, modernist poets have violated all the known conventions and established rules of the past. The process of this meaning-making is described in the passage right before the second broken line: the poem is like a musician whose instrument gives sudden rightness and clarity to whatever sounds pass through it. The best one can expect is to try and find logical support for the theme or themes that he ‘finds’ in the poem. Not affiliated with Harvard College. |, Copyright © www.bachelorandmaster.com All Rights Reserved. Modernism includes the many ‘-isms’ and therefore many different ways to express ideas and feelings. GradeSaver, 4 September 2017 Web. Cummings’ poems are good examples. For that reason, Stevens uses the … In poetry, we can discuss the modernist elements in terms of four major subheadings: modern or new experiments in form and style, new themes and word-games, new modes of expression, and complex and open-ended nature of their themes and meaning.

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