Modernism, continued...

In the past poets wrote for themselves or for people they knew personally. With the Modernist movement came something “difficult”- the exploration of “having patience with poetry”. This meant that “meaning” took on a “new” meaning. Things were not always evident. The idea of “patience” with poetry erupted through the “impatience” found in deciphering modernist poetry.

T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound were the “social connection” and worked together as a consciously revolutionary team[I]. Imagery became important in poetry. Imagist poems were like photographs. Imagists like Pound and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) found that their objectives were to, “present an emotional and intellectual complex in an instant of time."[II] This is a great way to describe the idea of Imagist poems being much like photographs. They can articulate complex emotions in only a few lines by using specific words which suggest sensuality and emotional intensity.

As a result of this heavy and rich style of writing, in order to understand the context, one might find themselves perplexed or impatient. Asking themselves (as we often do) what in the world does this mean? There came a point where poets would provide a vehicle by which to communicate their ideas, so that their ideas would reach a larger audience.

T. S. Eliot was a poet, critic, and editor. He wrote with an imagist style which unlocked the subtleties of the unconscious[III].

T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is one of the greatest poems in modernist literature. Eliot uses many references and sources in his work- an example of this is his reference to the bible and Christianity, as well as the work of his peers and predecessors. This shows his wide-range of interest, profound knowledge, and insight. The poem itself is a reference to the city as a wasteland. Eliot’s poem “shattered notions of poetry”[IV] in that it had to be one specific thing, with a specific purpose and a specifc structure by which to follow- Eliot encorporated references to many poets with a likeness to encorporate their ideas and style into his own, and ended-up expressing those ideas in a way that they couldn’t. The poem is divided in to five sections of the poem operate as an orientation, a reference to the earth (and all its properties: earth, fire, air, and water). He incorporated irony, metonymy, simile, paradox, personification, and metaphor which were the literary devices he used to convey his ideas.

I will attempt to decipher the whole of Eliot's The Waste Land at a later date. Characteristic of modernist poetry, understanding the poem will take time. Although there are many resources available to "walk me through" it, I would much rather attempt it first and foremost on my own, see how far I get, how much I read into it- and compare my notes.

Stay tuned..