Here I’m trying to read modern poems and try to give my interpretation of the poems. This is task related to my study and here is the link of that task…
Click here..
While reading this modern poems it takes too much thinking and sometimes we can not get the core meaning of the poems. This poems are very short but meanings are difficult to get. Though I tried here to get some meaning of poems.
1) “The Embankment” by T.E Hulme
(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night)
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.
T.E Hulme was an influential poet and thinker in the first years of twentieth century. He was an aesthetic philosopher and “father of Imagism”. The starting line of poem says it is fantasy of fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night. Normally in west the nights of winters are terrible with freezing cold. The gentleman is fallen and he himself admits that once he enjoyed the life but now he has to face hard life of poor people. People who don’t have basic needs like food, cloths, shelter. So the old man asking God to have some mercy and make blanket of sky which he can wrap and can have warmth in cold. The stars are not beautiful in this poem. To poet it seems stars have eaten blanket. “Star eaten blanket”, “Fallen gentleman” are modern metaphors.
2) “Darkness” by Joseph Campbell
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.
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet, American professor of literature. He writes similar kind of poetry to Humle at around the same time though they were working independently of each other.Title it self presents negativity. The combination of darkness and boghole negativity in the air but then there is a star which is shining in boghole. Star in boghole may be symbolize as modern civilization in boghole, and no chance to rescue from that boghole that is why poet says a star no more. A silver ribbon may be as a symbol of hope. But when he just look at it and pass on it signifies disinterest, or may be with only hope poet don’t want to stay there and wait he wants his life to go on. “Boghole” is modern metaphor.
3) “Image” by Edward Storer
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
In this poem, poet used the symbol of "white moon" as it connects the heart of two lover, but poet here used it in opposite side that it burns lovers and they can't chaste with each other. Their loneliness is there though they are together. So, here we can interpret that modernist think that we all are alone in crowd.
4) "In a station of the metro" by Ezra Pound
"The apparition of these faces in a crowd,
petals in wet, black bough
This poem's structure against the Victorian poems, Victorian used to write very lengthy poem but here poet use very short poem like the metro speed. Here, poet used very good metaphor "Petals on wet black bought". This poem suggest the busy life of city people they have not time to face each other like city life is lifeless. we can say that this poem is about the loneliness in crowd.
5)The pool- by Hilda Dolittle
"Are you alive?
I touched you
you quiver trembling like a sea fish
I cover you with my net
What are you banded one?
Very first line of the poem, 'Are you alive? arise the question of existence which is one of the important aspect of modern literature. People of modern time became like sea fish that they are controlled or bound by some chain that they can't free from them. The title "Pool" is also symbolize the stillness like water store in it which don't have flowness which is most important things in the life to flow from one to another.
6) "Insouciance"- By Richard Aldington
"In and out of the dreary trenches
Trudging cheerily under the stars
I make for myself little poems
Delicate as a flock of dovesin
Thy fly away like white-winged Doves.
In this poem the poet presents that how people are living their life insouciance way with carelessness. They try to express their feeling in literature as poet says "I make for myself little poem" the way of living is with no excitement "In and out of the dreary trenches" but though all are walking on their path with such cheer, the reference of "White-winged Doves" is used for modern culture of living life and feeling of isolation is there.
7) “Morning at the Window” by T.S Eliot
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.
T.S Eliot was an essayist, publisher, play wright, literary and social critic and one of the twentieth century’s major poets. This poem has effect of world war and the poverty which war has bring to the nation. The jiggling plates in kitchen, the edges of the street which is injured because of its over use. Souls of housemaids are wet, poverty increases without any hope. The fog is also brown. Twisted faces, as poet is looking through window on the streets faces twisting up to look at him. Passer by has dirty cloths and tears in eyes, smile is also aimless which vanished in few seconds. Normally the view of morning in poems are pleasing to eyes, the chirping of birds are described newly sprouted flowers and all but here the sound of rattling plates and hopelessness is sprouting. From the very beginning everyone has sorrow and misery in life. “rattling plates”, “brown fog”, “twisted faces”, “aimless smile” these all are modern metaphors.
9) "Anecdote of the jar- wallace stevens
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.
This is a imaginative poem which exaggerate the picture of jar. Poet placed that jar upon hill, jar reminds us the Grecian urn of Keats. Poets sing the glory of the jar and also ask the question that which is superior 'a work of art or nature?'
10) "I (A- E.E.Cummings
"A leaf falls with loneliness"
Cummings was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and play wright. Structure of poem also suggest fall by loneliness as many characters are separated from each other and for make a word they have to be together. Here poet talks about leaf which is lonely means all other lives are already left the tree. Tree is barren and the only leaf is remain which also falls because of loneliness. This poem also shows that how a lonely human can not survive. It also reminds me the short story by O’ Henry, “The Last Leaf” that how the last leaf is symbol of hope and it falls the hope also dies. May be here poet also wants to talk about dead hope.
Click here..
While reading this modern poems it takes too much thinking and sometimes we can not get the core meaning of the poems. This poems are very short but meanings are difficult to get. Though I tried here to get some meaning of poems.
1) “The Embankment” by T.E Hulme
(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night)
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.
T.E Hulme was an influential poet and thinker in the first years of twentieth century. He was an aesthetic philosopher and “father of Imagism”. The starting line of poem says it is fantasy of fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night. Normally in west the nights of winters are terrible with freezing cold. The gentleman is fallen and he himself admits that once he enjoyed the life but now he has to face hard life of poor people. People who don’t have basic needs like food, cloths, shelter. So the old man asking God to have some mercy and make blanket of sky which he can wrap and can have warmth in cold. The stars are not beautiful in this poem. To poet it seems stars have eaten blanket. “Star eaten blanket”, “Fallen gentleman” are modern metaphors.
2) “Darkness” by Joseph Campbell
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.
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet, American professor of literature. He writes similar kind of poetry to Humle at around the same time though they were working independently of each other.Title it self presents negativity. The combination of darkness and boghole negativity in the air but then there is a star which is shining in boghole. Star in boghole may be symbolize as modern civilization in boghole, and no chance to rescue from that boghole that is why poet says a star no more. A silver ribbon may be as a symbol of hope. But when he just look at it and pass on it signifies disinterest, or may be with only hope poet don’t want to stay there and wait he wants his life to go on. “Boghole” is modern metaphor.
3) “Image” by Edward Storer
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a chaste white moon,
Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.
In this poem, poet used the symbol of "white moon" as it connects the heart of two lover, but poet here used it in opposite side that it burns lovers and they can't chaste with each other. Their loneliness is there though they are together. So, here we can interpret that modernist think that we all are alone in crowd.
4) "In a station of the metro" by Ezra Pound
"The apparition of these faces in a crowd,
petals in wet, black bough
This poem's structure against the Victorian poems, Victorian used to write very lengthy poem but here poet use very short poem like the metro speed. Here, poet used very good metaphor "Petals on wet black bought". This poem suggest the busy life of city people they have not time to face each other like city life is lifeless. we can say that this poem is about the loneliness in crowd.
5)The pool- by Hilda Dolittle
"Are you alive?
I touched you
you quiver trembling like a sea fish
I cover you with my net
What are you banded one?
Very first line of the poem, 'Are you alive? arise the question of existence which is one of the important aspect of modern literature. People of modern time became like sea fish that they are controlled or bound by some chain that they can't free from them. The title "Pool" is also symbolize the stillness like water store in it which don't have flowness which is most important things in the life to flow from one to another.
6) "Insouciance"- By Richard Aldington
"In and out of the dreary trenches
Trudging cheerily under the stars
I make for myself little poems
Delicate as a flock of dovesin
Thy fly away like white-winged Doves.
In this poem the poet presents that how people are living their life insouciance way with carelessness. They try to express their feeling in literature as poet says "I make for myself little poem" the way of living is with no excitement "In and out of the dreary trenches" but though all are walking on their path with such cheer, the reference of "White-winged Doves" is used for modern culture of living life and feeling of isolation is there.
7) “Morning at the Window” by T.S Eliot
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.
T.S Eliot was an essayist, publisher, play wright, literary and social critic and one of the twentieth century’s major poets. This poem has effect of world war and the poverty which war has bring to the nation. The jiggling plates in kitchen, the edges of the street which is injured because of its over use. Souls of housemaids are wet, poverty increases without any hope. The fog is also brown. Twisted faces, as poet is looking through window on the streets faces twisting up to look at him. Passer by has dirty cloths and tears in eyes, smile is also aimless which vanished in few seconds. Normally the view of morning in poems are pleasing to eyes, the chirping of birds are described newly sprouted flowers and all but here the sound of rattling plates and hopelessness is sprouting. From the very beginning everyone has sorrow and misery in life. “rattling plates”, “brown fog”, “twisted faces”, “aimless smile” these all are modern metaphors.
9) "Anecdote of the jar- wallace stevens
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.
This is a imaginative poem which exaggerate the picture of jar. Poet placed that jar upon hill, jar reminds us the Grecian urn of Keats. Poets sing the glory of the jar and also ask the question that which is superior 'a work of art or nature?'
10) "I (A- E.E.Cummings
"A leaf falls with loneliness"
Cummings was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and play wright. Structure of poem also suggest fall by loneliness as many characters are separated from each other and for make a word they have to be together. Here poet talks about leaf which is lonely means all other lives are already left the tree. Tree is barren and the only leaf is remain which also falls because of loneliness. This poem also shows that how a lonely human can not survive. It also reminds me the short story by O’ Henry, “The Last Leaf” that how the last leaf is symbol of hope and it falls the hope also dies. May be here poet also wants to talk about dead hope.
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