Modern Family (Final Exam Essay Question 3)

2022 May 4

Modernist poetry can be considered a crux to conventional forms of Victorian poetry since it aimed to dismantle populism writing and embrace self-reflection. In the poems Wasteland by T.S. Elliot, In a Station of the Metro, and A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste by Ezra Pound demonstrate modernists traits such as myth, concrete diction and imagery, and dense allusion and complex intertextual relations with literary tradition. It was essential for modernists poets to move away from personal beliefs and into more intellectual beliefs that could be made about the world around them. In doing so, poets can grasp an evergreen approach to their content and focus more on the gamut of quality and style of an original piece. Most Victorian works are a work of classic, yet those pieces can fall into a pit of false perception of how some religious ideologies were glorified when, they were not. Modernist 20th century poetry distinguishes itself from Victorian by acknowledging the faults of romanticism, perpetuation of social consciousness, and the fears of the individual.

The faults of romanticism in Victorian poetry lies in the rejection of realism and the cultivation of optimistic bias. T.S. Elliot’s Wasteland outlines this problem by using the myth of a dying god and fertility to illustrate the collective unconscious of man and the disposition to personal unconscious. According to Elliot, this statement is brought forward when he compares the imagery of the wasteland to World War 1 trenches, “Musing upon the king my brother’s wreck, and on the king my father’s death before him. White bodies naked on the low damp ground and bones cast in a little low dry garret, rattled by the rat’s foot only, year to year” (lines 191-195). The fisher king’s sickness is synonymous with the welfare of the land and its people as his followers use the act of violence to give a sense of renewal, vivacity, and security within the land. The poem also symbolizes modernist poetry to emphasize that self-identity is in a struggling quest of comfort and stability under the weight of desolation.

The use of concrete diction and imagery is also demonstrated by the themes of water and rock within the Grail Quest and the Wasteland. According to Elliot, without water there is no hope or road to recovery and people are led to feed into their own inhibitions, “Here is no water but only rock…/ if there were water we should stop and drink/ Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think…/ There is not even silence in the mountains/ But dry sterile thunder without rain/ if there were water/ And no rock/ if there were rock … But there is no water” (lines 331-358). Water is theorized to be both an angel in disguise and a devil on people’s shoulders since it has the power to nourish and cause death. This dichotomy plays in the context of Wasteland people who are dead are rebirthed into a new life, preserving the skewed optimism, and serve as the spiritual salvation for those who inhabited the Wasteland. It feeds into nihilism of modernists poetry where the act of destruction brings re-creation and shouldered on the individual.

The dense allusion and complex intertextual relations with literary traditions is carried out through Madame Sostris reading tarot cards to determine the narrator’s fate. Sostris involvement leads to the credence of mystical forces for recovery of a dimmed future and to question the reader if their profit came at a loss for relying on mysticism. According to Elliot, tarot cards tell the narrators future when it is revealed to the narrator of what they are, “Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,/ The lady of situations./ Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, / … The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. / I see crowds of people, waling around in a ring. (lines 49-56). Although, the symbols match with the Grail Story to show the tragic events that will fall in place, this was done to illustrate consolation and realization. Elliot conflates mysticism with occultism since it represents the clash between skepticism and romanticism and how the combination of the two results in delusion. Surrendering oneself to faith will only rob the individual of their own protection and self-actualization to forces people do not the know existence of.

The perpetuation of social consciousness encapsulates the distorted relations between humans and society. Pound outlines this statement in his poems where he confronts contradictions of the momentary and timeless to highlight the frailty of an image. The myth in “In a Station of the Metro” captures the essence of hell mythology as the subway station itself can paint a resemblance to the underworld. The underworld itself is crowded with souls who have been weighed down by their sins and spending more time down there will cause individuals to feel jaded about the things around them. Ezra described their faces as “Petals on a wet, black bough” ( line 2). Meaning that image of renewed life is seared away by the reality of death. Concrete diction and imagery come into effect when it showcases a clear picture of subway life. According to Pound, “apparition of these faces in the crowd” (lines 1). This illustrates that most of these souls are identical, and their individuality becomes lost in the vastness of a busy subway, like how apparitions pass by fleetingly unable for people to know their existence.

The dense allusion and complex intertextual relations with literary tradition in this poem calls out that the metaphor in the poem is a reference to urban life and the natural world. The clash comes in from having humans gather in one place, but everyone is distracted, and in a hurry to get to where they need to go. People must force themselves out of their comfort zone to forge meaningful connections even if they remain temporal for the time being. The idea of strangeness imposes the natural image over modern to capture a moment in time and space to illustrate genuine loss of human connection. The perpetuation of social consciousness evoke the eerie nature of the poem by embracing the dissonance of seeing people coming and going, the pressure of how fast time goes by, and the replaceability of an existing image.

The dense allusion and complex intertextual relations with literary tradition in this poem calls out that the metaphor in the poem is a reference to urban life and the natural world. The clash comes in from having humans gather in one place, but everyone is distracted, and in a hurry to get to where they need to go. People must force themselves out of their comfort zone to forge meaningful connections even if they remain temporary. The idea of strangeness imposes the natural image over modern to capture a moment in time and space to illustrate genuine loss of human connection. Social thoughts evoke the eerie nature of the poem by embracing the dissonance of seeing people coming and leaving and the pressure of how fast time goes by and the replaceability of an experience.

The fear of the individual fits into Modernists poetry by outlining the faith of human autonomy and freedom from authority. Ezra Pound’s, “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste” best describes this statement as it aims to help the writing mantra for imagist poetry. For myth, Ezra points out that imagism deals with fleeting and immediate, which can feel synonymous with the dead or spirits. Yet imagism also specifies that images that are fleeing can carry the force of intellectual and emotional meaning. Pound explains that by relaying the importance of the image to be in a complex state, “An image is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” (192). This exemplifies that complexity is a state of freedom for an individual since it is personal to them, and no authoritative figure can replicate their state of mind. Also, the focus on an instance of time gives balance to the two factors of intellectual and emotional so that the reader can focus on the source, the process, and finally the product.

Concrete diction and imagery come into play when Pound voices his discontent for imitation and vague abstractions in imagery. To him, these add nothing to work and hinder the realization of the meaning behind various modernists poetry. Poets would fail to control what is subjective to their reader slows the growth of complexity and the fond uniqueness the public can pick up in the verses. Pound reiterates, “Go in fear of abstractions. Don’t retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose. … by chopping your composition into line lengths (193). This statement can relate to inner nature of reality, by growing attached to more complex elements within poetry certain imagery can be imposed upon others. Enabling modern poets to embody a metaphorical world of universal meaning and showing the dramatic meanings of the text.

The dense allusion and complex intertextual relations with literary traditions leads itself with the act of imposing images on others. Pound appropriates subject matter in a way to be direct and make sure every word remains ingrained with the reader. He does so by making malleable forms of the image in question to make the juxtaposition that is within the poem into something that questions self. Such as having a feminine story masquerade the expectations of a woman, but have the men be split into forms that have the readers questioning their identity. Ezra explains, “In short, behave as a musician, a good musician, when dealing with that phase of your art which has exact parallels in music. The same laws govern, and you are bound by no others” (194). Every poetic element within modernists poetry needs to be harmonized to capture the tone and meaning of the imagery. Within that performance it must also have a form of mystique and catch the reader surprised so that the poet’s integrity and uniqueness are preserved in that moment in time.

In sum, modernists poetry separates itself from Victorian poetry by outlining the deconstruction and mass culture against the sentimentality and authoritative power. Experimental literature was designed to help the self—according to the world around them to show that reality is not always fleeting. To get around traditional poetry many archetypes and rules had to be broken to strike a chord in people for people to obtain their own individual freedom. Victorian poets refer to all-knowing authority entities to show that objectivity and mysticism which focused metaphysical nature of religion to solve most problems. Modernist poets distinguish themselves from Victorian poets by giving a realistic approach to subject matter, analyzing unconscious bias versus conscious bias, and the fear of self.