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Modern poetryCompact Performer - Culture & LiteratureMarina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,Margaret Layton 2015
JonathanSwift and free verseModern poetry1. Tradition and experimentationThe first decades of the 20thcentury a periodof extraordinary originality andvitality in poetry.A variety of trends and currentsexpressed the natureof modern experience: The Georgian Poets The War Poets Imagist Poets Symbolist PoetsCompact Performer - Culture & LiteratureKarl Moll, ‘Twilight’, ca 1900. OsterreischesGallery, Belvedere (Vienna).
JonathanSwift and free verseModern poetry2. The Georgian PoetsThe Georgian poets influenced by the Victorian Romantic tradition.Among them there was Rupert Brooke (1887–1915).THEMES: sympathy for English elements, such as the countrysideas an idyllic place;STYLE: they employed a conventional language and remainedindifferent or hostile to the revolution in sensibility and techniquestarted by the Symbolists.AIM: to celebrate some English values, to emphasize patriotism.Rupert BrookeCompact Performer - Culture & LiteratureWalter de la MareEdward Thomas
JonathanSwift and free verseModern poetry3. The War PoetsThe War Poets (Wilfred Owen): experienced the fighting in most cases lost their lives in the conflictTHEMES the horrors of modern warfare represented in an unconventional,anti-rhetorical way .STYLE unconventional. They used a violent, everyday language.AIM to awaken the conscience of the readers to the horrors of the warThey have elements in common with the poetry of Ungaretti.Compact Performer - Culture & Literature
JonathanSwift and free verseModern poetry4. Imagist PoetsModern poetry officially began with Imagism, a movementwhich flourished between 1912 and 1917.The name ‘Imagiste’ invented by the American poet EzraPound (1885–1972).THEMES: choice of anysubject matter.STYLE: short poems, constantuse of hard, clear and preciseimages.AIM: the poems usuallycontained no moral commentThis poetry has similarities with the Italian“ermetismo”.Compact Performer - Culture & Literature
JonathanSwift and free verseModern poetry5. Symbolist PoetsSymbolism a movement started in France with CharlesBaudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal (1857). It influenced thenew poetry.THEMES: poetry is considered an escape from emotion.STYLE: - use of allusive language and of associationof words.- importance given to the ‘sound’ of words- use of quotations from other literatures,revealing cosmopolitan interests- the use of free verseAIM: to evoke rather than stateHere is no water but only rockRock and no water and the sandyroad .If there were waterAnd no rockIf there were rockAnd also waterAnd waterA springA pool among the rockIf there were the sound of wateronlyNot the cicadaAnd dry grass singingBut sound of water over a rockWhere the hermit-thrush sings inthe pine treesDrip drop drip drop drop drop dropBut there is no water(from The Waste Land by TS Eliot)The main representative was T.S Eliot, whose poetry has something incommon with Montale (the “objective correlative”)Compact Performer - Culture & Literature
Jonathan SwiftThe Soldier by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) page 235 Rupert Brooke studied in Cambridge. He belonged to the movement ofGeorgian Poets, who wanted a return to nature and simple emotions. He wrotefive war sonnets in 1914 which celebrate the heroic side of war, and becamefamous for them. They were traditional in form and show a sentimentalattitude. They inspired patriotism at the beginning of the war, differently fromthe poems written by the War Poets, who emphasized the horrors of life in thetrenches. Brooke died young and only had a short experience of war. It’s a Petrarchan sonnet. The soldier identifies with his country. He’s not afraid of death because if he dies he will be remembered as a cornerof English land in a foreign country. He is proud of being British; he uses images connected to the Englishlandscape (flowers, rivers, suns of home) and to the English character (laughter,gentleness). He presents an idealised view of war, where death in battle is not regarded as atragic experience but as a noble act.Compact Performer - Culture & Literature
Comparison Ungaretti - BrookeGiuseppe Ungaretti – ITALIASono un poetaun grido unanimesono un grumo di sogniSono un fruttod'innumerevoli contrasti d'innestimaturato in una serraMa il tuo popolo è portatodalla stessa terrache mi portaItaliaE in questa uniformedi tuo soldatomi riposocome fosse la culladi mio padreAlso Ungaretti in Italia (1916) expresses a sense ofbelonging to his country, of having being shapedby the same earth of which his countrymen aremade, similarly to what Brooke expresses in TheSoldier.However Ungaretti, who volunteered as aninfantry soldier and was at first full of hopes andpatriotic ideals, soon realized the cruelty andharsh reality of war. So in his poems hedenounced the meaningless of war contrastingdeath, violence and destruction with life, natureand human feelings.His use of a concise, unconventional language issimilar to the War Poets: he uses free verse andstrong images.Performer - Culture&Literature
Modern poetry officially began with Imagism, a movement which flourished between 1912 and 1917. The name 'Imagiste' invented by the American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972). 4. Imagist Poets Modern poetry and free verse THEMES: choice of any subject matter. STYLE: short poems, constant use of hard, clear and precise images. AIM: the poems usually
