Modern Poetry: Background and Techniques

A Break from Tradition

Modern poetry, represented chiefly by T. S. Eliot, diverges significantly from the Romantic and Victorian traditions.

Each age harbors distinct notions about poetry, particularly regarding subjects, materials, and modes.

During the nineteenth century, ideas about poetry were shaped by the great Romantic poets—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.

They believed that the sublime and the pathetic were the chief nerves of all genuine poetry.

Classics and Wit

Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton were revered over Dryden and Pope, who were seen as men of wit and good sense but lacked the transcendentally sublime or pathetic.

During the Victorian Age, Matthew Arnold summed up these assumptions, stating:

Though they may write in verse, though they may in a certain sense be masters of the art of versification,
Dryden and Pope are not classics of our poetry, they are classics of our prose.

He distinguished between genuine poetry, conceived and composed in the soul, and the poetry of Dryden and Pope, composed in their wits.

Emotion and Intellect

Arnold shared the era's prejudice in favor of poetry that was simple, sensuous, and passionate, as described by Milton.

Poetry was expected to be a direct expression of simple, tender, exalted, poignant, and sympathetic emotions.

Wit, intellectual play, and verbal jugglery were seen as hindrances to the reader's emotional engagement.

Dream World Preoccupation

Nineteenth-century poetry often focused on a dream world, as seen in Keats's La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott, and Rossetti's The Blessed Damozel.

O' Shaughnessy captured this conception of poets in his lines:

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers
On whom the pale moon shines.

These conceptions suited the age and were backed by the prestige of the Romantic achievement.

New Conditions

The twentieth century saw radical changes, leading poets and critics to abandon the dream habit.

Despite being aware of new problems due to scientific and technical discoveries, Tennyson expressed a spirit of withdrawal rather than facing these issues.

His poem The Palace of Art illustrates this withdrawal and escape, despite its moral message.

Other-worldly Victorian Poetry

Arnold referred to the Victorian poetry as "other-worldly" due to the age's "strange disease of modern life," as depicted in his poem:

………this strange disease of modern life
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,
Its heads o‘ertaxed, its palsied hearts……

However, Arnold's response to his age's disease was similar to other poets of his time, seeking escape to the freshness of the early world.

He was not equipped to direct poetry toward new directions, unlike Browning, who, though optimistic, did not address the complexities of modern life.

Need for Great Poets

There was a need for poets to make poetry relevant to modern life, escaping the established habits of the Victorian era.

Generations had become accustomed to the idea that certain things were "not poetical," limiting the scope of poetry.

Twentieth-century poets needed to be fully aware of their surroundings and have the courage and technique to express them.

Poetical Problem

The primary problem was to invent a technique adequate for the modern adult sensitive mind.

T. S. Eliot stands out for solving his own poetic problems and influencing modern poetry through his work and criticism.

His influence led to a departure from the line running from the Romantics to Tennyson, Swinburne, and Rupert Brooke.

Transitional Poets

Robert Bridges belonged to the transitional period, focusing on breaking down the syllabic system of versification.

He aimed to revive the principle of quantitative stress in English versification.

A. E. Houseman, a classical scholar, rejected the ecstasies of romantic poetry, favoring purity, simplicity, restraint, and absence of ornamentation.

W. B. Yeats, founder of the Celtic movement in poetry and drama, expressed the intellectual mood of his age.

Revolt Against Victorianism

Twentieth-century poets revolted against Victorianism and the didactic tendencies of poets like Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Swinburne, and Meredith.

They believed that poetry should be a medium for discovering oneself and projecting this discovery, not for philosophy or singing for its own sake.

This led to movements like imagism and symbolism in modern poetry.

Symbolism and Imagism

Symbolism, started in France in the nineteenth century, aimed to express individual sensations and perceptions without conventional metres and sentence structures.

Symbolist poetry induces certain states of mind in the reader rather than communicating logical meaning.

Imagists, on the other hand, aimed for clarity through hard, accurate, and definite images.

They believed that rapid impingement of images on consciousness could best serve the purpose of poetry.

Rise of Symbolist Poetry

Symbolist poetry gained prominence in England with the publication of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

However, it had roots in the Victorian Age, evident in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Hopkins and T. S. Eliot greatly influenced English poetry between the two world wars.

Symbolist Technique

The symbolist technique is impressionistic, not representational, often using obscurity to prevent obstruction of emotive suggestion.

It incorporates a strong element of charm or incantation through the music of words.

Repetition is a common feature, as seen in Tennyson's The Marriage of Geraint:

Forgetful of his promise to the king
Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt,
Forgetful of the tilt and tournament,
Forgetful of his glory and his name
Forgetful of the princedom and its cares.

Repetitive rhythms create a hypnotic quality, recalling the texture of dreams and subconscious states of mind.

The absence of punctuation allows expression of the continuous "stream of consciousness."

Subjective Vision

Symbolists prioritize the subjective vision of an object or situation over the object or situation itself.

Unlike Romantics, who found beauty in conventionally beautiful things, symbolists find beauty in everyday details.

This requires a higher quality of art and a more sensitive approach to life.

Breaking New Ground

Symbolists include all sorts of objects and situations in their poetry, breaking new ground in language as well.

They believe every word has potential for use in poetry as well as prose.

As a result, they had to invent new prosody to accommodate words previously banned from poetry.

Symbolists do not consider any particular topic, diction, or rhythm as specially privileged for poetry.