Origins and Characteristics
The First World War (1914-18) gave rise to war poetry.
Poets who wrote about the war and its horrors, especially in the trenches, are called the War Poets or Trench Poets.
War poetry continued the tradition of Georgian poetry, characterized by an escape from actuality.
Example: E. W. Tennant describes soldiers in "Home Thoughts in Laventie" as "Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered town. Away upon the Downs."
Approach and Style
Trench Poets viewed the horrors of war as a mere dream and considered the world of imagination as the only reality.
Following the Georgian tradition, they described incidents of war and the simple men caught in the catastrophe.
Their method was descriptive and impressionistic, lacking intense, sincere, and realistic approaches, thus failing to evoke the desired emotions in readers.
Notable Poets
Siegfried Sassoon |
Initially part of the Georgian group but shifted to a satiric and rebellious mood.
Believed soldiers were sacrificed for false idealism.
Example: "A decent chap who did his work and hadn't much to say" (A Working Party).
Described trench warfare horrors in "Suicide in Trenches" and public memory of war in "Song Books of the War".
Wilfred Owen |
Influenced by Sassoon, expressed the harsh truth about war.
Believed poetry's purpose was to warn about the realities of war.
His poems combined disillusioned irony with hope for humanity.
Example: "I am the enemy you killed, my friend... Let us sleep now." (Strange Meeting).
Contributed to modern English poetry by introducing balance and parallelism.
William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
Life and Influences
One of the most important modern poets, influenced his contemporaries and successors.
Irish by nationality, he couldn't reconcile with English habits and thinking.
A dreamer and visionary, believed in Irish folk-lore, fairies, gnomes, demons, and the truth of dreams.
Felt a stranger in a world dominated by science, technology, and rationalism.
Poetic Beliefs
Believed modern civilization effaced fundamental consciousness.
Trusted in imagination and admired ages when it reigned supreme.
Delved into folklore and mythology, discovering the primitive and perennial throb of life.
Anti-rationalist, believed in magic, occult influences, and hypnotism.
Led the 'revolt of the soul against the intellect', seeking a more conscious exercise of human faculties.
Symbolism
Believed in the magic of words, rediscovering symbols that appealed to common humanity.
Evoked a complex of emotions through indirect strokes, sometimes requiring commentary.
Example: "Do you not hear me calling white deer with no horns? I have been changed to a hound with one red ear!" (The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers).
Common symbol: 'the moon', representing life's mystery.
Yeats' Poetry
Aimed to reform poetry by connecting the ancient with the present.
Early poems like "The Wanderings of Oisin" express deep idealism in primitive tales.
WWI and Irish disturbances directed him towards more realism.
Combined earthly passions with unearthly visions in lyrics like "The Wild Swans at Coole", "The Tower", and "The Winding Stair".
Later poetry exhibited a hard, athletic, and metallic glint, influenced by Imagists.
Believed a revolutionary change was imminent, described in "Second Coming".
Influenced modern poetry with his sincerity, personality, and genius.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888)
Life and Education
Greatest among modern English poets, influenced modern poetry significantly.
Born in 1888 in the USA, educated at Harvard, Paris, and Oxford, settled in England.
Poetic Philosophy
Combines traditional classicism with innovative styles.
Sees literature as a continuous process where the present contains the past.
Classicism stands for order, poise, and right reason, following the permanent spirit of tradition.
Innovations
Rejected traditional literary language, creating a new medium for modern life.
Influenced by Ezra Pound, introduced colloquial and archaic words for profound effects.
Major Works
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1917) |
Expresses disillusionment, irony, and disgust at modern life.
The Waste Land |
Surveys the desolate world, seeking meaning amid chaos.
The Hollow Men (1925) |
Reflects on the emptiness and futility of modern existence.
Four Quartets |
Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding explore the eternal Now where past, present, and future blend.
Influence and Legacy
A many-sided personality: classicist, innovator, critic, poet, social philosopher, and mystic.
Made the age conscious of itself, highlighting the dangers of modern civilization.
Expressed ideas in a language devoid of superfluous ornamentation, conveying the terrifying aspects of modern life.
Poets after T. S. Eliot
W. H. Auden
Settled in America before WWII, viewed the Waste Land as symbolic of modern civilization's depression.
Early poetry reflects imminent crisis; later poetry adopts a contemplative, religious approach.
Uses symbols and images from everyday life.
Stephen Spender
Initially influenced by Auden, expressed sympathy for the working classes.
Developed a quiet, autobiographical style.
Cecil Day Lewis
Early poetry influenced by Auden, later reflective and reminiscent with Victorian diction.
Known for profound knowledge of technique, imagery primarily rural, and elegiac tone.
Other Important Poets
Louis MacNeice, Edith Sitwell, Robert Graves, Roy Campbell, Geoffrey Grigson, George Barker, and Dylan Thomas.
Tendency towards Romanticism, influenced by Blake rather than Donne.
Dylan Thomas emphasizes unity of man with nature and the cosmic cycle of life and death.
Despite Romantic tendencies, Eliot's intellectual toughness and classicism still dominate.
Modern poetry trends towards Wordsworthian quietness.
