In What Way Imagist Poetry Influences Modernists

Table of Contents . Introduction 2 2. The Return to Classicism 2 3. Unconventional Form: Vers Libre 5 4. Innovative Content and Language 6 5. Image and Consciousness 9 6. Conclusion 11 7. Reference List 12 In What Way Imagist Poetry Influences Modernists . Introduction The England-based Georgians had been attacked by the modernists as "unoriginal and slack in technique, shallow in feeling, slight in intellect...and weekend escapism" (David 1976, p.204). The American-based Genteel Mode, on the other hand, was also criticized as "...in its Romantic spiritual elevation it did not grapple with experience..."(David 1976, p.204). Modernist writers contended that the society had undergone enormous changes at the beginning of the twentieth century and that the carefree and relaxed attitude, which was representative of Georgian poetry and the Genteel Mode cannot present the real situation of the society and demanded that people should break away from traditions. Imagists were such a group of poets who refused to obey and challenged the traditions of poetry composition (some of these practices, though, were disapproved by some of the critics). As David put it, "imagism has been described as the grammar school of modern poetry," which means that it plays a fundamental role in influencing the way along which later modernist writers followed to create their work. Reviewing how

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A critical analysis of Philip Larkin's 'Mr Bleaney'.

Rachael Ward Tutor: Mr R. Pooley Twentieth Century Literature: 20% Exercise A critical analysis of Philip Larkin's 'Mr Bleaney'. Richard Davie once claimed that whilst he "recognised in Larkin's [poetry] the seasons of present-day England, [he also] recognised...the seasons of an English soul".1 In fact Philip Larkin's very interest in human nature, together with his dislike of "...self-indulgent romanticism..."2, contributed to the character and final draft of 'Mr Bleaney'. By pulling the life and personality of the ordinary English bachelor with that of the poetic personae who is about to buy into Mr Bleaney's apartment, not to mention his life and ways, Larkin is able debate whether 'how we live [actually] measures our own nature', a fear that plagued the author as well as the poetic personae. As we are escorted around Mr Bleaney's apartment the landlady describes how he stayed there 'the whole time he was at the Bodies'. To be at 'the Bodies' suggests that Mr Bleaney's stay in the apartment and even on this earth was only temporary. His body appears to be just a casing, thus implying that Mr Bleaney was simply the shell of man who was waiting to die. His life is empty, lonely and predictable. The poem's simple 'AB' rhyming scheme also emphasises the predictable, routine and limited life of Mr Bleaney, hence a life with only one pattern. Through the

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Charles Simics Butcher Shop is a poem of four-line stanzas that shows how the poet and subsequently all humans are caught in a solitary existence. However, through a poets perspective, people can reach across the distance of solitude toward co

Vlad Mirona , American Studies 1st year MA BUTCHER SHOP - Creation reflected in a dark mirror Charles Simic's "Butcher Shop" is a poem of four-line stanzas that shows how the poet and subsequently all humans are caught in a solitary existence. However, through a poet's perspective, people can reach across the distance of solitude toward communication. Regarding this poem, we can talk about a minimalist level. It doesn't seem that much happens within the scene itself. Instead, the action takes place in the poet's act of making poetry-in turning the simple though gruesome effects of the butcher's shop into something surreal. This transformation allows the poet and the reader to speculate on the worldly phenomena that allow humans to reach across the distance of space, time, and language to speak to each other. In this poem, the vocabulary is accessible. Of all the different words used in the poem, "continents" and "imbecile" are the only words longer than two syllables. Simic uses a four-line stanza made up of free-verse lines with approximately four beats per line. Also, only two lines have four syllables or less ("Where I am fed" and "To be healed"). Generally, the lines are neither overly long nor too short. Overall, Simic seems to reach for a kind of transparency in his language, where the things named will become what they signify when read. Other

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Dylan Thomas' The Hand that Signed the Paper

Victor Randolph Brent Russo English 28A 0 March, 2009 How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? The poem that I have chosen to work with, "The Hand That Signed the Paper," seems especially potent to me. The poem was written when Thomas was only nineteen, and his youth shows. The poem is painted in broad strokes and is not as nuanced as his later poetry, but still comes from a sophisticated mind. It is an elegant example of the kind of historical knowledge and awareness of tradition that T.S. Eliot argued any good poet ought to have.1 Ezra Pound described the artist (and poet) as "The antenna of the race, the barometer and voltmeter" 2 Allen Ginsberg described himself as "the Defense Early Warning Radar System." 3 "The Hand That Signed the Paper" is written with qualities of both characterizations of poets as social detectors. The poem was written in 1933, a year after Germany began re-armament4 after its military was deconstructed by the Treaty of Versailles. The poem challenges the political and social attitudes of Western Europe as it reframes Weimar Germany as victim to the synecdochic hand. The consequence of those attitudes (Thomas as "Early Warning Radar System" would argue) is Germany's rapid reorganization towards Nazism. The content of this poem is of a much greater depth than the form. The poem is organized simply: four sentences as stanzas, each with four lines. The

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Does the simplicity of Simon Armitage's work detract from the complexity of the social issues he deals with in Kid and Killing Time

Does the simplicity of Simon Armitage's work detract from the complexity of the social issues he deals with in Kid and Killing Time Born in 1963 in Huddersfield Yorkshire, Simon Armitage is often grouped with Tony Harrison, Ted Hughes not only because of his heritage, but also because of his style. Many of his poems are social commentaries with a straight forward and somewhat cynical outlook, typical of the 'northern poet'. Armitage uses a simplistic style of writing, common lexis and usually quite overt subject matter. His anthologies range in topics, including the largely biographical Book of Matches which incorporates numerous stories about his childhood, both serious and light-hearted. Armitage was commissioned to write Killing Time for the millennium and it was later dramatised and shown television on the 1 January 2000. It is a thousand line poem reflecting on the previous years events; sometimes comic, satirical and dry, and at other times extremely powerful and serious. It is questionable, therefore, how Armitage can combine his simple style with a poignant and sombre subject matter with any degree of success. His collection Kid contains similar style poems, as well as some more optimistic poetry, so by comparing Killing Time with a selection of poetry from Kid, Armitage's methods of merging two seemingly opposing factors will become apparent. Perhaps Simon

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The Pomegranate by Eaven Boland

THE POMEGRANATE EAVEN BOLAND AN ANALYSIS I found The Pomegranate by Eaven Boland a beautiful poem because I felt a connection to it at a personal level. In this analysis I aim to clarify what Boland talks about, how she conveys her insecurities and fears and what the poem holds significant for me. To understand the poem it is first necessary to understand the legend it is based on: the legend of a mother and daughter. Boland talks about the Goddess Ceres and her daughter Persephone and relates to them throughout the poem. Interestingly, Boland combines two legends here: Greek and Roman. Persephone, in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth. In one version of the myth, when the god Hades seized Persephone and took her to the underworld, the earth grew desolate. Demeter went into mourning for her lost daughter and thus all green things ceased to grow. Zeus, the highest ranking of the Greek gods, could not leave the Earth to die, so he commanded Hades to return Persephone. It was the rule of the Fates that anyone who consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone had no food, but Hades tricked her into eating four (six in some versions) pomegranate seeds while she was still his prisoner and so, because of this, she was condemned to spend four months in the Underworld every year. During these four months, when

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Displacement and Doubt in Post-Colonial Literature. Olive Seniors Gardening in the Tropics is an example of a collection of work that through the use of poetic and literary techniques, effectively displays her ambivalence towards h

LITERARY ESSAY "The Post-Colonial writings of women throughout the African diaspora often reflect ambivalence toward place and language (Teresa Zacoolink)." Discuss with reference to Olive Senior's Gardening in the Tropics.' Displacement and Doubt in Post-Colonial Literature Nostalgic yet ambivalent, is the unrelenting reaction expressed by Post-colonial female writers of the African diasporic community living and writing abroad. Jean Rhys and Olive Senior are two such female writers who portray via their literary works, the personal struggles they experience, of yearning to be home whilst fearing rejection and seeking their own national and cultural identity through their own displacement. Olive Senior's 'Gardening in the Tropics' is an example of a collection of work that through the use of poetic and literary techniques, effectively displays her ambivalence towards her identity whilst gaining affirmation. Post-colonial writing embraces the language and ideas that have been rejected by the Europeans while seeking to disseminate the Hegemonic thinking imprinted on the West Indian groups and reshaping our values and identity. This literature is rich in passionate and determined female writers that seek to present a once muted female voice on issues that may arise in the mind of individual who feels out of place and doubtful. Sushiela Nasta quotes that "the Post-Colonial

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An Analysis of The Piano has been Drinking by Tom Waits.

An Analysis of ‘The Piano has been Drinking’ Quazi Mohammad Faisal Tuesday, December 22, 2009 ‘The piano has been drinking’ is written by Tom Waits, an American singer-songwriter. This piece of writing is actually one of Tom Waits' songs which use several poetic conventions. Due to the factor it doesn’t give this one the shape of a true poetry. Still this one is an interesting piece of writing and has several conventions used where it can be analyzed stylistically. The poem is about a drunken pianist who’s sitting behind his piano late at night in a restaurant and blaming his piano, not himself, for his drunken state. First thing to note about the poem is the title- “The piano has been drinking”. A piano is not a living element and it can’t drink. So, when someone goes through the title, it gives the idea that the poem there is someone behind that piano who is trying to tell a story through the piano. The scenario described in the poem took place late at night in one of the bars where the addresser is playing a piano. The whole poem was written in a second person tone, describing various elements of the place and it’s not until the last line we get the idea that it’s being told by the pianist: “The piano has been drinking, not me”. This also invites the readers to equate the narrator with the writer. The poem has a tone of irony and it was

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In the following essay I intend to compare and contrast Listen Mr Oxford Don by John Agard and No rights Red an Half Dead by Benjamin Zephaniah.

Miss Amy Clegg – U0388700 – Page 1 Y180 – Making Sense of the Arts EMA – Task 1 Option 1 (Poetry) Read John Agard’s ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’. Then read Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘No rights Red an Half Dead’. Write an essay that compares and contrasts the two poems ensuring that, in line with the Study Diamond, you comment on their effects, the techniques used in then, interpretations of their meanings and any relevant contextual information. Use no more than 1000 Words. In the following essay I intend to compare and contrast ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’ by John Agard and ‘No rights Red an Half Dead’ by Benjamin Zephaniah. I will look at both poems in relation to the four points of the Study Diamond, effects, techniques, context and meaning. I will begin by talking about Agard’s poem ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’ then compare the points I have raised with Zephaniah’s ‘No rights Red an Half Dead’. I very much enjoyed reading John Agard’s “Listen Mr Oxford Don”, although the subject matter was clearly based around race I also found parts somewhat humorous, mainly due to the language Agard uses. Agard’s poem ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’ uses irregular rhyme structured in fairly short verses. “Me not no Oxford Don, Me a simple immigrant, From Clapham Common, I didn’t graduate, I immigrate”. Just reading the first verse I could almost

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Some critics suggest that Larkin portrays human existence as bleak in his poetry - to what extent do you agree with this view in Mr Bleaney?

Some critics suggest that Larkin portrays human existence as bleak in his poetry - to what extent do you agree with this view in Mr Bleaney? On the surface, 'Mr Bleaney' is a poem about a man that has come to live in a home formally occupied by Mr Bleaney. The subtext of the poem is concerned with a man's fear that his life has become a routine - in the way that he believes Mr Bleaney's life had been. Throughout this essay, I shall discover whether the themes in 'Mr Bleaney' conform to the view of some critics - that Larkin's poetry is a portrayal of bleak human existence - whilst analysing the undertones of the poem. The title is very important for revealing the nature of the poem. 'Bleaney' has connotations of the words 'bleak' 'mean' and 'dreary', which could convey a lot about Mr Bleaney's personality but also give a clue to the content of the rest of the poem. The first stanza begins 'This was Mr Bleaney's room'. This establishes the precise setting for the rest of the poem. The use of caesura and enjambment help to control the pace within the first stanza. Mr Bleaney obviously used to work for a car manufacturing company 'the Bodies, till they moved him'. This could either mean that the company moved him elsewhere or that Mr Bleaney is dead. Larkin then begins to describe the surroundings 'Flowered curtains, thin and frayed, Fall to within five inches of the sill'.

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