Posted at May 20, 2020
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Schools of Poetry

The poetry ‘school’ movement basically comprised of like-minded group of poets whose ideas were seemingly loosely associated. The period between WWI and WWII came with its own upset resulting in the new cognizance form of psychoanalysis and for modern science. This brought about changes and rather incepted a different movement within the literature referred to as modernism. At this era of literal styles, many poetic philosophers became at odd with Hardy and Yeats alignment with romanticism coming up with a rather loose/ detached form of poetic structured versus capturing daily/ routine speech style, as well as the symbolic disassociation that resonated with the splintered members of the post-war societyThis paper discusses two poems from each school of poetry that include the modernists, the beat generation, the confessional poets, and the imagist. 

The modernist Poem 

The poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T.S Elliot (1888-1965) is an example of a modernist literally movement style poem. As a modernist, T.S Elliot’s poem Prufrock momentously shifted from the 19trh Century Romanticism to embrace the 20th Century modernistic poetry style, denoting his resistance from the former. Characteristic of his poem that classifies it as a modernistic type was the inclusion of the concept of foreign language, open verses, use of intertextuality, as well as several themes of disillusionment and classical allusion. As an open verse, it incorporates opening quotes borrowed from the words of Count Guido da Montefeltro from a Divine Comedy dubbed ‘Inferno’ written by his acquaintance Dante. Elliot juxtaposes several images throughout the poem and even includes intertextual parts such as when he made reference to Hamlet. Also, the narrator’s frustration is evident through a theme of disillusionment where he is unable to achieve any decision neither nor even make a move and thus unhappy with himself. His disillusionment goes to an extreme that he is even unable to approach or talk to women speaking of the great Michelangelo. Other modernistic styles deployed can be found in rhythm and form that is rather integrated as opposed to being fragmented. Elliot transition between women chatters, to talk of insect and fog swaying the reader through a continuous and flawless lyricism that emphasizes on the unending Prufrock existence and fright in the modern era. As such, Elliot style demonstrated his dedication to the modern era poetry by including both the traditional and illusionary elements, as well as the use of straight forward language to render his interpretation rather complex but assuring to confirm him as a modernist poet.  

Also, in the poem ‘To a child dancing in the wind’ Yeats narrate of the tension surfacing between innocence and child freedom from care as they transition between the harsh reality of youthful and adult life. The carefree child playing by the shores is certainly faced with ominous, rigors, and hurts of the adult lifeAs a modernistic poem, it tells of the personal alienation and detachment in experiences. This is particularly brought about by worldly marvels. Furthermore, the poem has disrupted syntax and streams of conscious presentation (based on what comes to mind) typical of the modernistic style, with the style of language deployed typical and accessible to the audience 

 

The Beat Generation 

The beat generation referred to a generation of writers/ poets who emerged in the 1950s to oppose the literal formalism, along with thenprevalent American culture founded on both materialism and capitalism. Thus, it was with this attitude that led them to adopt a literal style to express their heartfelt beat down, unbefitting, and defeated community order brought about by the post-war American culture. As evident from Ginsberg’s poem, ‘A Supermarket in California’ he expresses headache and somewhat hungry fatigue in a rather sloppy, reckless, and personal style of expression. He is somewhat seeking solace from some existential predicament he faces/ enduresHe yearns for Whitman’s enumeration when he thinks of the neon and fruit supermarket. Extensively, Ginsberg is addressing several socio-economic dynamics and expresses his disappointment in ongoing cynicism comparing his county to those of the mythological hades.  

As a member of the Beat generation ‘boys club’ Gary Snyder in rather a funny style model his life around the poem. He rather demonstrated the type of relationship he had with America, which is rather fraught and ambiguous. He expresses his real feelings and sort for clarification of his longstanding relationship with the country. In a way, he includes romanticism transcendences to explain of the ingrained acculturation pattern in the US through some ecological undertones.  

 

The Confessional Poet 

 This group of poets emerged in the late 1950s, and they mostly narrate private occurrences, experiences, feelings of tragedy, trauma, relationships, and even depression. The term was first coined when analyzing the work of Robert Lowell in 1959. Apparently, this style emerged as a form of literal therapy involving writing down one’s deep feelings, especially following the impact and experiences of WWIIThe advocate of this movement regarded this form of the stylistic poem as helping in remedying shock therapy. One such author was Sylvia Plath, who in her poem ‘the colossus’ was able to transform her encounters into a form of stylistic art. In the poem, it is suggestively that Plath addresses his experience of the deceased father to an existential listener. As she addresses the listener, the confession school of thought becomes evident where she uses several notorious and obtrusive types of complex, seamless, and surreal imageries as he grapples with the memory and legacies of his father. Apparently, her text is concealed with myriad of interpretation surrounding his father’s demise. The mood in the poemthe use of the firstperson reference, and the use of intensely evocative imagery is what classify it within the confession style poetic allegiance. 

Again, Robert Lowell is another poet that is widely categorized to have contributed to this stylistic poetic type. An example is in his poem ‘For the Union Dead’ wherein furthering the movement Lowell draws close association to the work of Plath in this one and also draw ideas from previous Romanticism work by Elliot and Ezra who were somewhat precursor to his style of confession poetry. Lowell traveled into the dingiest corners to expose hi moral gaps and hence the complexity for his narration; to think of the event in the ruins of Boston aquarium, last March, and the fenced excavation. Lowell abruptly pinballs on various gory images and uses the juxtaposition to breathe life into his poem.  In organizing his poem, he incorporates several elaborate stanzas and clusters it with rather mosaic undertones. There are several shifts and recurrent pauses in his poem with alternating sentence lengths. He also achieves several counterpoints between his sentencing and lines. He as well achieves a dramatic for his inside organization and counterpoints for his outward styles when describing his subject matter is in the poemAs such, it is quite intricate to allude or even overstate the life, and the strength of his style enriched with metaphorical, as well as sound and motion surprises in the language deployed to complete the poem. Ostensibly, the poem fuses between modernistic and traditional poetic style achieved side by side to convey a distinctive and mutually exclusive. As a post-war and an anti-modernity poem, its category in the movement renders it influential. 

The Imagist Poem 

The embankment includes in the list of modern poems written by an English revolutionary poet, Hulme. The poem narrates a man who squandered his fortune on alcohol and later lived a homeless and devastated life. The poem as achieved encompasses several stylistic styles sanctioned for modernistic writing, and as well feature the use of imagism. In the poem, Hulme ascribes brevity and has considerably detailed an economy of language/ word choices typical for modernistic poems. He employs syntax in line 1, once, in the finesse of fiddles found… abandoning the formal language of expression while describing the persona. The use of free verse in line 3 and sharp imagism in line 6, “the old star-eaten…” vividly painting the image of the heavens, as well as consciously outlining the percolating thoughts in the personas mind confirming the modernistic pattern in the poem. The use of alliteration in line 1 is glaring of this work in emphasizing the affluent persona lifestyle and overemphasis of the F sound, which almost appears the ‘fiddle of the finesse’ for the stanza. The use of rhyme in lines 1 and 3 resembles those in 6 and 7, cold/ gold, and fold/ old, rendering it catchy and musical. From the title of the poem, Thames Embankment began at around the 20th Century, a street in London full of homeless and drunkard chaps, and the poem is seemingly seeking to address the problem back then. Thus, the poet has significantly deployed several modernistic styles, i.e., syntax, free verse, and brevity to capture the imagination of its audience.               

The poem ‘People’ by Lawrence basically tells about the reality and behavior of people living within a society. In an aesthetic way, it describes humanity and tolerance. The persona in the poem is not necessarily seeking isolation but rather some space to sort his life. As much as he/ she would wish to be with others, he develops a mindset of needing some distance and having a silent mindset; further telling of a mind of an introvert.  Particular about this poem that renders it within the modernity movement is his grumpiness on humanity. The persona is inwardly struggling with the concept of what is rational and what is natural for him/ herHeavy about his poem is that it continuously portrays an image of the introvert persona rendering it a masterpiece of poetic imaging style.  

This list of poems sampled was popular for the postmodern era as they sort to bring back poetry to the popular audience. These poems were instrumental in incepting the formal and traditional verse poetry. The poem reflected on routine and daily events by incorporating several poetic styles, e.g., sadness, syntax, allusion, brevity, and even gentle irony among other stylistic formsThe modern poets refined their work using the traditional style as a reference to their general point. While some of their work still remained detached from today’s modern issues, they were critical in replacing the retiring poetic forms through an array of melodious, lyrical, and rather transcendent imageries and verse forms. 

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