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MODERNISM IN LITERATURE: Cultural movement that refers to the first half of the
20th century

1910s-1920s  REVOLUTIONARY PHASE  the
beginning of a new movement is always more
revolutionary than the later development of the
movement itself because a break with whatever has
been done in the past is needed

1930s-1940s  EXPERIMENTATION +
EXPLORATION of new ideas and techniques

o Historical Background Timeline: p
...
266 to p
...
280)
Imagism – Ezra Pound
W
...
Yeats
T
...
Eliot
War poetry: concentrated just on the perception of the description of the war
experience in their works
...
In the case of WW1, the feelings derived from trench
war)

Recurrent themes:
o ABOLITION OF THE PAST (NEWNESS)  Especially in the revolutionary phase refers
to the abolition of the past and a new idea of what is new, of whatever is considered
innovation, revision of past values
...
S
...
The reaction of writers, poets, artists was to
describe this feeling of uneasiness, desolation, discomfort, disorientation in their works (with regard
to Yeats and Eliot)
The early phase of Modernism and the romantic movement in England can be related to each other
because they both originated in a phase of intellectual and social change
...

Modernist artists and writers need a cultural readjustment with the past
...

Similarly to Romanticism, which also produced some radical changes in the language used
(Wordsworth pretended to be using the language really used by men), poets and artists in the early
20th century will have to adapt their linguistic choices to the new realities they feel they have to
describe, as well as to the message they need to convey through their works
...
Narrative style in Mrs Dalloway and Dubliners  Realistic
elements in the descriptions of places and situations, but always interfused with a variety of
symbolic meanings that each situation and place acquires in the general pattern of the story
...
The poem by W
...
Yeats The centre
cannot hold (The second coming) represents the expression of this feeling
...
There are
no moral values to refer to (not only with regard to literature, but also to ordinary people)
...
Yeats finds the solution to
the desolation of society in the world of arts (≈Keats and, in a way, to Oscar Wilde), whereas Eliot
finds it thanks to religion and his spiritual faith

IMAGISM
Ezra Pound
He was born in 1885 and was of American origin, but his family was of English descent , which
justifies his
question, etc
...

When he refers to this condition of anarchy, he refers to all the historical events taking place in the
early 20th century  political instability and wars, which also represent the mental and cultural
instability of modern men
...

1st stanza: The poet expresses the desire of Yeats to leave Ireland and his present situation, to find
solace and comfort somewhere else
...
Its real meaning contributes to giving this poem its real essence
...
His desire is to live alone in the bee-loud glade
...
The cricket’s sing is the 1st sound of nature we perceive
...
Nature is perceived through the colors and noises of nature
...
I will
arise and go now ≈ refrain
...
He
hears lake water lapping by the shore
Y
...
However, he still hears the noise of the water lapping
by the shore deep in his heart  Combination of the physical perception of the noise of the water
with the emotional one (heart’s core)
...
As Yeats had read about this experience, he expressed his desire to
live a similar one
...
longed for himself “a life of austerity”  Reference to a life based on
simplicity in solitude far from the confusion and hassle of city life
...

Then, when he was a little older (in the last 2 verses) he expresses the fact that, while he was
walking on a grey pavement, he remembers the past
...
In this way, he remembers the water lapping on the shore on the Isle of
Innisfree and this sudden vision awakens in him the memory of the past  In the deep of his
heart he feels the sweetness related to his experience on Innisfree (detachment from the
confusion of daily life, comfort)

THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE  Middle phase of Y
...
The wild swans are an element of nature (still
immersed in nature)
...

There is a new theme in the poem related to the idea of the passing of time, getting old and losing
what we have in our younger years
...
Ideally, he refers to this great number of
swans which represent the beauty of nature and life
...
He asks himself what he will feel like the day he will realize the swans have flown
to another place  Not being able to see the swans anymore implies the idea of the loss of
something: symbolic image
...

The hearts of the swans do not grow old (≠ people): they are the symbol for the circular movement
of nature, which renews itself year after year

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