Name: Period: MODERNIST MOVEMENT IN POETRY Advanced Reading and Writing Bellwork, Day 1: Define the term MODERN. What are some contexts in which we might use the term modern? What characteristics do you think should be listed under Modern World? Pre-Modern World Modern World (Romantic and Victorian Periods) (early 1900 s) Ordered Meaningful Optimistic Stable Faith Morality/Values Clear Sense of Identity What modern events, attitudes, or inventions do you feel have been powerful enough to create a fundamental change in human nature?
Read the following Pre-Modern poems. Record your observations of these poems on the Thirteen Ways Chart (following page). The Daffodils I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: Sonnet 43 from the Portuguese: How Do I Love Thee? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1850 For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. William Wordsworth, 1804 Discussion Questions: Compare the setting of Daffodils to the city scenes, factory scenes, and the World War I devastated landscape. What symbolic differences can you identify? Wordsworth has faith in his ability to recollect the field of daffodils as a way of filling his heart with pleasure. How might one s inward eye have changed in the early 1900 s? How would these speakers feel if they lived during the early 1900 s? Do these two poems sound modern?
Introduction to Modernist Poetry http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=615 Thirteen Ways Student Name Period: Read the romantic poems Daffodils and Sonnet 43. Later, read the Wallace Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird and compare it to the romantic poems. Speaker Daffodils Sonnet 43 Thirteen Ways Landscape (Setting) Role of Nature Sense of God or Divinity Topic/Subject
Bellwork, Day 2 Look back on your notes from yesterday. What do you consider to be the change in the early 1900 s that had the biggest impact on society? Explain why. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) Born in Reading, Pennsylvania Attended Harvard University Wanted to move to Paris to become a writer Instead, attended law school and became a lawyer Became vice president of Hartford Insurance Co. Composed poetry in his off time from his job on his way to and from work, in the evenings, and on the weekends According to the website Poets.org, Stevens poetry exhibited a wholly original style and sensibility: exotic, whimsical, infused with the light and color of an Impressionist painting He believed in the transformative power of the imagination Modernist Technique: PASTICHE Definition according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary- 1. a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work 2. a musical, literary, or artistic composition made up of selections from different works Another way of thinking of pastiche is to imagine a collage (not college). A collage is a collection of pictures that have a common theme. Read Wallace Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. (following page) How does this poem demonstrate the technique of pastiche? Write your observations of this poem on the Thirteen Ways chart.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the black bird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime. IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after. VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you? VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know. IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles. X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds. XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying. XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs. Wallace Stevens (1917)
Write a Modernist Poem Modeled on Thirteen Ways YOU TRY IT! Compose a poem modeled on Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Remember that this poem is a collage of different thoughts about blackbirds (technique known as pastiche). Choose a topic, then compose at least 5 stanzas that each contain a different snapshot of the topic. Title your poem Five Ways of Looking at. Finish your Five Ways poem as homework if you do not finish in class. Turn it in on a separate piece of paper. Bellwork, Day 3: Re-read How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Why is this poem a love poem? Look back on your definition of modern from a couple of days ago. Is Browning s sonnet a modern poem? Give specific reasons for your opinion.
Discussion Questions for Marcel Duchamp s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase : Can you identify the subject of Duchamp s painting? What adjectives can be used to describe this painting? How are time, space, and movement depicted in this painting? Think about the poems we read yesterday ( Daffodils and How Do I Love Thee? ). Does the point of view in the painting resemble a Romantic sensibility or a Modernist sensibility? Explain why. T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) Born in St. Louis, Missouri Attended Harvard University Spent time in Paris Settled in England in 1914, became a British citizen Worked as a teacher, then as a banker Was mentored by poet Ezra Pound Considered a genius avant-garde poet Important Modernist poem was written by Eliot in 1922, The Wasteland From 1930 on, was considered the most dominant poet of his time According to the website Poets.org: [Eliot s] poems in many respects articulated the disillusionment of a younger post-world-war-i generation with the values and conventions both literary and social of the Victorian era. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Excerpts) Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question... Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" Let us go and make our visit. 10 In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep... 20 And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-- (They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!") My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin-- (They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!") Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse... 40 And I have known the arms already, known them all-- Arms that are braceleted and white and bare (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin?.. 65 And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor-- And this, and so much more?-- It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: "That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all." I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. 100 110 120
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown. 130 T. S. Eliot (1917) From: Introduction to Modernist Poetry http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=615 Prufrock Analysis Worksheet Read the work by T.S. Eliot, then answer the questions about the pertinent lines listed below: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock : Lines for Close Analysis Lines 1-13 Guiding Questions for Students Who is the speaker of the poem and to whom is the poem addressed? Lines 1-13 Where is the speaker? Describe the time of day, place, etc. What parts of the poem support your answer?
Lines 1-15 Identify two similes in the opening stanza. How do these similes add to the tone of the poem? Lines 15-23 Identify the primary metaphor in this stanza. To what does the poet indirectly liken the yellow fog? Lines 37-48 What is the speaker s emotional state at this point in the poem? What are his primary concerns? Lines 62-66 Whom is the speaker describing? Lines 120-125 Has the speaker finally admitted his primary concern? What effect does growing old have on the speaker s socializing? Lines 129-131 What is the speaker s final tone?
Discussion Question comparing Duchamp s painting Nude Descending a Staircase to Prufrock : Consider Marcel Duchamp s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase while you read lines 37-48 of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. How are the subject of the painting and Prufrock similar? Discussion Questions comparing Browning s love poem to Prufrock : Compare Browning s love poem to Eliot s love poem. Is Prufrock really a love poem? Why or why not? What elements get in the way of Prufrock s love? Elements of the Modernist Movement in Poetry Based on the lessons of the last three days, compile a list of the elements of Modernist Poetry: