MODERNISM
WWI
What people expected
What actually happened
SHIFT IN IDEALS
 Much of the art and poetry of this time period reflects the
disconnectedness of people from their societies.
 Modernist trends began in the late 1800s, but after World War I,
Modernism exploded into full force.
 Modernism was not just about art, but every aspect of society and
cultural values.
 Many artists and writers expatriated, leaving the United States and
moving to places like Paris and London.
“MAKE IT NEW”
 The ideals and values of our
parents’ generation is what got us
into this mess.
 The art and poetry of past
generations doesn’t express how
we feel.
 Ezra Pound: “Make it new.”
Modernism rejected the values of
the past to find new modes of
expression.
Botticelli – “The Birth of Venus”
The art of the past
Marcel Duchamp
“Nude Descending a Staircase”
How is this similar?
How is this different?
POETRY
 Modernist poets rarely felt obligated to any particular scheme, such as
rhyme, meter, or even free verse. Rather, they broke and blended
everything that used to be considered a “rule.”
 Modernist poetry is not just about personal feelings, like what the
generation before tended to write, but also often about making
universally applicable statements of society and culture.
IN A STATION OF THE MÉTRO
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Ezra Pound
IN A STATION OF THE MÉTRO
This poem is short, but packed with meaning.
Ezra Pound
Why does he use a semi-colon?
Is there a connection between the faces and the
petals?
Does it rhyme? Why or why not?
Why does he use the word “apparition”?
What does the title tell us about the poem?
Is there some sort of statement he is making about
these people?
What feeling do we get from this image?
Perhaps it is something like this.
E. E. CUMMINGS
E. E. CUMMINGS
What do these words even say?
What feeling does this poem convey?
Why does he use parenthesis in the
middle of the word?
Why are the words broken up the way
that they are?
How is this poem made more effective by
the ways E. E. Cummings “breaks the
rules”?
How is the leaf similar to the feeling of
loneliness?
Think about the way your eyes
follow the path of a leaf downward.
THE VILLANELLE
Modernists didn’t completely get rid of old forms, but they used them in
ways that had meaning for them.
Villanelles became popular among more modern poets.
 A villanelle is a nineteen line poem with two alternating refrains. It
contains five tercets and ends with a quatrain.
 A refrain is a repeated line or section.
 A tercet is a stanza with three lines.
 A quatrain is a stanza with four lines.
THE HOUSE ON THE HILL
They are all gone away,
The House is shut and still,
Why is it then we stray
Around the sunken sill?
There is nothing more to say.
They are all gone away,
Through broken walls and gray
And our poor fancy-play
The winds blow bleak and shrill:
For them is wasted skill:
They are all gone away.
There is nothing more to say.
Nor is there one to-day
There is ruin and decay
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.
In the House on the Hill:
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say
-Edwin Arlington Robinson
THE HOUSE ON THE HILL
Analyze the rhyme scheme and refrains.
-Use (A1) for the first refrain.
-Use (A2) for the second refrain.
-Use (a) to refer to the lines that rhyme with the refrains.
-Use (b) for the other lines.
What seems to be the main idea of this poem?
What effect do the repeated lines have?
Even though this poem is rigidly structured, how does it fit in with
the larger Modernist movement?
-Edwin Arlington Robinson
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
 The Harlem Renaissance was a movement among black artists and
writers in New York in the 1920’s that was a part of the larger
Modernist movement.
 The Harlem Renaissance was about pride in African-American identity
and culture, and finding new ways to express that.
 “Black is beautiful.”
IN A NUTSHELL…
 Modernism: The art of past generations doesn’t express how we feel.
 Harlem Renaissance: The art of white people doesn’t express how
we feel.
INCIDENT
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember
Countee Cullen
INCIDENT
How long was the speaker in Baltimore?
Did Baltimore live up to his expectations?
Why/why not?
What is the larger feeling that the poem
seems to convey?
How is this poem different from some of
the others from the Modernist movement?
Countee Cullen