Literary Modernism and a Few Literary Works

Literary Modernism is a term which is or so self-explanatory. After the completion of the First World War, the whole of the European real on with America observed a few nonable changes in the realm of literature. In 1922, T. S Eliot composed The Waste Land reality befuddled by the abrupt shock which the devastations of the War had brought forth.Liberty, novelty and venturesome were the watch run-in of that Literary Modernism. The way in which this Modernism worked was somewhat cleanthe new changes in forms and contents were incorporated quite spontaneously. Even the alterations seemed to excite fitted fitly into the varied compass of the literary creations Thus, Literary Modernism breathed a gush of new, fresh air into the stale, dull ambience of literatureIf we snap a few literary works it impart be give inly clear how Literary Modernism affected and influenced the-then literary scene. In margin c all of Myself, Walt Whit valet de chambre in full-throated ease arsehol e sing at the top of his voice, fracture all established norms of Introduction formally done in a meter, I celebrate myself, and sing myself,/And what I assume you shall assume,/For every molecule belonging to me as exhaustively belongs to you. In this somewhat long poem, Whitman goes on setting all conventional poetical forms at naught and sings of comradery that stretches from one nook to the other of America.We hear America singing by dint of him, with him. The lines atomic number 18 composed in verse libre mode. Free verse is the powerful carrier of the right thought. He claims to sing for all and sundry, for the accepted victors as well as for the conquered and slain persons. Whitman caters philosophical ideas to the readers equally adeptly, I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul/ The pleasures of heaven argon with me and the attention of hell atomic number 18 with me/.I am the poet of the woman the same as the man/.And I say there is nonentity grea ter than the mother of men. He talks of oppression, inequality, freedom, Time and Space and multifarious issues in one breath.This manakin of sayingts in the length of a poem chosen freely by the poet itself speaks volumes for Modernism. Only Whitman can say in this vein, Endless unfolding of words of ages/And mine a word of the ripe, the word En-Masse He sounds too modern to declare in the last line, I stop somewhere time lag for you.T.S.Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is again a documentary poem of the turbulent times of the First World War when Modernism as a literary notion was taking its final shape. The elements of literary modernity lie in the image of split self, mans documentation in more than a single level of consciousness, self-disgust, ennui, pain of inertia in turbulent ,meaningless times, desire for an escape , the hiatus between the craved world and the habitual one .As a modern poem, Prufrock throws a series of solutions to the problems that moder n man with divided aims face There will be time, there will be time/To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet/.And time yet for a ampere-second indecisions. In almost all the lines there is a hint of suggestiveness which ends in a conundrum, again a characteristic feature of modernism That is not it at all/That is not what I meant at all.In Robert icing the pucks localisation Wall , there is sharp pointer to the indigence of a partition-wall in this war-torn orbit 1914where good fences make good neighbors. What was to be walled in and walled out again left many questions unanswered. A sense of separatism, unrest, and friendlessness go on recurring in the lines of this poem.In Emily Dickinsons poem Much Madness is the Divinest Sense , we find a trace in construing the ways of a topsy-turvy modern world where compulsory sometimes implies the negative and vice-versa. Madness is taken to be the most forebode sense while the sane thoughts are sometimes pooh-poohed .Why so? It is because, literary modernism supports the rise of the abstruse and absurd in a dysphoric world with jaundiced viewpoints . Assent and demurring too are interpreted accordingly. geometrical patterns of Picassos art can be the best yardstick to eyeballhade and finally explain all the meanings of sanity and genuine insanityLangston Hughess I,Too portrays the modern world in rather clear terms unalike the previous poems. Here with Harlem Renaissance looming large in the background, the poet stages a confess against the discriminations the Black community of America falls victim to. Naturally, the boy brooking all humiliations, goes to the kitchen, gobbles , gets strong and next time faces the opponent as an equal and dazzles his eyes with his handsome looks. Here, the modern- daytime separatism tantrums are spoken of in clearest achievable terms.Modern-day American litterateurs harp upon a theme frenzy. This theme has dissimilar forms of treatment in different works of lite rature. Naturally, if a thesis debate has to emerge out of close readings of these works , it must have a direct connection with modern society ,to be precise. Man is nothing but a small island in ocean of modern day world.In Stephen Cranes short story The Open Boat, the ruin has different connotations to the four survivors Billie, the oiler, the Captain, the Cook and the unnamed Correspondent. All of them believe that they are to be rescued and again they part to ponder over the billet in their own way. The cook is chatty, while the oiler and the Correspondent are more cogitative ones. This schism is there in the modern world and the disaffect thoughts portrayed by Crane in the four characters are befitting to the modern day multilayered existence. They are alienated though diaphragm cooped together in the open boat.In William Carlos Williamss poem Danse Russe , the present day derangement is pictured in simple viable terms. The poet stealthily sneaks into his north room wh en the sun shines softly over the trees and his wife and tike are fast asleep. He takes off his shirt and starts dancing deucedly in front of the mirror crooning all by himself, I am lonely, lonely/I was born to be lonely/I am best so. Unlike Coleridges ancient mariner, he enjoys this self-created disaffection issuing out of loneliness and he feels himself to be a laughing(prenominal) genius of his household. This is peculiar characteristic of the modern era. Self-centered feelings lead on to alienation which in turn intoxicates human beings.The same happy intentness with oneself is seen in Walt Whitmans poem I saw in lah a Live Oak Growing. The poet is out to define anthropoid love in these trying times. He is astonished to find a solitary Oak tree proliferating joyous leaves of dark green hitherto when his lover or friend is not there in proximity. How is it possible? thinks the poet. For him, it would have been next to impossible exactly to his utter dismay he notices tha t modern man as Erich Fromm the sociologist claims in his book The Sane golf club is most productive when he is alienated or friendless.Robert Frostss Mending Wall, talks about gaps that are made between two. He clarifies, The gaps, I mean/No one has seen them made or heard them made,/But at spring mending-time we find them there. What are these gaps? These are, no doubt, the chinks of alienation which confirm tall between men, which keep two men to unite , to alter ideas and views , which prevents two men from being friends. At what point of time can a man say to another man, Stay where you are until our backs are turned Without having any clear notions of walling in and walling out, two neighbors begin to think, Good fences make good neighbors. It is because modern men love alienation.T.S. Eliot in his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock emphasizes the theme of alienation .In the previous poems, this theme is amazingly shown to have a few positive implications. A separate face is to put up to meet the faces that you meet. No better example of alienation can be put forward These days the modern alienated man rightly thinks, Do I dare/Disturb the universe? A big why stares on the readers . He reasons forth, I have known them all alreadyI know the voices dying with a dying fall..The over-familiarity with the known universe makes him sick and tired of it and he by nature gets alienated. Lastly, he dies for a change of ambience. This monotony of modern day existence is again a reason behind such alienation. The line I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each, is gravid with meaning. Alienation has several facetssometimes it is positive in effect, sometimes just the opposite. Again, the society is in flux. Alienation is a natural unavoidable outcome. It has to be accepted and stride along .