Modernist Poetry

Mankind has changed a lot, learned everything over time, discovered new inventions, and made life easier but also distanced from himself/herself because these innovations divided the society, progress in science pushed them not for peace but the atomic bomb and wars. After all these, we came across modern society. It must be remembered that this society is reflected in literature, which is the best way to describe humankind most adequately because literature is the art of narrating people through people. For that reason, Modernist Poetry will be demonstrated in this article.

Modernist Poetry argues that the situation of the modern age cannot be easily understood also this age is incomprehensible for the modernist poets because, in this age, there is no order and stable situations. For this reason, poets of this age said that ‘’we cannot reflect the world in literature as it is.’’ These words can be placed on a solid foundation because the Pre-Modern world was in order, it had a meaningful and optimistic world view and it was more stable than the Modern era, people still had faith, and morality/values were still valid on the contrary in the modern world, it is possible to see that chaos, futile things, pessimistic vibes, loss of faith, values collapsed, loss of sense of identity even the language is not enough to narrate the situation in the life. As a result of these situations, Modernist Poetry came to life. Now, it is time to demonstrate the elements of Modernist Poetry.

The first element that came to the fore is ‘divided self: detached speaker’ on one side the reader can see consciousness on the other side the reader can see subconsciousness because of that the conversations in the poem are change all the time. The other element is ‘powerlessness and alienation.’ the speaker or a character in the poem is not comfortable with the society and he or she is feeling like a stranger in the society, it looks like real life isn’t it? The other one is ‘riddles.’ The reader must find the meaning of the poem like a game because the chaos that is in the society is not easily explained. In addition, these elements, ‘playing with language’, ‘desolate world’, ‘ambiguity’, ‘allusive’, and montage are the cornerstones of Modernist Poetry. Even the elements are enough to represent the modern age. These are the most distinctive cornerstones of this genre. will understand better the age through The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.

The poem begins with a quote from Dante, this quote is about hell so, the writer makes a connection between the modern world and hell, and also montage can be seen here. The speaker repeats this sentence always; ‘’Let us go then, you and I,’’ He calls to his subconscious so the reader can see his divided self here. In addition, the setting does not look good, and the description of the city is not full of pink colors. While describing the city, the speaker changes the topic and starts to talk about women. This situation shows us the chaos and instability in the human mind. The other repetition is ‘’There will be time’’ The speaker is always indecisive throughout the poem like a man/woman in the modern world. In this quote criticizing two-faced people can be seen, too.

These are main modernist features of the poem but, if you want to read the full poem you can find it in this link; https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock