Modernist imagery, symbols and metaphors

Hello fiends,

Poetry has played very significant role in literature from the centuries.  As we know, poetry is not just a form of entertainment which always gives a pleasure but poets of 20th century have used this form of literature in exclusive way to reflect agony of the self.

The poetry of the modern age expresses the chaos and the changing scenario of life and society.

The poetry of the first two decades of the 20th century is transitional. It indicates a change from Victorianism to modernism. Gradually the traditional and rural poetry of the 19th century began to decline.

The new poetry has new subject matter. It looked not to the country side but to the great city. The sensibility of modern poet has been greatly formed by urban and mechanical imagery.

Here in this blog, we will deal with 10 various poems and tp find images, metaphors and symbols from these poems.

No.	Poet	Poem	Modernist images	Modernist symbols	Modernist metaphors
1	T. E. Hulme	‘The Embankment’	Fragmented images, God – food, shelter, cloth, house, Physical need	Star Blanket	Finesse of fiddles , flash of gold heels
2	Joseph Campbell	‘Darkness‘	Frustration, depression and gloomy and also sparkling ideas to come out from	Night/Star	Boghhole – depression of life
3	Edward Storer	‘Image’	Loneliness are there , lover stay together though they both felt lonely	White Moon	Drought
4	Ezra Pound	‘In a Station of the Metro‘	Hasty lifestyle and loneliness of  each though they all are in crowd.	Petals (use in contradiction)	Black bough
5	H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)	‘The Pool‘	Existential crisis, many responsibility and social structure Can’t free from anything – Social conditioning	Net/pool	Sea-fish
6	Richard Aldington	‘Insouciance‘	With the word trenches – Soliders connected their hardship of life.  They have to survive in any condtion  so they pass their time enjoying every moment of life under the sky or night they can spend some time happily or rest whatever …… life must go on. They don’t have any ideas about the next moment  so they try to  enjoy and pass each moment pleasant way	Dreary trenches/ Life is in hardship as well as	flock of doves dove is used for trsform the msg and poem which is written is also like a flock of dove meas peace. Poem gives the aesthetic pleasure as dove used
7	T. S. Eliot,	‘Morning at the Window‘	Fog, don’t clear aims and goals of life   Everything is scattered,  Nothingness	Fog, muddy skirt' aimless smile	rattling
8	William Carlos Williams	‘The Red Wheelbarrow	Confusing at a time   Dependency Chicken is like food Cart – economy	Chiken and Cart Chicken  Not affordable food Cart – Economical condition Rainwater – Drain	Red Wheel   Symbol of motion Here it is static.   Everything is stopped by rainy water
9	Wallace Stevens	‘Anecdote of the Jar‘		Tennesseee	Jar
10	E. E. Cummings	, ‘l(a	Fragmented Disjointed part, Fall down – Feelings, emotions, civilized society, represented aloofness, loneliness sickness , cut of from society	Fall down	Leaf,

 

 

Now let's try to see how this imagery, symbols and metaphors are found out from each poems. This explaintaion will help in better understanding of modernist poems.

(1)‘The Embankment’ by T. E. Hulme

(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.)

Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,

In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.

Now see I

That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.

Oh, God, make small

The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,

That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.

First, a short paraphrase of the poem: on London’s Embankment (an area well-known for homeless people sleeping rough), a ‘fallen gentleman’ reflects on his past and how he found pleasure in worldly social activities (the ‘finesse of fiddles’ suggesting musical gatherings, such as dances) and beautiful women – probably (given the ‘flash of gold heels on the hard pavement‘) courtesans or prostitutes. But now, down on his luck.  He realises that warmth is what really matters and is what poets should be singing about. The poem then ends with a heartfelt entreaty to the heavens, with the poem’s speaker beseeching God to make a blanket of the starry sky so that the speaker’s wish for warmth might be granted.

In other words, good poetry deals with the necessary and includes only what is necessary. Poet pushes this point home by choosing ‘fiddles’ and ‘gold heels’ as the images with which he rejects sound and sight respectively; both are associated with luxury, with what is not necessary but merely desired. But warmth is something different: warmth is not only desired but needed for us to live.

(2) Darkness by Joseph Campbell

Darkness

        I stop to watch a star shine

        in the boghole -

        A star no longer, but a silver

         ribbon of light.

        I look at it and pass on.

‘I stop to watch  the star shines in the boghole’ , means a poet is in depression in night. Star looks like ‘Silver ribbon of a night’ So, having something …. Now, question is that can boghole consider as a metaphor? Merriam Webster dictionary defines boghole as.. a hole or a depression in a land surface having a miry or spongy bottom.

Thus, Image which emerges before our eyes is gloomy rather than darkness. There is spark too.  Having a depression in mind, stucked with depression then a ‘star no longer but a silver ribbon of life.’ Thus, either star or ribbon can consider as a symbol. So, as poem mentions star no light, there is night. The star symbolizes the spark within, means having something, or say having something of darkness or nothing – has to comes out from boghole, depression, mage, confusion.of course, star is has been used to reflect paradox or contrast itself.  Is it? ‘I look at it’ means I try it and deal with and pass on means, just move on. So, following the modernist idea, here can boghhole be considered as a modern metaphor?       

Thus, two symbols – night and star. Why? Because of depression of life.  If we knew the background of the poet and we connect this with the war it gives another kind of a image but what if we don’t know? It can be a personal depression also. So, its all about depression, frustration and materialistic life style.

So, poet was not in that mental condition to convey that stars, that light but thus star symboliises a hope/spark.

 (3) Image by Edward Storer

Forsaken lovers,

       Burning to a chaste white moon

       Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and

       drought.

  

In this three line poem,  poet uses the symbol of white moon as it connects heart of two lovers, while here the poet use it in opposite side that it burns lovers that they can't chaste each other, their loneliness is there though they are together , this shows the modern aspect that people are alone though they are in crowd.

(4) ‘In a Station of the Metro’ by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd

Petals on a wet, black bough.

‘THE apparition of these faces in the crowd’ this line can be seen as a symbol of hasty life style. If we take ‘petals’ as a symbol used in contradiction because faces does not looks like a petals. Thus ‘black bough’ is a metaphor, It is a loneliness. Loneliness of each person though they all are in crowd.  

(5)The Pool by H.D.

Are you alive?

I touch you.

You quiver like a sea-fish.

I cover you with my net.

What are you—banded one?

The very first question is, where there is a pool? What if we don’t know the title of the poem? With the word ‘quiver like a sea-fish’ arises a question that is there any another image if we don’t know the title? We do not get that particular meaning if we don’t know the title.  This is also one of the important point in modern aspect. If there is absence of the title, does image remains same in everyone’s mind?

As poem suggests, we can question that can’t be it possible that sea-fish can be seen even in see. Then what the word banded suggests? 

It suggests existential crisis. Here, metaphor ‘like a sea-fish’, symbol – how does look like net instead of pool, as there can chances of net both  in sea or in pool. Here, existential crisis seems very clearly, reflected by through the words – ‘I touch you’ and ‘are you alive’ that many responsibilities and social structure as who controls…Social structures and responsibilities! The line, ‘what are you banded one?’ suggests that how one if banded which cannot be free out of it.

(7) Morning at the window by T.S.Eliot

They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,

And along the trampled edges of the street

I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids

Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me

Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,

And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts

An aimless smile that hovers in the air

And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

The word 'Rattling' means vibrating, shaking plates and 'Damp' means in low spirits from loss of hope or courage.Their soul has become like Damp; lifeless.

'Fog' is also negative word; it doesn't allow you to see the things clearly.

'Twisted faces' also connotes negative sides 'tear' , 'Muddy skirt', 'Aimless smile'

Most of the words are negative. This poem gives images and symbols of the dead spirit in people, doing everything aimlessly. Death of spirit can be seen.

(8) The Red Wheelbar row by Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

As we know wheel is the symbol of motion. Here, this poem contains red wheel. But paradox is, it is used as a static wheel. Everything is stopped by rainy water. Thus, through the Chiken and Cart poem wants us to convey that Chicken is not affordable food. Cart also symbolises economical conditions.

So, the image comes infront of us is confusing at a time. It suggests dependency. Chicken can be considered as a food or as a representative.

We haggled for a period or two over what exactly depends upon this wheelbarrow. Explanations such as “a wheelbarrow is really important for farming, and chickens represent farming” were offered. We wondered if the poem might be a tribute to the ways that nature could surmount humans’ mechanical encroachments, but nothing about the poem seemed to hint at that kind of reflexive hostility. Nowhere does Williams tell us why “so much depends / upon” his little scene; he leaves us to ask, and answer, that question.

(10 ) E. E. Cummings 's I (a...) " Leaf falls on loneliness "

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

Iness

  The image of single leaf is the symbol of loneliness and that sense of loneliness is enhance by the structure of poem. The poem is only of few words but it's effect is more powerful. Leaf is symbolise as life and falls symbolise as death. It has a deep and effective meaning behind the words.