Modernist Poems.

Respected sir,

In the modernist poem we have to go deep in the inside of the poem to identify the aaqaqaqmetaphors in the poem. But in the modernist poem, poet uses metaphors without realizing it. At first glance, we can’t able to find metaphors in the poems. The aim of the poet to Use metaphors in the poem is to make the writing more interesting and helping the reader to understand what the poet is trying to convey.

Here I try to identify some metaphors which are used in the poems.

The Embankment – T. E. Hulme.

Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,

In a 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.

Paraphrase of the poem i.e London’s Embankment, ‘A fallen gentlement’ reflects on his past and how he found pleasure in worldly social activity is describe in the poem. Use of fallen gentlemen is not just a men down or their luck, but those who had succumbed to sexual temptations and been subsequently ruined emotionally or financially. In the second line ‘fitness of fiddles’ suggesting musical gatherings, and beautiful women and on other hand the ‘flash of gold heels on the hard pavement’ indicate prostitute. Here, Hulme puts ‘fiddles’, ‘gold’, ‘heels’ words which are associated with luxury. It is not necessary to live a life but merely desire to achieve it. But the word ‘warmth’ is something that is not desired but needed for us to live. The poem end with description of heavens and god to make a blanket of starry sky so his wish for warmth is fulfilled. Hulme is out to question our notion that the starry sky is more appropriate to write because we think of the night sky as beautiful and romantic and moth-eaten blanket as unattractive, but to the speaker freezing to death on London’s streets, the blanket is more immediately valuable and beautiful than the sky above him. It is suitable quote of Oscar wild that, ‘we are all in the gutter, but some of us looking at the stars’. Here in the poem we as a reader presented with contrast between past and present. The poet I invoking the different physical senses in order to draw the contrast between ‘once’ and ‘now’.

Darkness – Joseph Campbell.

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.

As we know that darkness has many meaning but here in this poem darkness has one meaning that is illusion poet experiences at one dark night. That when he passes from the street he found that star is in boghole. But when he goes near to it the reality reveals that it is not the star but a silver ribbon that is glitter when he was far from it. Same thing if we apply in real life that, ‘all that glitters is not gold.” Is well known said that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so as we expect from their appearance. This can also apply on people, places, or things that promise to be more than they really are.

Images – Edward Storer.

Forsaken lovers,

Burning to a chance white moon,

Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.

Here in the poem depiction of forsaken lover is described. Though there is a white moon in the sky but the loneliness and drought are there in lover’s heart. The feelings are there in between lovers. Though there is white moon and it stands for peace. But the heart of lover’s are burning.

In a station of the metro- Ezra Pound.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

pound describes watching faces appear in metro station. It is not clear that from which point the poet writes a poem whether he is on the train itself or on the platform. “Crowd” suggested that station is quite busy. He compares faces of people which he found in the crowd with the “petals on a wet, black bough,” suggesting that on the dark subway plateform, from there people look like flower petals that stuck on a tree branch after a rainy night. Here in the poem pound contemplating the fragility of life.

The pool- Hilda Doolittle.

Are you alive.?

I touch you

You quiver trembling like a sea- fish

I cover you with my net

What are you – banded one. ?

The poet is puzzled by a pool which comes alive when he touches it. He recognizes it as being a living breathing sea creature that is full of promise. The pool is banded in light and dark depending on movement much like a fish. Sometimes we can’t understand from which feelings we are gone through. We don’t know what our emotions mean. Throughout our life we can’t identify that who we are and what we want from life.? And in that situation it might be satisfying to have someone that pull us close and help us to understand as the poet says in the last line; “what are you banded one.?”

Insounciance- Richard Aldington.

In and out of the dreary trenches

Trudging cheerily under the stars

I make for myself little poems

Delicate as a flock of doves

They fly away like white-winged

Doves.

The poet wants to free from responsibilities and want to fly on the sky. He look at the sky and cheerful stars and think that they are freely live in the sky. and here in the earth he is suffering from dreary trenches. And for him he writes poem that can help him to fly.

Morning at the Window – 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 housemaid

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.

Morning at the window is an image of poverty. The picture is that of a slum where people lead miserable lives. The speaker is at the window. The images in the poem correlate with the idea of poverty and feelings of sympathy. The poet says nothing but shows them; the poor people are making sound for breakfast plates. It is and obligation for poor people to go to work early and work till late. The speaker says that he is aware of the condition of the households minds and souls or their psychology. Such housemaids are appearing one after another at the city gate. May be they come from villages. So that, they have no identity, dignity, and meaningful life. They are despondent or extremely sad. Further away ‘waves of brown fog’ come up to poet this is perhaps because the city air is so polluted. Twisted faces of depressed people pass by. A passerby has tears in the eyes. The speaker takes another glance and sees her dirty skirts. Another person comes up and tries to smile, but fails the smile vanishes among the city roofs. All these disjointed images can be put together to build up a general picture of the people’s plight. The focus is on poor servant girls whose souls themselves are dirty. The poet evokes our emotion without telling his emotions. He arouses pity without telling his pity for the people. eliot crafts a simple, observational poem that captures and communicates the dreariness of everyday existence.

The Red Wheelbarrow- William carols Williams.

So much depends

Upon

A red wheel

Barrow

Glazed with rain

Water

Beside the white

Chicken.

The speaker sees that wheelbarrow is red. Red probably suggests things like life, blood, courage and zeal that are part of what the farmer sustains and support. The wheel barrow is one thing to us. The poet has separated the wheel and barrow here barrow consider as a body. The barrow depends on the wheel. The wheel consider as a life. The theme of dependence and interdependence can be extended in every direction. The chickens are white, it suggested that it is pureand sacred. There is also peace in this natural and simple mode of a farmer. It may also remind readers of innocence. The word ‘rainwater’ is split into two to make us see them separately and in turns, and appreciate them. The gazing wheelbarrow bathed with natural water of rain and white chickens create a simple but significant imagery. If we look at the poem with different angle that A christian reader may interpret the red as the blood of Christ. And the white relates with sacredness.

Anecdote of the Jar- Wallace Stevens.

I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.

The jar was round upon the ground

And tall and of a port in air.

It took domain everywhere.

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Stevens explores the question of superiority between art and nature. Is nature superior to human creations or does human creativity surpasses nature in some way.? This poem solves riddle by recognizing the unique differences between art and nature. The poem begins by telling us of an incident in the past. Once he kept a big and beautiful jar upon an untidy hill in Tennessee. The jar is an art object made by a human being, whereas the hill on which it is placed is natural. Stevens truly does a wonderful job of portraying the relationship of humans to nature. By using the jar to represent man, he was successful in creating an environment not only expressed in the poem, but also felt by the reader. He used irregular rhymes and role changes to express the complex relationship. The reader is left with confusion but slight understanding of the relationship. Stevens expressed the relationship of humans to nature very well in this piece of work.

10)‘I’- E.E.Cummings

I(a

one

iness

I (a is arranged vertically in groups of one to five letters. When the text is laid out horizontally, it either reads as I (a leaf falls) oneliness and in other words, a leaf falls inserted between the first two letters of loneliness or one illness with a leaf falls between a I and one. The image of a single falling leaf is a common symbol for loneliness. The fragmentation of the word loneliness is especially significant, since it highlights the fact that word contains the word one. Oneliness whole within itself even after it is isolated from the tree. Here in the poem use of leaf as a symbol of loneliness.

Thank you.