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Modern American Poetry: Exploration, Experimentation, & Revolution…

- - - - Convoluted, intellectual, multidimensional
      - Content, form, and sound are all interrelated - the form is highly fragmentary; ideas are scattered, thoughts run rampant, multiple voices are adopted, as are multiple languages.
      - Title: in reference to the aftermath of the disaster of WW1 when Europe was left a lifeless and desolate war zone characterized by emptiness and loneliness
      - I. The Burial of the Dead
        
        The first stanza follows the same vein as the rest of the poem, mixing ideas, language (English to German) and even switching from an objective and observant perspective into implementing "I" and "you" to create a narrative and a cast of characters.
        
        Playing with form like this confuses the typical reader and the switch between omnipresent narrator and first person character forces the reader to really focus on the purpose and the message. Eliot makes a collage out of poetic conventions and words.
        
        Never before had any poet successfully toyed with the conventions of language and form like Eliot has, ultimately proving his superior intellect and education.
        
        The content and the form together are doubly haunting.
  - - - Stein plays with the ordering of words and meaning of language in her experimental poem. The poem mirrors the likes of an abstract painting, using the art of diction to reinvent the English language. Through this experimentation with language, Stein truly illustrations "A Completed Portrait of Picasso," by using minimal words and ordering them in various permutations to test their potential meanings.
        
        In playing with permutations, Stein creates a more holistic, or "completed" poem.
      - "If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him." In traditional conditional sentences, the sentence is split into two clauses: the dependent clause (conditional) and the main clause (consequential). These two clauses, which serve as two separate ideas, are separated by a comma. Stein rejects these grammar rules in favor of poetic experimentation. The lack of proper grammar confuses her reader and forces them to consider the implications of grammatical play on overall meaning.
        
        Word order is powerful in creating particular meaning.
        
        Playing with variations of the same words to create different sentences can bring about these different meanings.
        
        Neglecting the formal rules of grammar is a purposeful choice by the poetic and a rejection of tradition and convention in favor of embracing experimentation and newness.
  - - - Written in syllabics: poem is organized around a syllable count; Moore wrote a model stanza that is implemented throughout the poem
      - While Moore is writing a poem, the work sounds like prose. She uses full sentences and a lot of enjambment. There is an unavoidable tension between prose and poem in this piece.
        
        "I, too, dislike it; there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle." (1-2)
        
        There is an everydayness to this poem. As if Moore would recite this to a comrade in person and it would sound like a normal discussion.
        
        "Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine." (3-4)
        
        Does Moore like poetry? No, but she finds it useful and she acknowledges and appreciates it for what it is.
        
        "too" creates a collective, as if she assumes and knows that everyone else also hates poetry and she is not alone.
        
        in addition to the tension between prose and poem, there is a tension between content and form, or essayist and enjambment.
      - Moore claims that to be interested in poetry, one must be frustrated with it. This frustration pushes readers past their limitations and forces them to see a poem differently.
        
        Conclusion: poetry is very hard to define, and it shouldn't be defined. It is more than one thing and it is hard to combine all of its elements and capabilities into one definition.
  - - - Apparent in his work, cummings is a lover, not a fighter.
    - - The speaker professes his passion and adoration for his lover by reworking syntax through abnormal punctuation and a dynamic voice
      - Rather than embrace the classic meter of a sonnet, cummings creates his own lyrical pattern in this poem through word repetition and syntactic relationships, namely through the use of parenthetical clauses.
        
        “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)” (1-2). First, the audience recognizes that the speaker is talking in figurative terms, he is not literally carrying his lover’s heart in his hands, but rather he creates this idea that her love is always within him and he constantly feels the effects of it.
        
        This language is simple enough that it allows the flow of the poem to remain interpretable rather that disruptive and confusing. Regardless of punctuation, the first stanza flows easily and uninterrupted by the parentheses, commas, or semi-colon; so the lyricism is also heightened through free verse and enjambment.
        
        Regarding the parentheses, the parenthetical clause is connected to the former phrase in the sense that it repeats almost exactly what the former phrase says, but with an added detail. With these lines in particular, the parentheses serve as a reinforcement for carrying the lover’s heart in the speaker’s heart, as this detail is enclosed within the parentheses, rather than remaining outside of them. This connects the speaker with his lover in both a form-oriented and contextual way, while also supplementing rhythm through repetition.
        
        The two voices - the one in the parentheses and the one outside of the parentheses - interact with one another in a dialectic way, as if the speaker is having a conversation with his lover and himself at the same time and finds it necessary to explain what he means outside of the parentheses for clarification purposes. The content outside of the parentheses also serves as a more universal voice that many readers can relate to, while the messages inside of the parentheses are specially put aside for his lover.
- - - - 3 Principles of Imagism #
        
        1.) "demanding direct treatment [of the thing]"
        
        2.) "economy of words"
        
        3.) "the sequence of the musical phrase"
    - - Ignoring the rules of grammar, Pound intentionally opts out of using verbs in this two-line poem. This lack of activity puts emphasizes the line-to-line relationship and how the two ideas interact with one another.
        
        "Faces in the crowd" portrays a fast paced, vague image of the mass, while "petals on a wet, black bough" exudes tranquility and the calmness associated with the natural. The two interact with one another by separating the individual from the collective, but still seeing both in relation to one another.
        
        The petals are represent fragility and the ephemeral, standing out against the all-consuming darkness, like certain faces stand out to the speaker amid the crowd.
        
        One moment they're there, the next, they're gone. There's beauty in the fleeting and the transience of life.
        
        While these two thoughts/lines are capable of standing on their own, the relationship they form is salient to one's comprehension of the poem.
      - Pounds use of the word "these" suggests the liminality of this present moment and the chance at play.
  - - - Conventions in "Oread" appealing to sound and tone
        
        Anaphora: starting the first two lines with the world "whirl" and the fifth with "hurl" positions the rhyme at the beginning of the lines rather than at the end of them - unconventional at the time when all poems rhymed at the end.
        
        Alliteration: "pointed pines" creates a harder sound. This consonance emphasizes the power of this component of nature.
        
        Apostrophe: the Oread is directly addressing the sea although it cannot speak back; she commands it to act through direction. However the Oread and the sea, being two different forces of nature (one of the forest and one of water) do not speak the same language.
        
        Each line is a separate image. The Oread is speaking in metaphors since she does not comprehend the ways of the sea and must express herself through what she knows.
        
        Rhetorically, this entire poem is a command. The tone is willful and demanding, adding to the intensity of the image.
  - - - "The Red Wheelbarrow"
        
        Subject: "so much" creates and immediate sense of ambiguity and raises a slew of questions. Who or what depends so much on a red wheel barrow?
        
        Verb: "depends" creates a relationship among the lines within the poem. In choosing this word, Williams gives power to the direct object as an influential (and maybe only) mean to an end.
        
        Direct object: the red wheelbarrow is accountable / responsible for everything that relies upon it. It is crucial to the purpose of the ambiguous actions occurring in the poem, even though the reader is unsure of how or why this is the case.
        
        Williams paints a literary picture for his readers through descriptive use of color (bright "red" contrasting with stark "white") and placement of objects ("beside the chickens"). Each reader is able to generate a visual representation of the poem in their head.
- - - - "Gum" (1923)
        
        Commentary on the deteriorating human condition through symbolism
        
        Right away the setting is established: "on top of two tall buildings," straightaway making it evident that the poem will unravel in a city; cities are hotspots for human activity, industry, technological innovation and ideas. Further specifying the setting by locating the two signs at the top of a major intersection, the reader comes to understand the visibility of these signs, which are a major focus on the poem.
        
        "city's signs," the city possesses the billboards, they become an integral part of the setting and a defining marker for what the city represents: industrial corruption
        
        Both signs encourage indulgence
        
        The Jesus advertisement indicates that Jesus is the solution to relieving impurities- he is the light that can bring one out of the darkness- worshipping Jesus cleanses the soul. Similarly, gum nixes your breath of foul leftover smells from the previous meal. Both are temporary fixes for the unwanted - whether it be repenting sins or refreshing breath - humans will always resort back to these two after they have sinned again or eaten again. This cleansing addiction is amplified in a world of moral decay in which people repeatedly commit wrongful acts and look for an easy, quick fix.
  - - - McKay is recognized for being one of the first poets to write in a dialect, tapping into his Jamaican roots, he embraces his heritage through his poetic syntax.
      - Active in the Harlem Renaissance from abroad, however he spent the 1920s in Morocco and Paris.
      - "The White City"
        
        McKay's critique of New York and America is immediately evident in his titling of the poem "The White City," connoting that, not only are the majority of residents white, but there's also a hint of inhospitableness to anyone who does not fit the label-- if you're not white, do you even belong?
        
        "I see the mighty city through a mist" (9), the speaker experiences the city from a veiled perspective. The mist creates a sort of boundary between the speaker and the city. It's a barrier that's thin enough that he can see through it, but it's solid enough that he cannot penetrate it.
        
        "I will not toy with it nor bend an inch." (1) The speaker inadvertently claims he is neither naive nor willing enough to attempt to change 'it' (being the city), as he knows that the issue is deeper than that, it's systematic and it won't change easily or quickly. It's not worth trying to adjust or alter.
        
        The speaker ends with the powerful word,"hate" (14), expressing his anger for the city and how living in it makes him feel. Even looking at the physical components of it ("trains," "poles and spires and towers") and disregarding the people, he still feels so negatively about everything it stands for and represents.
    - - Poetry is the "language of the people."
      - Being a part of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes aided in establishing an affirmative vision of blackness in America. The historical context of his work links into the Jim Crow era when segregation was heavily enforced. This also coincided with the Reconstruction era.
      - "Cross"
        
        The speaker deals with the tension of having a white father, a black mother, and falling somewhere in the middle of the color scale.
        
        Throughout the poem, the speaker continually reiterates that his parents were not of the same race and it becomes obvious that this detail consumes his thoughts and self reflection, as the poem ultimately concludes with him wondering where he will die, being in a particular set of circumstances.
        
        Title: cross has several applicable meanings in regards to the content of this poem. The title is particularly pivotal in introducing the content of the poem and understanding how the speaker approaches his condition.
        
        the meeting point of two separate lines of pieces, synonymous with intersection
        
        an offspring of crossbreeding, otherwise known as the product of different types, or a hybrid
        
        the act of making an x symbol, usually to connote incorrectness, or the act of removing something
        
        cross can be used to describe the feeling of annoyance, irritation, or even anger
        
        Immediately starts the poem with a claim: "My old man's a white old man / and my old mother's black," providing readers with the facts of the situation, there is no bias.
        
        In terms of historical context - his father possesses two advantageous traits: being male and white, while the mother possesses two disadvantageous traits: being female and black.
        
        The combined themes of race and gender manifest in the final stanza when the speaker recounts the locations in which each of his parents passed: his dad in a "fine big house" and his mom in "a shack." The idea of dominance and subservience inherently links back to the themes of slavery, white ownership, and control. The locations of their respective dates are lined with heavy implications that his father was a slaveowner and his mother was a slave.
  - - - While Millay worked within very traditional forms, such as the sonnet, her content was particularly provocative and radical at the time she was publishing it. Millay's treatment of love, lust, sex, and gender was like nothing any poet had explored before.
      - "First Fig"
        
        "My candle burns at both ends" is an allusion to the poet's own sexuality; Millay was an open bisexual who had several intimate relationships with both men and women. This line is a metaphor for the poet's interest in both men and women- her candle can be lit at both ends because she is attracted to both men and women.
        
        "It will not last the night" is a comment on the speaker's (poet's) current youth and how they recognize that they will not be this open and adventurous forever. If the candle is lit at both ends, it will burn faster than a candle lit on one end. Sexual prowess will decline at some point.
        
        "But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-- / It gives a lovely light!" The speaker is addressing both people who disagree with and support her sexual nature and eventually concludes that she is happy with her choices and she will continue to engage in sexual acts for as long as she enjoys it.
        
        Furthermore, being a fruit, figs can symbolize female fertility and also genitalia, so the title "First Fig" might be alluding to the poet/speaker's first sexual encounter with another woman.
- - - - The title as a paradox. Mere: oversimplified, insignificant, only. Being: as this great mystery of life.
      - "A gold feathered bird / Sings in the palm, without human meaning, / without human feeling, a foreign song"
        
        Humans are incapable of understanding the bird, it's sounds are just noises to us, not language with meaning.
        
        Gold-feathered: this bird is imagined, but conjured up in the speaker's mind from the knowledge reality has provided him with.
      - "The palm stands on the edge of space."
        
        The very edge of the mind: the bird is on the verge of crossing the threshold between consciousness and subconsciousness. It is beyond rationality, in the realm of cosmic space. It is a foreign, untapped part of the mind without access to it.
        
        The unconscious has an order
      - Stevens enjoys language and its capabilities. He finds joy in linguistic excess (such as playing with alliteration and creating his own words, "fire-fangled feathers.")
  - - - The power of choice and retrospection (this poem is written in the past tense)
      - When considering the equality of the paths, which is frequently brought up, the speaker uses phrases such as "just as fair," "really about the same" and "equally lay"
      - If these two paths are so equal, what difference does it make which one he chooses? His attitude. And when looking back and considering his choice, the speaker deems "And that has made all the difference." Choices are made in a split second and everything that happens after them is a chain reaction leading back to that decisive moment. Having the ability to look back on his choice with pleasure is what makes him sure he took the right path.
      - However, his satisfaction in his decision contradicts the title of the poem itself, "The Road Not Taken." The speaker ultimately concludes in referencing the path he did pick was the correct one for him, but the entire poem is framed by the title, which is the road he did not take. He discusses one choice in the context of rejecting the antithetical one.
      - Each choice we make in life has the ability to lead us down one path or another. And everything that that path leads us to is a result of that decision. The power of choice and human agency perplex Frost, looping back to a larger existential question: do we actually make our own choices? And if we do, what effects do they have on us?
  - - - After a series of failed relationships, Loy fell in love with a boxer, who was also a poet, and they fled to Mexico. His mysterious death was a great tragedy in her life.
    - - Poem about giving birth and the otherworldly pain of the process that all women who become mothers must undergo.
        
        Becoming a mother changes one's identity: a woman is immediately connected to the cosmic reproductivity cycle, which is bigger than any life itself. Loy considers the abstract ramifications of birth and pregnancy
      - "I should have been emptied of life / Giving life"
        
        Giving birth is so painful and draining that the speaker feels as though she is both losing her life and giving life. She must consider which is more important in the larger picture.
      - "Stir of incipient life / Precipitating into me / The contents of the universe"
        
        The poem's climax occurs when the speaker references ejaculation and how the contents of the universe are entering her body
        
        The result of this moment is the ability to bring another life in this world, to procreate, to continue the human race- there is more to the act than the physicality of it.
      - "I am absorbed / Into / The was - is - ever - shall - be / Of cosmic reproductivity
        
        Again, the speaker is marveling at her own ability to bring life into this world, despite the indescribable pain that accompanies it. While the pain is temporary, she has given something back to the world and feels as though she has a deeper connection now to the cosmic forces of the universe.
  - - - Plainly spoken with simple word choice
      - Two different fates: following your heart vs. following society's guidelines. Commentary on who lives a more fulfilling life and who is happier. Gets at the meaning of life and forces the reader to consider their own situation.
        
        How Brooks frames the poem: this piece is about Sadie and Brooks implements Maud as a point of comparison. They contrast each other, which highlights their differences in outcome.
      - "Maud went to college / Sadie stayed at home / Sadie scraped life / With a fine-toothed comb."
        
        Immediately the two girls are split by their outcomes- one pursues her education, while the other stays at home. Sadie does as she pleases; she combs every the pleasure out of life wherever she can find it.
      - "Sadie bore two babies / Under her maiden name / Maud and Ma and Papa / Nearly died of shame."
        
        In this given social context, having one child, let alone two, without a marriage was unheard of and unacceptable. Sadie serves as a model for how one should not live their life. This is a turning point in the poem when the reader begins to understand that this is more of a comment on the social context of the world Sadie is living in that than if she's a good person or not.
      - In "Sadie and Maud," Brooks critiques contemporary society. Sadie lives a perfectly fulfilling life, yet is shamed by her family for failing to marry the father of her children, which was expected of her. Maud lives an empty and lonely life, but follows the path of education, which was expected of her. So one does what is expected of her and the other doesn't and they have both negative and positive outcomes, respectively. This goes to show that these expectations are unfair and should be challenged. It is an objection against the current state of affairs.