Ten short poems of modernist

RESPECTED SIR,

Interpretation of ten short poems

1.)‘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.

-- Modernist literature at first seems difficult to understand. In this poem, Hulme is trying to escape from earthly realities and wants himself to be wined up with comfortable lies.

2.) ‘The Embankment‘- T. E. Hulme

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.

The poet express about loneliness or emptiness.when he passes from the street he found a star but when he goes near ,it is not star but a silver ribbon.Star is a symbol of brightness or hope but the poet can not see it for long time.

3.) 'Image' - Edward Storer

Forsaken lovers,

Burning to a chaste white moon

Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and

drought

The poem as per its title “Image” presents an image of the modern people and their way of living, they requires purity like moon. They all are burning with various diseases like sexual perversion and nothingness which T. S. Eliot has also presented in The Waste Land and in these four lines this image of loneliness of modern era is presented.

4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough

As the petals on black bough is not live even it is wet. The same situation is happening with all men. Who are habituated to work daily without any feeling or expression. Crowd has no face of feeling that seems to be true here

5.) '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?

As a bi-sexual person, Doolittle faced just such a situation. She played many roles; but, ultimately, she became a many faceted person. Sometimes, we have difficulty, especially as adolescents, understanding our feelings. We do not know what our emotions mean. We question who we are and what we want from life. It might be satisfying to have someone pull us close and help us to understand as the poet says in the last line

6.) "Insouciance" – 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.

In this poem, poet compares his poems with dove. It flies far away from himself and at last, it becomes difficult to say that it was mine.

7.) 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 despondentlyat 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 - morning at the window signs towards the way of living without end , purpose ,if you try to pass your life then it can't provide us that real joy of life that actually we have to. - Ethusiasm only has chances to wait for death with new spirit within.

8.) The Red Wheelbarrow -William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chicken.

Here we can say that poet used the word “wheel”, “rain”, “water” and “white chicken”. The dictionary meaning of “wheel borrows” is “a small, one wheeled cart with handles at one end for transporting small loads. It Is like “bullock cart” but bullock cart is pushed by bull but wheel borrow may be pushed by man for transporting little goods and luggage's. Here we can see that the poet uses “chicken” which is the younger one of hen/cock. So we can say that it is a poem about the sacrifice of a younger one in this modern age.

9.) 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 dominion everywhere.

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Through this poem we can understand that how the life

becomes mixer of both the things. And indirectly we can

say it is hybridization. As same in our country we are eating both the

things pizza as well as rotala.

10.) ‘l (a‘-E. E. Cummings

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

Here poet discussed about the state “Tennessee” in United States of America. In this poem poet placed a jar on the hill. After some time jar at hill owns the place slowly and steadily. Through this line poet wants to say that how an outsider comes as different place and owns that place or we can say that an outsider made.