Modernism
The time of modernism
is considered the end
of the nineteenth and the twentieth
century
Western Europe. This tendency came
to sweep aside the “traditional” forms
of
art, literature, etc.
It also drew on the
revolutionary movements, such as
liberalism and communism.
It was something new,
modernism encouraged to look
carefully every aspect of
existence. Now the old
movements were replaced with new, with better
ways of
reaching the same end.
One of it’s aim was
to make people believe that what was new
also was good and
beautiful.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism#Historical_outline
17.04.2007)
Until the time of
modernism, the first half of the nineteenth century , Europe
was
full
of wars
and
revolutions, which revealed the
rise of ideas identified as Romanticim: the
supremecy of Nature
as a subject of art, individual liberty, etc.
However,
these ideas failed due to the Romatic
Revolutions of
1848. The new
movement was
called “ Victorian era”.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18.04.2007)
Thus
in the 1920s, modernism, which had minor part
before the war, came to define
the age.Modernism
was seen in such critical movements as Dada,
and then in
constructive
movements such as Surrealism, as well as in
smaller
movements such as
the Bloomsbury Group.
Each of these "modernisms"
stressed new methods to produce
new results.
Modernism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism17.04.2007
Concerning the modernist
poetry in English, here the
focus was on the surface of the
poem. It
focused on the literal meaning of the words on the page rather than any
metaphorical
or symbolic meanings that might
be imputed to them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernistpoetry17.04.2007
World War I
Owen is
regarded by some as the leading poet of the First World War,
known for his
war poetry on the horrors of trench
and gas
warfare. His great friend, the contemporary
poet Siegfried Sassoon
had a profound effect on Owen's poetic voice, and Owen's most
famous poems (Dulce et
Decorum Est
and Anthem for
Doomed
Youth) show direct
results of Sassoon's influence.
Manuscript copies of the poems survive,
annotated in
Sassoon's handwriting.
Poetry http://en.wikipedia.org/18.04.2007
As for
Owen's poetry itself, it underwent significant changes in 1917. Owen's
doctor,
Arthur
Brock, encouraged Owen to translate his experiences, specifically the
experiences
he relived in his dreams, into poetry. Sassoon helped him here, showing
Owen
through example what poetry could do. Sassoon's use of satire
influenced Owen,
who
tried his hand at writing "in Sassoon's style." Further, the content
of Owen's verse
was
undeniably changed by his work with Sassoon. Sassoon's emphasis on realism and
'writing
from experience' was not exactly unheard of to Owen, but it was not a
style of
which
he had previously made use--his earlier body of work consists primarily
of
light-
hearted
sonnets. Sassoon himself contributed to this growth in Owen by his
strong
promotion
of Owen's poetry, both before and after Owen's death: Sassoon was one
of
Owen's
first editors. Nevertheless, Owen's poetry is quite distinctive, and he
is
generally
considered
a greater poet than Sassoon.
Poetry http://en.wikipedia.org/18.04.2007
Only five of Owen's poems had been
published before his death, one of which
was in
fragmentary form. His best known poems
include Anthem for
Doomed
Youth, Dulce Et
Decorum
Est, The
Parable of the Old Man and the Young, and Strange
Meeting.
Some
of his poems feature in Benjamin Britten's
War Requiem.
So
Abram rose, and clave the wood,
and went,
And
took the fire
with him,
and a knife.
And as
they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac
the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold
the preparations,
fire and
iron,
But
where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then
Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and
builded parapets and trenches there,
And
stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When
lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying,
Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither
do anything to him. Behold,
A ram,
caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the
Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And
half the seed of Europe, one by one.
The Parabel of the old man and the
young http://en.wikipedia.org/18.04.2007
BIBLIOGRARHY
1.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism#Historical_outline>
17.04.2007
2.< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism>
17.04.2007
3.<www.outline-literature.com/yetas/
>
18.04.2007
4.Modernist poetry. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_poetry>
18.04.2007