supportive family life; the familiar, settled com-
Artists and intellectuals were paid to create
munity; the natural and eternal rhythms of nature
murals and state handbooks. These remedies
that guide the planting and harvesting on a farm;
helped, but only the industrial build-up of World
the sustaining sense of patriotism; moral values
War II renewed prosperity. After Japan attacked
inculcated by religious beliefs and observations
the United States at Pearl Harbor on December
— all seemed undermined by World War I and its
7, 1941, disused shipyards and factories came to
aftermath.
bustling life mass-producing ships, airplanes,
Numerous novels, notably Hemingway’s The
jeeps, and supplies. War production and experi-
Sun Also Rises (1926) and Fitzgerald’s This Side mentation led to new technologies, including the
of Paradise (1920), evoke the extravagance and nuclear bomb. Witnessing the first experimental
disillusionment of the lost generation. In T.S.
nuclear blast, Robert Oppenheimer, leader of
Eliot’s influential long poem The Waste Land
an international team of nuclear scientists,
(1922), Western civilization is symbolized by a
prophetically quoted a Hindu poem: “I am
bleak desert in desperate need of rain (spiritual
become Death, the shatterer of worlds.”
renewal).
The world depression of the 1930s affected
MODERNISM
most of the population of the United States.
he large cultural wave of Modernism,
Workers lost their jobs, and factories shut down;
which gradually emerged in Europe and the
T
businesses and banks failed; farmers, unable to
United States in the early years of the 20th
harvest, transport, or sell their crops, could not century, expressed a sense of modern life
pay their debts and lost their farms. Midwestern
through art as a sharp break from the past, as
droughts turned the “breadbasket” of America
well as from Western civilization’s classical tradi-into a dust bowl. Many farmers left the Midwest
tions. Modern life seemed radically different
for California in search of jobs, as vividly
from traditional life — more scientific, faster,
61
more technological, and more mechanized.
towers to illumine a forbidding outer darkness
Modernism embraced these changes.
suggesting ignorance and old-fashioned tradition.
In literature, Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) de-
Photography began to assume the status of a
veloped an analogue to modern art. A resident of
fine art allied with the latest scientific developParis and an art collector (she and her brother
ments. The photographer Alfred Stieglitz opened
Leo purchased works of the artists Paul Cézanne,
a salon in New York City, and by 1908 he was
Paul Gauguin, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Pablo Pi-
showing the latest European works, including
casso, and many others), Stein once explained
pieces by Picasso and other European friends of
that she and Picasso were doing the same thing,
Gertrude Stein. Stieglitz’s salon influenced nu-
he in art and she in writing. Using simple, con-
merous writers and artists, including William
crete words as counters, she developed an
Carlos Williams, who was one of the most influ-
abstract, experimental prose poetry. The child-
ential American poets of the 20th century.
like quality of Stein’s simple vocabulary recalls
Williams cultivated a photographic clarity of
the bright, primary colors of modern art, while
image; his aesthetic dictum was “no ideas but in
her repetitions echo the repeated shapes of
things.”
abstract visual compositions. By dislocating
ision and viewpoint became an essential
grammar and punctuation, she achieved new
aspect of the modernist novel as well. No
V
“abstract” meanings as in her influential collec-
longer was it sufficient to write a straight-
tion Tender Buttons (1914), which views objects forward third-person narrative or (worse yet)
from different angles, as in a cubist painting:
use a pointlessly intrusive narrator. The way the
story was told became as important as the story
A Table A Table means does it not my
itself.
dear it means a whole steadiness.
Henry James, William Faulkner, and many
Is it likely that a change. A table
other American writers experimented with fic-
means more than a glass
tional points of view (some are still doing so).
even a looking glass is tall.
James often restricted the information in the
novel to what a single character would have
Meaning, in Stein’s work, was often subordi-
known. Faulkner’s novel The Sound and The Fury nated to technique, just as subject was less
(1929) breaks up the narrative into four sections, important than shape in abstract visual art.
each giving the viewpoint of a different character Subject and technique became inseparable in
(including a mentally retarded boy).
both the visual and literary art of the period. The To analyze such modernist novels and poetry, a
idea of form as the equivalent of content, a cor-
school of “New Criticism” arose in the United
nerstone of post-World War II art and literature,
States, with a new critical vocabulary. New Critics crystallized in this period.
hunted the “epiphany” (moment in which a char-
Technological innovation in the world of facto-
acter suddenly sees the transcendent truth of a
ries and machines inspired new attentiveness to
situation, a term derived from a holy saint’s
technique in the arts. To take one example: Light, appearance to mortals); they “examined” and
particularly electrical light, fascinated modern
“clarified” a work, hoping to “shed light” upon it artists and writers. Posters and advertisements
through their “insights.”
of the period are full of images of floodlit
skyscrapers and light rays shooting out from
automobile headlights, moviehouses, and watch-
62
POETRY 1914-1945:
translations introduced new liter-
EXPERIMENTS IN FORM
ary possibilities from many cultures
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
to modern writers. His life-work
Ezra Pound was one of the most
was The Cantos, which he wrote and
influential American poets of this
published until his death. They con-
century. From 1908 to 1920, he
tain brilliant passages, but their
resided in London where he asso-
allusions to works of literature and
ciated with many writers, including
art from many eras and cultures
William Butler Yeats, for whom he
make them difficult. Pound’s poetry
worked as a secretary, and T.S.
is best known for its clear, visual
Eliot, whose Waste Land he drasti-
images, fresh rhythms, and muscu-
cally edited and improved. He was a
lar, intelligent, unusual lines, such
link between the United States and
as, in Canto LXXXI, “The ant’s a cen-
Britain, acting as contributing edi-
taur in his dragon world,” or in
tor to Harriet Monroe’s important
poems inspired by Japanese haiku,
Chicago magazine Poetry and
such as “In a Station of the Metro”
spearheading the new school of
(1916):
poetry known as Imagism, which
advocated a clear, highly visual pre-
The apparition of these faces in
sentation. After Imagism, he cham-
the crowd;
pioned various poetic approaches.
Petals on a wet, black bough.
He eventually moved to Italy, where
he became caught up in Italian
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Fascism.
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in
ound furthered Imagism in
St. Louis, Missouri, to a well-to-
letters, essays, and an an-
do family with roots in the north-
Pthology. In a letter to Monroe
eastern United States. He received
T.S. ELIOT
in 1915, he argues for a modern-
the best education of any major
sounding, visual poetry that avoids
American writer of his generation
“clichés and set phrases.” In “A
at Harvard College, the Sorbonne,
Few Don’ts of an Imagiste” (1913),
and Merton College of Oxford Uni-
he defined “image” as something
versity. He studied Sanskrit and
that “presents an intellectual and
Oriental philosophy, which influ-
emotional complex in an instant of
enced his poetry. Like his friend
time.” Pound’s 1914 anthology of 10
Pound, he went to England early
poets, Des Imagistes, offered
and became a towering figure in the
examples of Imagist poetry by out-
literary world there. One of the
standing poets, including William
most respected poets of his day, his
Carlos Williams, H.D. (Hilda
modernist, seemingly illogical or ab-
Doolittle), and Amy Lowell.
stract iconoclastic poetry had re-
Pound’s interests and reading
volutionary impact. He also wrote
were universal. His adaptations and
influential essays and dramas, and
brilliant, if sometimes flawed, Photo courtesy Acme Photos championed the importance of lit-63
erary and social traditions for the
Let us go and make
modern poet.
our visit.
As a critic, Eliot is best remem-
bered for his formulation of the
Similar imagery pervades The
“objective correlative,” which he
Waste Land (1922), which echoes
described, in The Sacred Wood, as a
Dante’s Inferno to evoke London’s
means of expressing emotion
thronged streets around the time of
through “a set of objects, a situa-
World War I:
tion, a chain of events” that would
be the “formula” of that particular
Unreal City,
emotion. Poems such as “The Love
Under the brown fog of a winter
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915)
dawn,
embody this approach, when the
A crowd flowed over London
ineffectual, elderly Prufrock thinks
Bridge, so many
to himself that he has “measured
I had not thought death had
out his life in coffee spoons,”
undone so many... (I, 60-63)
using coffee spoons to reflect a
humdrum existence and a wasted
The Waste Land’s vision is ulti-
lifetime.
mately apocalyptic and worldwide:
The famous beginning of Eliot’s
“Prufrock” invites the reader into
Cracks and reforms and bursts
tawdry alleys that, like modern life,
in the violet air
offer no answers to the questions
Falling towers
life poses:
Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria
Vienna London
Let us go then, you and I,
Unreal (V, 373-377)
When the evening is spread
out against the sky
liot’s other major poems
Like a patient etherized upon
include “Gerontion” (1920),
E
a table;
which uses an elderly man
Let us go, through certain half-
to symbolize the decrepitude of
deserted streets,
Western society; “The Hollow Men”
The muttering retreats
(1925), a moving dirge for the death
Of restless nights in one-night
of the spirit of contemporary hu-
cheap hotels
manity; Ash-Wednesday (1930), in
ROBERT FROST
And sawdust restaurants with
which he turns explicitly toward the
oyster-shells:
Church of England for meaning in
Streets that follow like a
human life; and Four Quartets
tedious argument
(1943), a complex, highly subjec-
Of insidious intent
tive, experimental meditation on
To lead you to an overwhelm-
transcendent subjects such as
ing question...
time, the nature of self, and spiritu-
Photo © Kosti Ruohamaa,
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Black Star
al awareness. His poetry, especially
64
his daring, innovative early work,
snow.
has influenced generations.
My little horse must think it
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
queer
Robert Lee Frost was born in
To stop without a farmhouse
California but raised on a farm in
near
the northeastern United States
Between the woods and frozen
until the age of 10. Like Eliot and
lake
Pound, he went to England, attract-
The darkest evening of the year.
ed by new movements in poetry
there. A charismatic public reader,
He gives his harness bells a
he was renowned for his tours. He
shake
read an original work at the inaugu-
To ask if there is some mistake.
ration of President John F. Kennedy
The only other sound’s the
in 1961 that helped spark a national
sweep
interest in poetry. His popularity is
Of easy wind and downy flake.
easy to explain: He wrote of tradi-
tional farm life, appealing to a nos-
The woods are lovely, dark and
talgia for the old ways. His subjects
deep,
are universal — apple picking,
But I have promises to keep,
stone walls, fences, country roads.
And miles to go before I sleep,
Frost’s approach was lucid and
And miles to go before I sleep.
accessible: He rarely employed pe-
dantic allusions or ellipses. His fre-
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
quent use of rhyme also appealed
Born in Pennsylvania, Wallace
to the general audience.
Stevens was educated at Harvard
Frost’s work is often deceptively
College and New York University
simple. Many poems suggest a
Law School. He practiced law in
deeper meaning. For example, a
New York City from 1904 to 1916,
quiet snowy evening by an almost
a time of great artistic and poetic
hypnotic rhyme scheme may sug-
activity there. On moving to Hart-
gest the not entirely unwelcome
ford, Connecticut, to become an
approach of death. From: “Stopping
insurance executive in 1916, he
by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
continued writing poetry. His life is
(1923):
remarkable for its compartmental-
WALLACE STEVENS
ization: His associates in the insur-
Whose woods these are I think I
ance company did not know that he
know.
was a major poet. In private he con-
His house is in the village,
tinued to develop extremely com-
though;
plex ideas of aesthetic order
He will not see me stopping
throughout his life in aptly named
here
books such as Harmonium (en-
To watch his woods fill up with
Photo © The Bettmann Archive larged edition 1931), Ideas of Order 65
(1935), and Parts of a World (1942). Some of his or sailor — will always find a creative outlet.
best known poems are “Sunday Morning,” “Peter
Quince at the Clavier,” “The Emperor of Ice-
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Cream,” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a
William Carlos Williams was a practicing pedi-
Blackbird,” and “The Idea of Order at Key West.”
atrician throughout his life; he delivered over
Stevens’s poetry dwells upon themes of the
2,000 babies and wrote poems on his prescrip-
imagination, the necessity for aesthetic form and
tion pads. Williams was a classmate of poets Ezra
the belief that the order of art corresponds with
Pound and Hilda Doolittle, and his early poetry
an order in nature. His vocabulary is rich and var-reveals the influence of Imagism. He later went
ious: He paints lush tropical scenes but also
on to champion the use of colloquial speech; his
manages dry, humorous, and ironic vignettes.
ear for the natural rhythms of American English
Some of his poems draw upon popular culture,
helped free American poetry from the iambic
while others poke fun at sophisticated society or
meter that had dominated English verse since
soar into an intellectual heaven. He is known for
the Renaissance. His sympathy for ordinary
his exuberant word play: “Soon, with a noise like
working people, children, and everyday events in
tambourines / Came her attendant Byzantines.”
modern urban settings make his poetry attractive
Stevens’s work is full of surprising insights.
and accessible. “The Red Wheelbarrow” (1923),
Sometimes he plays tricks on the reader, as in
like a Dutch still life, finds interest and beauty in
“Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock” (1931):
everyday objects:
The houses are haunted
So much depends
By white night-gowns.
upon
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
a red wheel
Or green with yellow rings,
barrow
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
glazed with rain
With socks of lace
water
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
beside the white
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
chickens.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Williams cultivated a relaxed, natural poetry. In
Catches tigers
his hands, the poem was not to become a perfect
In red weather.
object of art as in Stevens, or the carefully re-
created Wordsworthian incident as in Frost.
his poem seems to complain about
Instead, the poem was to capture an instant of
unimaginative lives (plain white night-
time like an unposed snapshot — a concept he
Tgowns), but actually conjures up vivid derived from photographers and artists he met images in the reader’s mind. At the end a drunk-at galleries like Stieglitz’s in New York City. Like en sailor, oblivious to the proprieties, does
photographs, his poems often hint at hidden pos-
“catch tigers” — at least in his dream. The poem
sibilities or attractions, as in “The Young
shows that the human imagination — of reader
Housewife” (1917):
66
accounts, and historical facts. The
At ten a.m. the young housewife
layout’s ample white space sug-
moves about in negligee behind
gests the open road theme of
the wooden walls of her
American literature and gives a
huband’s house.
sense of new vistas even open to
I pass solitary in my car.
the poor people who picnic in the
public park on Sundays. Like
Then again she comes to the
Whitman’s persona in Leaves of
curb,
Grass, Dr. Paterson moves freely
to call the ice-man, fish-man,
among the working people:
and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
-late spring,
stray ends of hair, and I
a Sunday afternoon!
compare her
To a fallen leaf.
- and goes by the footpath to the
cliff (counting: the proof)
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
himself among others
dried leaves as I bow and pass
- treads there the same stones
smiling.
on which their feet slip as they
climb,
He termed his work “objectivist”
paced by their dogs!
to suggest the importance of con-
crete, visual objects. His work often
laughing, calling to each other -
captured the spontaneous, emotive
pattern of experience, and influ-
Wait for me!
enced the “Beat” writing of the
(II, i, 14-23)
early 1950s.
Like Eliot and Pound, Williams
BETWEEN THE WARS
tried his hand at the epic form, but
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)
while their epics employ literary
umerous American poets of
allusions directed to a small num-
stature and genuine vision
N
ber of highly educated readers,
ROBINSON JEFFERS
arose in the years between
Williams instead writes for a more
the world wars, among them poets
general audience. Though he stud-
from the West Coast, women, and
ied abroad, he elected to live in the
African-Americans. Like the nov-
United States. His epic, Paterson
elist John Steinbeck, Robinson
(five vols., 1946-1958), celebrates
Jeffers lived in California and wrote
his hometown of Paterson, New
of the Spanish rancheros and In-
Jersey, as seen by an autobiograph-
dians and their mixed traditions,
ical “Dr. Paterson.” In it, Williams
and of the haunting beauty of the
juxtaposed lyric passages, prose,
land. Trained in the classics and
Photo © UPI/The Bettmann
letters, autobiography, newspaper
Archive
well-read in Freud, he re-created
67
themes of Greek tragedy set in the
whistles far and wee
rugged coastal seascape. He is best
known for his tragic narratives such
and eddieandbill com