POESÍA MODERNISTA ANGLONORTEAMERICANA, Apuntes de Poesía

¡Descarga POESÍA MODERNISTA ANGLONORTEAMERICANA y más Apuntes en PDF de Poesía solo en Docsity! POESÍA las vanguardias empiezan a principios del siglo XX y son experimentales. Vamos a ver de 1900- 1930. - Poesía postmodernista: poesía más radical experimental - Poesía de reacción contra el modernismo: reivindica la experiencia cotidiana, la poesía de la experiencia. El modernismo tiene 2 fases: - low modernism: desde 1900 hasta el principio de la primera guerra mundial (1914) ¿ - high modernism: comienza con el imagism (poemas cortos).? 4 poetas: 1. williams 2. stebens 3. Elliot ¿Qué tienen en común estos poetas? Son todos norteamericanos. No hay poetas suficientemente importantes en el modernismo británico. Aún así, vamos a dar 2 tipos de modernismo, ya que hay dos de ellos que aunque son estadounidenses, se empapan de Europa (Elliot, el cual se llegó a nacionalizar británico y Paun? El cual se consideraba europeo y llegó a odiar a los estadounidenses). William y stebens van a estar conectados con estadosunidos, aunque William Walace está conectado con el simbolismo francés. ¿Qué son “poetics”? la teoría de la poesía, cada poeta tiene su teoría sobre la poesía. Vamos a combinar la poesía de poéticas y sus poemas. El problema con las vanguardias es que muchos creen que están inventando algo nuevo, aunque no es verdad. La poesía modernista supuso un cambio, pero, nunca nadie hace nada completamente nuevo. Vamos a ver también algo de Romanticismo, ya que los modernistas se ven como antirrománticos, los cuales innovaron en su poesía. Vamos a ver un prefacio de Lyrical Ballads. Poetas modernos vs. Poetas modernistas: los poetas modernistas experimentan. - Thomas Hardy: tiene elementos que se conectan con el imagismo. El simbolismo tiene 2 vertientes: - Una radical: el meaning del poema se queda radicalizado. - Basada en la creación de atmósferas más que la ruptura con el significado. Thomas Hardy: él era novelista naturalista. “moment of vision”: un momento de percepción que se conectará con el imagismo. Examen: 5puntos cada parte - Tres preguntas de poética (espacio pequeño) - 2 poemas a elegir uno para analizar, un folio por las dos caras (uno de los autores que hemos visto pero poema desconocido). 1 de William c w, y el otro o de Elliot o de Stevens o de Paun. Elliot y Stevens defienden la dificultad de la poesía, que no se puede llegar fácil al significado. Paun llena el poema con alusiones privadas. El problema de William c w es que sus poemas son demasiados sencillos. MARCH 3 Thomas Hardy was both an imagist and a symbolist. When we read the poem, we have to take into account the intention of the poem and also the elements. IMAGISM A FEW DON’TS BY AN IMAGISTE Say if the following statements are true or false according to the information in the text: 1. The objective of imagist poetics is to recount the poet's emotional experiences. F (perception and thoughts also, emotional and intellectual)  Not recount. 2. The maxim of imagism might be "presentation without elaboration". T 3. The imagist poem is liberating for both the poet and the reader. F he is focusing on the experience of the author more (focus on the self). 4. Superflous words must be excluded; so only accurate adjectives will be used. T - - Adjetives must be necessary to express what the author wants. 5. The imagist poet often expresses his/her own opinions in the poem. F - must not experience their opinion. 6. The imagist poet describes reality as objectively as possible. F - “don’t be descriptive”, description has a process. 7. The use of rhyme in the imagist poem must not be conventional. T 8. The imagist poet can be compared with the scientist if he/she is an innovative poet. T 9. The imagist poem is more universal than the symbolist poem. T - the symbolist poet is based on music, because of the correspondence between different words, and this is very difficult to translate into other languages. This makes the symbolist poem less universal than the universals. 10. Ornament is not accepted in the imagist poem. F - but the ornament must be good. * These poets do not represent, they present, they neither describe (you have the painters for that). PARTS OF THE MANIFESTO IN WHICH HE IS NOT BEING ACCURATE AND HE CONTRADICT HIMSELF - “Good ornament only”: this is very vague. 6. What does the scientific allusion suggest about modernist poetry? 7. What role must the poet's feelings play in the poem? The poet’s feelings must not take place in the poem, but only those which are important for the poem itself (feelings that, being important to be poem or poetry, should be also important for the poet itself). 8. Find some evidence of the elitist trait in Eliot's poetics? THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK  References to Michael Angelo. This means 2 things -> fear of the woman (who is talking about Michael Angelo)  3rd stanza: how the symbolist strategy works; “yellow” is going to appear. The atmosphere is going to be as a cat (its movements); the cat is going to be linked with sensuality and mystery  Next stanza: subjective (time to create) and objective time (the man is walking to the woman’s place). We have reference here to social setting.  Next one: presence of real time. We find 2 important things connected with personality and social status; “they will talk about me”/self-parody, he belongs to the upper-middle class.  These three stanzas are a recapitulation of her class in the upper-middle class context.  Perception that he has on this context: he is attracted to the other context (the bohemian one);  Voices: this social context is presented in a very fragmentary way; the perception that he has of this world is empty of signification, is frivolous. He is not particular identified with this social context but with the transgressive setting (in the 3rd stanza we are going to see that). When he mentioned the “eyes” -> he is like an insect and he is observed by these eyes. ¿Cómo voy a empezar a contar mi vida si me miran de esta manera? ¿cómo me voy a atrever?  His psychology: he is rather neurotic. He knows how they behave (the social setting), so knowing that, how can he presume?  Women: how women are represented here? women are fragmented also into voices, perfumes, arms, eyes… so what is his perception of women? The way he sees women says that he has difficulties having relationships with women, he is not comfortable in the presence of women. His perception of women is kind neurotic.  In the poem -> there are meta poetics moments. We find digression in the poem: this guy is unable to name the thing.  Try to summarize the poem in relation to its poetics: 1. Time and space 2. Meta poetic elements 3. Artificial speech (the poem must be difficult) 4. Cultural allusions presented in the historical sense (relevant past has to be taken into the present) to religion and works such as Hamlet 5. The poem must be difficult (the modern society is complex and the poem must be complex so as to reflect that complexity, this is just the contrary to the imagist’s ideas). 6. Indirectness-> the poem must be allusive (in general terms, in terms of saying things directly but others not) and indirect. 7. Breaking language, present language as something different to the reader. 8. Rhyme: what Eliot proposes a liberation from rhyme, this means a liberation from the conventional use of rhyme -> with that he wants to make rhyme meaningful again. In order to keep tradition alive, you have to recreate tradition, you have to include rhyme only when rhyme is necessary. 9. Anti-heroism 10. All the poem summarised in “and in short, I was afraid”. 11. Impersonality: can be this poem considered impersonal? This character can be compered with Eliot. What he does is use elements to his own biography to create this. In fact, this character is the personification of the neurotic modern man. 12. Psychoanalytical approach Analyse the following elements in the poem: 1. Prufrock's psychological identity. 2. Prufrock's social identity. 3. Time: objective and subjective. 4. Settings. 5. Cultural alllusions. 6. Meta-poetic elements. 7. Formal aspects. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SECOND PART OF THE POEM FIRST STANZA: 1. Allusion to the lower-class setting. 2. Interpretation of the allusion to John the Baptist 3. Antiheroic dimension of the character. 4. Rationalizations to justify lack of action, 4. Metapoetic comment. SECOND AND THIRD STANZAS 1. Implications of the verbal tense. 2. Rationalizations to jusfify lack of action. 3. Interpretation of the allusion to Lazarus. 4. Metapoetic comment. 5. Identification of the "One" mentioned in both stanzas. 6. Implications of the use of the word "One". HAMLET STANZA 1. Explanation of the comparison with Hamlet. 2. Identification of the "attendant lord" in Hamlet 3. The antiheroic dimension of the character. 4. Metapoetic comment. He belongs to the bourgeoise, he enjoys the bourgeoise and he is in contact with the old class. What consciousness does he has with the awareness of both social classes? He is aware of the frivolity and stupidity of the bourgeoise but he is not critical about this class, he is only critical from his neurotic perspective.  Stanza about the cat and the yellow colour: associated with pollution, dirty streets, the environment of the low classes caused by the modern industrial capitalist society. These are the conditions in which the poor people live. All the pleasure of the cat has a negative perspective, since this pleasure is given because of the suffering of the lower classes. The cat is a metaphor of individualism (it is selfish, individualist, unable to show feelings).  He is a witness -> an allusion to selfishness and alienation  Anti-heroism -> the hero is the one who can change society (luck of commitment). Perspectivism: is the choice of a perspective. THE WASTE LAND : A GAME OF CHESS 1. What can you anticipate from the title of the poem about its content? 2. What character appears in the first stanza? Underline the verbs in this stanza and identify their relation with that character?  3. Discuss the role of the allusion to Philomel? 4. Whose are "the footsteps (that) suffled on the stair"? 5. What happens in the second section of the poem? 6. How do you interpret the statements "I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street with my hair down" and "Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door"? 7. Identify the setting and characters in the third section of the poem. How can you relate this section with the rest of the poem? How do you interpret the expression "It's them pills I took to bring it off". Context: Produced in the years after the World War finished by T.S Eliot It is about the war and the consequences of the war (physical and moral). Society was in a depressive way, affected by the collapse of the war. He had a depression because some facts: 1. his relationship with his wife was a bit complicated, since she was a little bit unstable in terms of emotion. Eliot and his wife got divorce in the same year in which he converted to the Anglican Church and becoming also English by nationality. 2. He had also a complicated relationship with his father. His father did not want him to become a poet neither a philosopher. His father ended up dying and a feeling of guilt started to blow. He was writing a thesis on an author and he came to Europe. When the war exploded, he was there and he had to scape of Germany. Because of his depression he went to Switzerland to have treatment for his depression. He stopped in Paris in his way to London and then he decided to moved to Paris for a year before he went to Italy to live. So, he stopped in Paris to see Poun, he was insecure about his poem and afraid of the reaction of the readers. He needed the support of that person. Edgar Poun advised Eliot to remove a huge part of this poem, he proposed him to eliminate a long series of couplets that Eliot has written imitating Alexander P. A part of the poem based on the novel Heart of Darkness was also removed because of this proposal. The epigraph, which was a quotation from Heart of Darkness was also removed. This poem deals with the decadence of the European values. This poem has gothic aura, and we are going to find ghosts (those who have died because of the war). Even ghosts need eternal rest and need that those who are alive do something for them (alive people need to accomplish a mission, a task, if they do not accomplish that task, they will have “little life”. *Their mission: 1. The Golden Bough Sir James Frazer: vegetation walls are connected with spring, life coming back every spring, so this allusion is connected with hope. Europe is devastated, lack of fertility with little life, but there is hope of coming back to live. 2. From Ritual to Romance Jesse L. Westen: Arthurian legends; his kingdom has become a waste land, to restore it they have to find the holly graine, which is going to restore the fertility of the land. What alive people has to do is to find that holly graine. Their mission is understanding the knowledge, the terrible causes of war, finding truth of what had happened This poem has a deep and dark aura but, there is a little room for hope. Fragmentation of the stream of consciousness in one of the fragments: The poem should not reflect the feelings of the poet but being just a medium: this is what he tried to do here. According to him, the mature poet is the most valuable one and perfect one: he wrote this with 33, so he was older here. Concept of the collapse (with a motive), the mythic method (mythic is connected with Eliot historical sense, the tradition and the myths in terms of the content of the poem; but the concept intended to break the lineal narrative: what he tried to put context in parallel instead of the lineal narrative, creating special narrative; if you change the order of the stanzas, we are going to find the same poem). What we are going to do here is to connect all the fragments of the poem with the lay motif of the poem (the motive itself). *Lay motif of the poem: according to Michael Levinson this term is a little life (sentence we are going to find in the first stanza), this life is the life that existed after the war and the devastation. Little life to Eliot is having little knowledge, and he considered that human life does not have knowledge. Those who have “little life” are ghosts. * Sacerdotisa de Cumas: she asks for eternal life to Apolo, but she has forgotten to ask for eternal youth, she finally became a very little thing and Apolo put her into a bottle. And when some asks her what she wants, she answers she wants to die. This is connected with ghosts because ghosts, as well as her, want to die because they have little life. - No idea but things (principle of objectivity) - Poem is a machine made out of words (accuracy, efficiency in the use of words, not superfluous words) - Poetry is an epistemological instrument that can be compared to science: this makes poetry the purest of the instruments in the epistemological dimension - Poem has a masculine (the universal) and feminine (the particular) side. - Poetry’s task is to overcome the alienation of poetry. When you use the ordinary language is more difficult to get that alienation; we get to that by the shape of the poem, by thus, words are meaningful. - He is focus on reality but not to imitate, but he wants to generate reality (role of imagination here: not to scape from reality because is the romantic way of imagination, but a tool to observe reality from new perspectives). Generating reality means to make visible what is invisible. - Notion of non-entity: his poetics has as a task to transform the non-entity into entity (by using imagination). - Epistemological location (his town, surrounded by familiar features; this is the base to create new reality) - The idea of relativism. There is something of Estein in this author since he tries to create poetry from perspectivism (different perspectives illuminates different aspects of the object, and all perspectives find a truth fact of that object). - This author said: “The poet thinks with his poem”: the thought emerges from the creation of the poem (here we have the idea of not being subjectivist but objectivist). THIS IS JUST TO SAY Meta-poetic connotations  Origins of the poem: a note that the author wrote to his wife. Then he decided to write the poem with this text.  His intention: 1. Compare the note with the novel 2. What is the difference between both? The poem communicates in a different way. 1. The note is transformed into stanzas. The different parts of the text are divided by stanzas. Each part becomes more visible than in the note. Punctuation is also replaced. For example: in the poem we find “Forgive” in capital letters because we don’t have here the full stop that precedes it. 2. The first sentence of the note becomes the title of the poem: “this is just to say”. This implies an important change: the title of the poem anticipates something of the poem. He intends to transmit a confession without relevance (things that are considered to be unpoetic: the poem can just be about these plums). From a particular experience he wants to transmit something more universal. 3. In communication we have the addresser and the addressee. The addressee in the poem is the reader not his wife (main difference with the note, in which the addressee is his wife). His wife can detect things readers cannot detects in the novel (there is a common knowledge they share). *Meta-poetic meaning of the poem can only be got by having the reader as the addressee. The three different stanzas represent different things: 1. The fact 2. Hypothesis of his wife’s intentions 3. Focused on the pleasure of eating the plums 4.Emphasis: “saving” is isolating. You keep things whereas I want to have pleasure. 5. They way he divided the stanzas is created, used to communicate, it was not a mechanical thing. This poem is based on the following note Williams wrote to his wife:  "This is just to say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me, they were delicious, so sweet and so cold." The same words are used in the poem. Is the message affected by the new desplay of the words on the page?  PASTORAL  What can we anticipate from the title: an idealistic presentation of rural life and natural environment.  The content of the poem is going to deal with this rural life. Perhaps pastoral, we have an ironic intention (because he was not related to romanticism, the opposite).  There is something here related to Prufot by Eliot (although we know he was the opposite of Eliot)? Elements in the poem that can be criticized: 1. Prufot: the stanza dealing with the cat (representing the ugliness of the city), and although it was ugly, he was able to get pleasure to this. Something similar happens here: “admiring the houses of the very poor”. 2. The “I” element is too present, since he wanted to present an objective perspective, and this element is too subjective. 1. What can you anticipate from the title of the poem about its content? Title: it is ironical if you compare the romantic and idealised idea of the pastoral with the environment he is describing. However, there is an aesthetic dimension that is linked with this -> “the bluish green”, it is related with the sky, an element of beauty in the pastoral; is this irony? We don’t know. 2. Identify the setting. The poor parts of the city. 3. Relate the content of the poem with the concept of "non-entity". The non-entity are the houses of the poor people and its environment since they are invisible, and what the author wants to do is to convert this into visible. This is connected with Prufot by Elliot (the first parts of the poem seem like this one). 4. Do you find any allusions to American dominant values? High modernism: EZRA POUND Documentary Symbolism is related to music and imagism with the base form. However, the documentary makes allusion to music in relation to Pound. The thing is that he was identified with music as a structure. Chinese ideograms: he was fascinated by Chinese culture and by the ideograms. The thing with ideograms is that they are presented to you immediately and you get the concept faster. - Pound was identified with naming, not suggesting. If you find an alternative way to name a thing it is also good, that’s what happen with the ideograms: you can translate an ideogram as “the east” or you can make it a more descriptive way. Fascism: Pound hated Roosevelt (Roosevelt was related to Capitalism). He saw a possibility to create a new kind of society, and that’s why he was related to fascism. Pound’s characteristics: he had a strong ego (he had a very masculine ego), he was identified with medieval poetry, he was fascinated with the warrior and he was identified with that. He was identified also with the troubadour (duality). At the same time, he had impersonality in his poetry, so his ego was not represented in his poetry, and this is quite contradictory. VORTEX He was the leader of the imagist movement. However, he also broke with imagism (because he rejected some elements of imagism) and created another movement: vorticism. Here we are going to find why he broke with imagism. (Imagism vs. vorticism a possible question of the exam). 1. Similarities and differences between vorticism and imagism. Similarities: - Imagism: no superfluous words also. - Vorticism: also avoiding things that are superfluous (that’s why the efficiency). Primary pigment is the same as “presentation without elaboration” of the imagism. The important thing is that Pound uses a dehumanized term to mention this new poetry: more related to the machine so as to be more comparable with the avangard movement to break with the past. Imagism was also irrational (they are identified with intuition, for instance). Differences: - Vorticism: Pound sees imagism as a movement that has a contemplative attitude in relation to the word (a passive attitude); he wants energy and movement. You need energy to create. Impersonality: it is based on outside things, so it is objective. Imagist poet: passive so the self is not so active. However, he proposes activity in the part of the author. So, the vortex is like the catalyst, all experiences rushes into the vortex; the vortex receives everything and from it the poet is created. So, what does the vortex do? It is something static? The difference between the medium and the vortex is energy, which the vortex has. The vortex implies speed, energy and lack of reflection (thinking) -> NO RATIONAL PROCESS BEHIND, NO REFLECTION. So, Pound also wants the poem to be impersonal.  Talking about tradition: Pound uses “race-memory”. Race is not identified with culture, so, this implies dehumanisation. He contrasts with imagism (coinciding with Eliot at the same time); so, he recognises the past, which has energy (is alive), is also important for the present. The concept of this dehumanisation will lead into fascism. *Imagist attitude in relation to tradition: they were absolutely against tradition, they believed that what they were doing was something completely different. 2. Similarities and differences between vorticism and Eliot's poetics. In the high modernist era, we find the two major poets: Eliot and Pound, so we are going to compare them too.  Eliot’s tradition: repeated tradition means fossilizing that tradition, so he proposes to make tradition alive. A word very important with his poetics and with tradition: historical sense (the poet recognises the pastness of the past but also the presence of the past, in what extent the past is relevant for the poetry we write nowadays). The new poem (innovative) transforms tradition and in this way tradition becomes alive. That is what makes a poet a traditional poet (that according to him implies to be modern to). Impersonality: the poet should be like a scientist (remember the catalyst) -> in the product there is nothing of the philomel of platinum. So, the poet must be just a medium; the self of the poet mustn’t appear. 3. Simlarities and differences between vorticism and futurism. Difference: futurism is full of energy, it is identified with mechanism, it is dehumanised, it is related also to totalitarian regimes (fascism). The only difference is about the past, futurism was against tradition whereas Pound tries to include the past in the present. 4. Pound's view about hedonism -> hedonism is related to having pleasure (behind the aesthetics of Oscar Wilde and the carpe diem; enjoy life). Desire and pleasure: are they allies or enemies? Enemies since when pleasure appears, desire disappears. Desire is energy; all creative process comes from desire. Pleasure discharges. Pound hates hedonism because it is identified with lack of energy, with lack of strength and weakness. THE RIVER MERCHANT’S WIFE: A LETTER This poem comes from the Chinese poems. It is related to the way Chinese name things. 1. Is the speaker a man or a woman? Does the poem begin with the speaker's childhood? She is a woman. This speaker is the narrator of her story, showing her experiences. And yes, it begins with the speaker’s childhood. 2. What kind of marriage is suggested in the poem? An arranged marriage. 3. At what age did the speaker get married? At first stage: there is no love, she is not happy, she is embarrassed with the situation. At 14 she married him. At the second stage she felt in love with her husband. Here, she wants to be with him forever. Third stage: it is marked by the separation. 4. What stages in the speaker's married life are mentioned in the poem? He also is going to find paradise in the Ancient Greece, medial Provence (France), the troubadours (he was very fascinated about them). In Canto number III -> we have paradise and hell and we can see the contrast and the way the whole series of cantos work and are organised. Keys to understand the poem -> difficulties to understand the novel rely on cultural allusions (go to the poem). Take into account Pound’s ideas of hedonism when analysing this. 1.Identfy the settings in the poem. We have 2 settings: 1. Venice, classic Italy (Tuscan) -> civilized Europe, full of monuments and beautiful. 2. Burgos: extreme temperatures, a hostile environment, totally the contrary to the previous one. 2. What happens in the first setting? He is doing nothing, he is seeing this of the city, he is meditating about life. He is only an expectator, looking all the luxuries (connected with capitalism). In both parts (the nature and the city) we have the beauty, the pleasure, the sensuality of observing, witnessing these things. 3. What can you say about the "I" who opens the poem? So here we have 2 personalities: - the “I” is passive: he is only observing the beauty of the city - The line of the Cid: represents action, strong action, power and violence; it is connected with war. 4. What happens in the second setting? 5. Compare the "I" in the first stanza with "El Cid". 6. Why does Pound include the line in Spanish "Una niña de nueve años"? It has to do with the sound. It is much more impactive in the reader. 7. How do you interpret the allusion to the Jews in the poem? “Pawn-brokers” 8. Why is "Ignez da Castro" mentioned? Does she have anything in common with "El Cid"? 9. How do you interpret the allusion to Mantegna?  It represents decadence, suggesting the end of the culture. 10. Which setting can be identified with "Paradise" and which one with "Hell"? Take into account Pound's view. Venice is identified with observing beauty, so there is a passive enjoinment (hedonism) -> hell For Pound, the Cid’s setting, the war and strength, is for him, heaven. Furthermore, the Mio Cid itself is a directly poem without superfluous language, and he liked that so it is a reference also. 11. The last phrase in the poem "Nec Spe Nec Metu" can be translated into English as "Neither hope nor fear". How can you relate it with the content of the poem? It can be connected with the warrior (which Pound identifies with himself), he does not need hope and he feel no fear. Another possible interpretation: in the world of the hero there is no fear and in the world of hedonism there is hope. CANTO XIII - Confunzio lives in the 13th and 14th century before Christ. Here we are going to find the ideas of Confunzio’s ideas. - The word “kung” is Confunzio. - This canto can be identified with paradise. - However, canto 12 is related to misery because it is related to Capitalism and canto 14 is a description of hell inspired by the medieval ideas and descriptions of hell. 1. What information do you find about education in the poem? "We are unknown,"-> it can be related with Pound’s impersonality. Kung proposes a question: “what do you want to become in the future?”; then Kung asked “who has talked correctly?” all of them has answered correctly since all of them have answered according to their own nature. Education (according to Confunzio’s ideas) is not based on imposed dogmas but each individual must develop his/her own nature in terms of education. 2. What does kung think about knowledge? All men must be devoted to learning and acquire. 3. Is afterlife important in Kung's philosophy? No, he said nothing of the life after death. So, Pound wasn’t interested in religion neither but he was interested in historical experience of human kind. 4. Do you consider Kung's philosophy moderate or radical? He suggested middle point, and that meant balance and modernism. However, the word moderation is presented in the tex. Confunzio is moderated in his philosophy. 5. According to Kung, must an individual be always rational and just? “He should hide him” so, prevalece la racionalidad por encima del sentimentalismo. 6. What does kung say about historians? “a day when the historians left blanks in their writings”. 7. What does he say about the artist? They need to have character (character can be associated with the force and the strength of the artist). “The Prince” must be the protector of art. And this is what Pound thought related to Mussolini, Mussolini was the prince and he was the protector. 8. What are the two words more repeated in the poem? How do you interpret those repetitions? “Kung” -> the idea of addition of things; here there is no hierarchy, this is presenting without elaboration, presenting after presenting, no elaboration. It is consisted with the things of imagism. “Order” -> it is a formal element, which is consisted with Pound’s poetics. This word also presents a rhythm. Also, “order” is a reference. Confunzio is identified with mental order, if you have order in your mind, there will be order in your dominance. Pound idealised this order. 9. How do you interpret the last three lines of the poem? He tries to keep this knowledge alive and to expand those principles and ideas. He wanted to enrich western culture with his lessons. All the poem is a literal translation of Conunzio’s analytics menus the three last sentences, these last three sentences are of Pound’s creation. - There is no rhyme in the poem, it is of free verse since Pound was not interested in rhyme. WALLACE STEVENS He was able to hide from his colleagues that he was a poet. He is influenced by imagism (an emphasis on suggesting rather than naming, this implies also complexity). He believes that poetry must be difficult (as Eliot thought). His relationship about imagination and reality is important -> imagination is something we associate to escaping from reality; however, Stevens proposed that imagination was an instrument to affirm reality. He considers that imagination embellishes and imposes order on reality. Imagination imposes order in that reality on can embellishes that reality; imagination = order = nature. Imagination is related to fiction and human creativity. - Fiction is very important: the principle of the “world as fable” (el mundo como una fábula), the meaning of this is that relationship with reality is always mediated by stories. This came from Nietzsche: we don’t have a direct access to reality, the only access we have to it is 1. Anticipations of modernist features in Wordsworth's preface to Lyrical Ballads. Modernism was considered to be a subjective movement, according to the Modernists. At first sight, Modernist claimed that they were against romanticism and also against tradition; however, there would be artists such as Pound and Eliot that would advocate for the idea of tradition. Wordsworth was a romantic poet. He generated knowledge, poetry as an instrument for expressing knowledge. This poetry was written in the context of the capitalist society that was dehumanized. Romantics were modern, they were concerned with human rights, and they considered that nature was something that should be taken into account. Taking into account the experience of this people that lived in a rural context, in this rural context they were not affected by the echo of the capitalist society and what they looked for was the essence of human life and this essence could only survive in the rural life. So, these romantics were anticipatory to Modernism. In this Preface, the objective is to present that “other” that is so different from them; so, they were impersonal too, and this impersonality was a feature of modernism. However, that the focus is on the other, does not guarantee the impersonality. They use also ordinary language. 2. Anticipations of modernist features in Keats's "negative capability". The “negative capability” is the measure of the value of the poet. The acceptance of the uncertainty of the world and life and the capacity of create within that world. So, it is the capacity of creating in that world of uncertainty. The idea of uncertainty is something that is modern and modernist. The concept of “negative capability” can be connected with impersonality because if we write in the context of uncertainty, writing about the “other” is totally uncertain. Keats claimed also that “the poet has no identity” -> this is absolute impersonal. 3. Summary of symbolist poetics. They were French poets. The most important ones: Charles Baudelaire, among others. Estephan Madalmer -> philosopher of this movement. Simon -> he expresses the philosophy of symbolism. Maxims of Symbolism:  to name is to destroy  other There is one poem that talks about sensations. Once you have this sensation, you have a rhythm and this rhythm is what you have to use so as to write. The sensation is something that is not articulated. When the poem is finished, the poet understood that what he had to do is to begin to change the words in order to break with the meaning of the poem, to transform it into something abstract. The consequence of this is that the reader was unable to understand. The poem became an abstract thing, you have to experience the poem in a different way, with the body. The symbolist poem is related to music and to the rhythm. We have also impersonality in this poem (the one about sensations) -> if you destroy the meaning, the personality of the poem also disappears. So, these poems are also impersonal and objective. However, you have to remember that this poem is the most radical one. But we find also light version of symbolism, in which the poet creates atmospheres, in which we have the story told in the poem and the atmosphere of it. We have to say that these poets wanted to say the things in an indirect way, they prefer to suggest things instead of naming. 4. Summary of imagism. This emerged against symbolism. Maxim of imagism:  Presentation without elaboration. Pound was the poet of this movement. He wrote a manifesto on imagism “a few donts by an imagist”. The principles of this movement are written there: - psychological complex presented in an instant of time. - presentation without elaboration. - no superfluous words, no abstract words (for instance, you cannot use the word “strange” as we saw in one of the poems because it is super vague). - you cannot be descriptive. - you cannot express opinions. Pound considered that imagism was more universal than symbolism because if you present the thing in a visual way, it is not important the way you name it. According to Pound, Imagism was hard and masculine whereas symbolism was feminine. Imagists were against tradition and against science because they considered science had created an artificial and complex instrument to explain the world. They had the influence of a German philosopher who considered that the only thing that exist is the self. Because of this, they transmitted what they had in the mind (the subjectivism) as objective as possible. The concept of intuition is an instrument to perceive the truth of things immediately. For all these philosophers, the truth of things that you observe appear to you immediately by intuition before the rational process analyse. 5. Summary of vorticism. Is a movement that Pound founded when he broke with Imagism. He also wrote a manifesto “vortex”. In this manifesto, we find the reasons why he broke with imagism:  The presence of the past. The imagists were against tradition and in this new movement Pound incorporates tradition. He uses expressions as “to energise past”.  The man can be a poet of circumstance, receiving impressions in a passive way and then transmit this to the reader. However, the poet can also be active, a person that, with the force of the vortex, can create.  There is one principle of imagism that he maintains: the important thing is the primary pigment. This expression means -> what it is not elaborated so -> the presentation without elaboration. In terms of impersonality -> how can you see impersonality in his proposal? Because here, the presence of the poet is in the poem; so, they primary write impulses (what make you a human being is your rational process). These impulses are contrary to the rational process. 6. Futurism and vorticism. Pound accuses them of not having energy; however, this is absurd because futurists are fascinated by mechanism, force and energy, with mechanics and violence. And this is what we find in vorticism also. And also, both use dehumanised elements. The only difference among them: futurism broke with tradition whereas Pound incorporated tradition. 7. Eliot's theory on tradition. One possible question of the exam: compare this with Pound’s theory on tradition. Difference: the terminology they use; Eliot’s terminology is embedded in. *Tradistionalist: fascinated by tradition. Tradition for them is like a monument. According to Eliot, repetition of tradition fossilise tradition and he wanted tradition to be alive. What keeps tradition alive is the innovative poem because tradition is reorganised when the new poem appears. The tradition of love poems in his “el poema de amor de prufo”, is reorganised. The concept he uses: historical sense. The poet must have historical sense because he says tradition is something which is required, not given to you. When you acquire knowledge, you get this historical sense. So, the past can be relevant to the present. And this is what makes a poet a traditional poet according to Eliot. 8. Eliot's theory on impersonality.