This is an essay about the battle between the traditional and the modern. It has focused on Pound and Yeats’ works in Literature to show the position of each poet’s contribution to modernity. Both poets used different approaches to contribute to modernity. Yeats used classical illusions in his poems to pass the messages and was more focused on culture. This shows his characteristic as a traditionalist more than a modernist (Yeats). Grading his contributions, he is considered the link between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. This is because he focused on culture and grand tradition, which in the nineteenth century was like the identity of the British (Booker p.65). Because of this, he captured many people in the 19th century, and as his work changed to focus on modernity, he contributed to the early 20th century civilizations. Pound on the other hand, was considered modern self consciously. His works incorporated foreign languages and he had ideas that are applicable in today’s modern world; those that were almost irrelevant in the 19th century (Pound). Because of these differences, Pound is placed closer to modernity than Yeats. Yeats’ works are in the early modernity stages while Pound’s works are from early modernity to late modernity stages.
The Battle between the Grand Tradition and the Avant-garde
By 1914, tradition was already broken in literature and virtually everything was taking the trend of modernism. Almost everything was being focused on being modern. This is from cubism, futurism, expressionism, and pure abstraction in painting, abandonment of tonality in music and functionalism, and flight from ornament in architecture (The Arts p. 179). In 1914, modernity was already famous and many people who would b...
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...s. He had unique ideas and was not afraid to use them even during the oppressive times. Placing his works in the line of traditional to modern, his works lie close to modernity than to traditional.
Yeats however, focused on the grand tradition and the British culture. His contribution to civilization could be greater than Pound’s contribution because it came at the right time. His methods were ‘enjoyed’ by the people and so he became the icon. His works lie close to traditional more than modern making them the link between 19th and 20th century.
Works Cited
Booker, M. Keith. Colonial Power, Colonial Texts: India in the Modern British Novel. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972).
Ruthven, K. K. Ezra Pound As Literary Critic, London: Routledge, 1990.---ARS2
The Arts 1914-1945
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).
Everett, Glenn. "John Keats---A Brief Biography." The Victorian Web. N.p., July 2000. Web. 21 Dec. 2013. .
Modernism indicates a branch of movements in art (Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism; Cubism; Expressionism; Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art. Etc.) with distinct characteristics, it firmly rejects its classical precedent and classical style, what Walter Benjamin would refer to as “destructive liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage”; and it explores the etiology of a present historical situation and of its attendant forms of self-consciousness in the West. Whereas Modernity is often used as ...
James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Print.
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One attribute of Modernist writing is Experimentation. This called for using new techniques and disregarding the old. Previous writing was often even considered "stereotyped and inadequate" (Holcombe and Torres). Modern writers thrived on originality and honesty to themselves and their tenets. They wrote of things that had never been advanced before and their subjects were far from those of the past eras. It could be observed that the Modernist writing completely contradicted its predecessors. The past was rejected with vigor and...
Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats all represent the Romantic style of literature with their unorthodox themes of nature, art, and life; and how those three points can be tied together and used for creative purposes among humankind. Art and life are counterparts; one is lacking without the other. The Romantic period was about passion; finding inspiration and beauty in things people see every day. Wordsworth found childhood memories in a familiar landscape, Blake found himself captivated by the mysteries of how the majestic tiger was created, and Keats’ urn triggered him to put his inquiries of it into poetry. Each man expressed his individual view within their works; and like many of their Romantic contemporaries, their ideas ran against the flow of their time’s societal beliefs.
The life of William Butler Yeats began when he was born into an honestly odd family dynamic. He was born in 1865 in Dublin to a once influential family (Yeats 2: 206). His parents were both of bygone influential status. They were never a rich family, but did their best to get by. John Butler Yeats, William’s father, was trained as a lawyer, but had always wished to be an artist and therefore put all of his ambition into being a painter (Yeats 2: 206). The family struggled because of financial hardship, as mentioned before, but William Butler Yeats saw his father’s ambition to fulfill his dreams as inspiration. Many of William Butler Yeats poems reflect a tangible need for culture to take the time to realize their dreams instead of staying with the status quo. This quality was also impressed upon him by his Irish mother who was deeply involved in the mysticism of faeries and astrology (Yeats 2: 206). Between his father’s freethinking artistic ways, and his mothers strong Irish background William Butler Yeats early childhood experiences influenced his writing greatly. Man...
The Romantic writers of the late 1700s and the early 1800s enjoyed a freedom in writing that is reminiscent of the freedom of some of the great Greek writers. Like the Greeks more than one thousand years earlier, the Romantic writers were able to enjoy such professions in the humanities due to the influx of technology in their respective societies. With the rise of the Greek Polis came efficiency in farming, shared labor, and specialized manufacturing on a more primitive scale. These innovations were key to the origin of philosophical writing for never before had so many humans had the luxury of time for contemplating life. The medical and mechanical advances, and increased importance of education for all classes in England during the 19th century replicated this revolution in many ways. England was developing into a network of urban areas. Wealthy business owners were able to support young poets and artist in their artistic endeavors. Without the support of the urban society, poets such as Shelley would have lived a life of labor and non-published thoughts of life. The irony occurs in that Romanic Poets such as Percy Shelley, who enjoyed the luxuries of modern life, would come to distain the very evolutionary events of society which enabled the time and freedom to contemplate. There was no end to the apparent contradictions of personal philosophy versus popular culture, and ...
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Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “A Defence of Poetry.” The Longman Anthology: British Literature: Volume 2A – The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2003. 801-810.
Now at this stage this would be notable that the English poetry of the present day had to come a long way before it achieved its present mould. It includes the evolution of thought process from the likes of Yeats and Eliot and on to Auden, Dylan Thomas, Philip Larkin and finally to the present day poets like Andrew Zawacki, Brian Patten etc.
Having a view of something that is different from what is traditional can often be frowned upon. During the Romantic period, the writers were swaying away from what was considered normal writing at that time. The church was a big influence on everyone during the Renaissance and if any one so much as “stepped out of line” the church made sure they were punished. Going against them was seen as going against God. A man named William Butler Yeats created a unique philosophical system woven from his own insights and the ideas of many thinkers. Yeats expressed himself using symbols which stand for something beyond itself, give rise to a number of associations, and intensifies feelings and adds complexity to meaning by concentrating these associations together. Using vivid language and rich symbols to make his argument, Yeats relies on the emotional impact of specific word choices and symbolic images to convey meaning and “convince” his readers. William Butler Yeats shows in “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium” that the elements, gyres, and idea of a perfect place all add up to h...
Sharpe, Jenny. “A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. James P Draper, Jennifer Brostrom, and Jennifer Gariepy. Vol. 77. Detroit: Gale, 1993. 253-57. Rpt. of “The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter-Insurgency.” Genders 10 (1991): 25-46. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. .
This paper will have one section that focuses on how the current events going on in his life, and his strengths as a writer shaped his poetry. It will explore his affinity for the supernatural, romance, and nature (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/k/keats-poems/summary-and-analysis/the-eve-of-st-agnes, 2013). These are demonstrated in the themes and writing of many of his poems specifically “The Eve of St. Agnes”.