Modernism in Poetry: Exploring Key Trends and Influences
Modernism in Poetry
Overview
Modernism, a significant literary movement of the early 20th century, marked a resurgence of the anxiety characteristic of European Romantic literature. This sentiment, which seemed to decline with the rise of 19th-century experimental rationalism, reappeared, demonstrating that reason alone could not explain everything. Modernist poetry often reflects on cherished memories of the past: childhood, lost paradise, and idyllic gardens.
Major Trends of Modernism
The modernist aesthetic reached its peak in the early 20th century, starting with Rubén Darío’s publication of Azul in 1888. Modernism integrated several trends from the latter half of the 19th century, notably French Symbolism and Parnassianism. Its diverse roots converge in the writers’ shared desire to create a new language, drawing inspiration from various sources:
- Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe (American)
- The Pre-Raphaelites (British)
- Gabriele D’Annunzio (Italian)
- Spanish literary tradition (e.g., Gonzalo de Berceo, Jorge Manrique, and Spanish songbooks)
Modernism is an encompassing movement that gathers and incorporates elements from diverse origins.
Parnassian Modernism
This branch of Modernism stemmed from the Parnassian movement led by Leconte de Lisle. Formed in 1866 by a group of French poets, Parnassianism emphasized discipline, balance, and objectivity in art, with the ultimate goal of “art for art’s sake.” Key characteristics include:
- Escapism: Evading reality through dreams, exotic locales, bygone eras (e.g., the Middle Ages, childhood), or classical mythology. This reflects the idea that art (imagination, magic) surpasses life (vulgar, mundane).
- Cosmopolitanism: An aspect of escapism, reflecting an aristocratic sensibility. Paris, a symbol of cosmopolitanism and bohemian life, became the capital of Modernism.
- Romantic Unease: Exalting passions and the irrational, including mystery and the fantastic. Themes of boredom, sadness, melancholy, twilight, and night are prevalent.
- Love and Eroticism: Exploring both delicate and intensely erotic love poems, from impossible love to self-indulgence.
- American Themes: Complementing cosmopolitanism, this represents another form of escape into a legendary past and indigenous myths, particularly significant in Latin America.
- Hispanic Themes: Especially prominent in South America, this theme asserts Spanish cultural values against those of the United States.
The Parnassian modernist aesthetic is further reflected in:
- The pursuit of sensory effects that appeal to the senses, with synesthesia as a primary manifestation.
- Enriched poetic language, where words gain vital significance through sound, rhythm, historical/cultural references, and symbolic values. Poets sought to renew the meaning of common words and create a unique poetic lexicon.
Symbolist Modernism
The second line of Modernism derives from French Symbolism and links to poets such as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarme or Vedaine. The essential thing is the suggestion (hence the importance of music) yel evocative power of words. The didacticism is totally banished (Edgar Allan Poe spoke of the “heresy of didacticism ‘).
Now evasion is not directed toward distant worlds, but into the inner world of the poet. After internalization, the author turns her eyes to the outside world. We discover the landscape, indeed a symbol of history or the poet.
The Spanish writers, influenced by the symbolism of Verlaine and Becquerian intimacy, often belong to this line of modernism, more symbolic than the Hispanic.
Metrics modernist
The metric is characterized by modernist experimentation and renewal: – Use of Alexandrine verses, and endecasyllable dodecasyllables, rare in the
previous poetic tradition.
– Introduction of new developments in classical verse:
. Sonnets in Alexandrine with serventesios instead of quartets.
. Sonetillos (minor artistic sonnets).
. Smith: Besides the classical heroic verse and seven syllables, are used
and five syllables also endecasyllable.
. Seven-syllable verses, romances, and heroic verse endecasyllable.
. Emergence of free verse in the later stages of modernism in
U.S. flow Walt Whitman.
. Attempts to create a poetry-based metrical feet in the style of the
Latin poetry. .