Modernism in Pictures

Mark Gertler painted this in 1916 and it depicts the circular and mechanical aspects of World War both on the homefront and on the battlefield.

Gertler, Mark. The Merry-Go-Round . 1916. Tate Gallery, London. www.tate.org.

Oread by H.D.

Whirl up, sea-

whirl your pointed pines,

splash your great pines,

on our rocks,

hurl your green over us, 

cover us with your pools of fir. 

The poem “Oread” by H.D. is a representation of the Imagist Movement. Imagist poetry does not follow the laws of traditional poetry structure. As shown in “Oread”, we see that it is made up of short lines that have condensed wording to create direct images and covey a whole scene or story within a few lines. Although this poem may seem simple because it is so short, it…

"In a Station of the Metro"

By Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Petals on a wet, black bough.

The poem "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound, written in 1913, is a prime example of Imagist poetry which focuses on using simple and precise language to create striking images in the reader's mind. It is considered to be Pounds' most popular work. The poem is just two lines long, so it's hard to speculate who the speaker might be—maybe it's Pound himself, or someone else entirely.

The first line ends with a colon…

"Autumn" by T.E. Hulme

A touch of cold in the Autumn night –

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge

Like a red-faced farmer.

I did not stop to speak, but nodded, 

And round about were the wistful stars

With white faces like town children.

Explication:

This poem by T.E. Hulme was first published in January of 1909 in a publication called For Christmas MDCCCCVIII. “Autumn” is fairly straightforward and concrete in its meaning and language, which aligns it with the modernist tradition. This…

Below are two excerpts from Salman Rushdie's English Is an Indian Literary Language

"I’ll begin from an obvious starting place. English is by now the world language. It achieved this status partly as a result of the physical colonization of a quarter of the globe by the British, and it remains ambiguous but central to the affairs of just about all the countries to whom it was given, along with mission schools, trunk roads and the rules of cricket, as a gift of the British colonizers" (Norton 2749).

"As far as Eng. Lit. itself is concerned, I think that if …

“Colonization in Reverse” is a satirical poem that explores the experiences of Jamaican immigrants in England post World War 2. Coverley implements her own personal touch, using humor, irony, and Jamaican dialect. Ultimately, Coverley’s goal in the piece is to expose the prejudice she and her people experienced at the hands of the English locals.

1 Wat a joyful news, Miss Mattie,dat suit her dignity
2 I feel like me heart gwine burs
3 Jamaica people colonizin
4 Englan in Revers
5 Be the hundred, be de tousan
6 Fro country and from town,
7 By de…

I leave me people, me land, me home

For reasons I not too sure

I forsake de sun

And de humming-bird splendour

Had big rats in de floorboard

So I pick up me new-world-self

And come to this place call England

At first I feeling like I in a dream—

De misty greyness

I touching the walls to see if they real

They solid to de seam

And de people pouring from de underground system

Like beans

And when I look up to de sky

I see Lord Nelson high—too high to lie.

And is so I sending home photos of…