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Group D

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Amber Ashley Brendan Charlie Pete Group D Modernism, or a revolt on the realist movement, has many factors including the time period, the lifestyle choices made by the youth, and the then current events dealing with money and politics. This period brings with it many interesting texts, people and a new way of thinking. The style of which the modernists wrote was also important, the writers of the modernist movement created a new way of viewing the world. Ekphrasis is a style of writing in which prose or poetry is used to vividly describe a work of art. Literally meaning “out of speech or expression”, ekphrasis is first exemplified by the epic writer Homer in //the Iliad//. In //the Iliad//, Homer elaborately describes the Shield of Achilles thus beginning the trend of writing to describe about objects of art (Ekphrasis). Another early instance of ekphrasis is in Canto X //of Dante’s Purgatorio//, where the poet describes lengthily about the low relief sculptures on the mountain of Purgatory (Corn). Many other poets used the technique of ekphrasis to help convey the description of a piece of art like John Keats “Ode to a Grecian Urn” and Percy Bysshe Shelly’s “On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery”, but many of the works of art the writers are trying to portray are in fact imaginary pieces. There is no real piece of art that the poem is referring to, but there is the possibility that the poetry could be inspired by an actual piece of artwork. For example, the low relief sculptures in //Dante’s Purgatorio// could be related to the column of Trajan in Rome. Both sculptures relay a continuous story running up the side of a structure, and the sculptures in Dante’s story even tell a story about Trajan (Corn). Towards the 17th century, the trend of ekphrasis began to change from imaginary works of art to actual works of art. In William Blake’s “The Tyger” and “Holy Thursday”, Blake describes real works of art that people can see. Blake, an artist and a poet, uses his paintings and writings to help develop a sense of total enrichment of an object of art (Corn). Not only does a person see the mute piece of art, but the viewer gets an interpretation of the work by the artist in question. Another example of a painter and a poet is Dante Gabriel Rossetti whose work “The Girlhood of Mary Virgin” tends to convey the new sense of ekphrasis. Although most of the time the work of art is produced before the writing, in Rossetti’s “The Blessed Damozel”, the poem preceded the painting (Corn). Ekphrasis begins to evolve into another direction with beginning of the 20th century. Within the modernist movement in the early 20th century, poets such as William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) began to see the style of ekphrasis as a new way to convey descriptions of works of art. These modernist poets started to use actual pieces of art that a reader could see to help explain the poem. But instead of just elaborately describing the work of art, the modernist poet began to dissect the painting, photograph or statue trying to interpret and speak for/to the subject in the painting (Ekphrasis). These poets confront these images by finding a voice for the subject or mediating upon the moment of viewing this piece of art. In essence, what the painting’s subject is trying to relate to the viewer or how the viewer feels upon looking at the work of art. Even some of these poets use the old writings and other poems to convey a new sense of ekphrasis such as W.H. Auden’s “Shield of Achilles” to reinterpret a classic ekphrasis writing as Homer’s (Ekphrasis). William Carlos Williams stands today as one of the most influential writers to come out of the early 20th century. His wide variety of works helped greatly influence a movement known as the imagist movement. His writing blazed a trail for American poetry that moved away from the principles of European poetry. He was closely connected with other major players at the time that helped contribute to the literature of today, such as Ezra Pound and Elliot. Williams’ writings often focus on the smaller aspects of everyday life, and focus on “the average Joe”. In such works as // Landscape With the Fall of Icarus //, the focal point of the poem is usually on the average-ness of everyday occurrences (William). Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1883 and later became a medical doctor, practicing in his hometown. He continued to write through several life threatening conditions such as heart attacks and strokes, even to his death in 1963. Williams influenced many writers throughout the 50’s and 60’s, and to this day his works remain the focus of poetic study.  William Carlos Williams’ poetic piece // Landscape With the Fall of Icarus // is based off of the artwork of the same name by Pieter Bruegel. Bruegel portrays the scene of Icarus’ death as an insignificant event. His illustration, later complimented by Williams, focuses more on the average occurrences of the day rather than the so commonly spoken of tragedy. Bruegel illustrates the everyday lifestyle of the time, as if the instance of Icarus’ death is insignificant and meaningless (William). This is an ironic twist, considering the epic myth of the flight of Icarus is so well known. It almost seems as though Bruegel spent more time painting the average everyday scene, and spent very little time illustrating Icarus drowning in the sea. Williams compliments the insignificance that Bruegel portrayed by wittingly describing the scene. Williams describes the physical landscape as well as the everyday occurrences of the time. Accentuating Bruegel’s work, Williams illustrates a farmer plowing his field, the springtime life beginning to show, and the sea working for its own well-being. Just as Bruegel explains the insignificance of Icarus’ death, Williams give a short few lines to explain Icarus’ demise. The whole piece seems to explain that Icarus’ death went greatly unnoticed by everyone and everything. Williams walks the audience through a peaceful landscape of nature and ordinary events, just as Bruegel did, and ends with Icarus’ petty death (William).

Wallace Stevens was born October 2, 1879 in Reading, Pennsylvania and died August 2, 1955. He attended Harvard but graduated from New York law school in 1903. Stevens was known by many as being a poet-businessman. He worked as a lawyer for Hartford insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1916. Then two years later he became head of his own firm where he worked until his death in 1955. It was while he was working as a lawyer that he wrote most of his major poetry. Stevens was described as an extremely private person by those who knew him. He had few friends and rarely accepted invitations. Those who worked with Stevens knew he was a poet but had no idea what any of it was about or why any of it was written. Stevens could be described as being three separate people, the lawyer, the poet, and the family man, all of which were kept separate from one another (Wallace).  In Wallace Stevens’ “Of Modern Poetry” he talks about how the art of poetry evolves over time. Poetry, like all other things, must be in sync with the time it is written in. This is the only way the message of the poem can be understood by the reader. He speaks of modern poetry as if it is a living breathing thing. This is because the poem must understand the people and the things of the time it is written in, just as the reader must understand all things that are taking place in the time period the poem is written in. At the beginning of the poem Stevens states “It has not always had to find: the scene was set; it repeated what was in the script” (Stevens). These lines are expressing how poetry demonstrates what is happening in the time period it was written in. As our cultures and society changes, so must poetry. He compares poetry to an actor to display how poetry changes over time just like people and everything else. He is trying to express how poetry is a reflection of what the writer sees. Poetry is the act of the mind, so all poetry is a part of the perception of the writer. Modern poetry is thought to have a grim outlook on things and blend high and low art together. The title “of Modern Poetry” relates to poetry that is slightly morbid in its outlook on things. When reading the poem you see that Stevens is speaking about it as if it is this great thing. In “Asides on the Oboe” Stevens is talking about God and the human race. Throughout the poem Stevens compares man to God. He demonstrates how we are all one and that man is God in a way. Stevens expresses this is because we are one with God and we are directly connected to God. He states that God sums all of us up as if we are all God. Stevens does a very good job of painting a picture for us with his words. He makes it easy to imagine what he is talking about. This makes the message that Stevens is trying to communicate to the reader understandable. When thinking about the title and what an oboe is, most of us see it as this unimportant instrument. Stevens uses this title when talking about man and god, as if he is saying it’s not really as important as we all say it is. All it really is, is what you make of it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Marianne Moore was born on November 15, 1887, in St. Louis, Missouri. After her father had abandoned the family, Marianne was raised by her grandfather, a Presbyterian pastor. After he died, Marianne eventually settled in Pennsylvania. While living in Pennsylvania, Moore attended Bryn Mawr College when she received her B.A. in 1909 (Marianne). In 1921, Moore and her mother moved to New York where she became an assistant at the New York Public Library. While in New York, Marianne contributed to the Dial, a prestigious literary magazine, where she met and collaborated with some of her fellow colleagues such as William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens (Marianne). In 1925, she became the acting editor of the Dial until 1929. In 1951, she received the Bollingen, National Book and Pulitzer Prize for her collection, //Collected Poems// (Marianne)//.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Moore was unique compared to her fellow modernist poets. Although she incorporated quotes like other poets of her time, Moore was extraordinarily condensed and precise with detail. She was able to look at one small object and use details and descriptions to convey the swirl of the larger event (Marianne). Through the use of the natural world, especially animals, Moore continued to use the sense of ekphrasis that many modernist poets proudly embraced. Marianne Moore had the tendency to revise and rewrite her poems throughout her life, but to get a full understanding of her works is to see the constantly changing works. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In Marianne Moore’s //Poetry//, she bluntly states that she is not very fond of reading poetry. In the first sentence of the poem she confirms that “I, too, dislike it: there are things that are more important beyond all this fiddle” (Moore, 1). The type of poetry she dislikes is not the kind that she is writing, but instead the poetry that has come before this time period. These are the certain poems that represent the romantic ideas of the earlier centuries. She doesn’t like the poems that have objects that have “high-sounding interpretation” (Moore, 7) which have “become derivative as to become unintelligible” (Moore, 8). These high art poems from the romantic and other periods have been placed on such a high pedestal that reading these poems has become a daunting task. Readers are put off by reading poetry that it is lost on the modern person. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Although Marianne dislikes certain poetry, she maintains that poems should be about other things: ordinary things. She exclaims that poets should concentrate on “hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise if it must,” (Moore, 5-6). These are objects that the readers can see and touch or feel, but not because of the interpretations that poets can put on them. These things are useful. She wants the reader to see and understand “the bat holding on upside down or in quest of something to eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll,” (Moore, 11-12). These ordinary, low art, subjects are not admired by the high art poets because the poets did not understand these ordinary phenomena. Moore wants to help identify these ordinary things with the highfaluting interpretations that are put on these things. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Even with all the ordinary objects that Moore wants to talk about, she understands that there must be a balance between the high art interpretation and the low art subjects. There must be “imaginary gardens with real toads in them” (Moore, 23). Toads to most people are ugly, commonplace things while imaginary gardens are as beautiful as one’s mind can imagine. The blending of low art (toads) and high art (imaginary gardens) must be equal if the reader is interested in poetry. The reader must demand “the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine” (Moore, 28-29). Even the poem that Marianne Moore is writing is not of the normal. Her stanzas stop in mid sentence while sentences are placed on two to three lines. This poem would be considered low art to most poets of another generation, but during the modernist movement, this poem and many like it are starting to be considered more like its predecessors. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho on October thirtieth, 1885. Pound knew he wanted to be a poet from the age of fifteen. He was educated at, and received his master’s from, the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he met other famous modernist poets like H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway to name a few. Pound made it his mission to become the first artist of whom America could be “proud,” since he believed all art that had come out of America up until then was backward and narrow. However, his opinions of America soon soured when he lost his first teaching job, starting a chain reaction that eventually ended in Pound’s leaving the country. While he travelled abroad, he lived in London where he was heavily involved in the “vorticism” movement, and he eventually found himself in Italy as a propagandist for Benito Mussolini. He was eventually brought back to the US under charges of treason, but he was never tried after a psychiatrist declared that he was mentally unstable and he was institutionalized. It was not until his epic poem “The Cantos” won the Bolligen Prize for Poetry that enough uproar was caused to warrant his release. Upon his release, he returned to Italy, where he lived until he died at the age of eighty-seven. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The poem “To Whistler, American” by Ezra Pound can be summed up in one sentence. That sentence is, “Whistler did it. So, if he could do it, then definitely I can do it.” Final revisions of the poem were made before it was published in 1949, years after the poem was first published in 1912. By 1949, Pound had already fled America, made his way to Italy, was brought back to America to be tried as a traitor to America, and was still committed to a mental hospital. So, it can be safe to say that Pound’s disdain for American culture was very well developed. Given this, it can be implied that the tone of the poem is much more bitter than it was in 1912, when the tone of the poem was probably much more hopeful. The poem is obviously addressed to the artist James Abbott Whistler, who is considered to be one of America’s first great artists. Pound viewed all of the recent art to come out of America as backward and narrow, and sought out to make himself, in his opinion, the first artist of whom America could be proud, and if Whistler could become such a renowned artist with his talent, then it would be much easier for Pound to become so renowned. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Pound’s poem “A Pact” was published in 1916, eight years after Pound moved to Europe. Given the time that elapsed since Pound’s moving from America, it can be inferred that Pound’s disdain for America had not yet reached the point that it had when the final revisions of “To Whistler, American.” were made. While the tone of Whistler seemed to be a scoff at the accomplishments of James Abbott Whistler, “A Pact” seems to be an offering of peace to Romanticism, or at least the poetry style of Walt Whitman, to whom Pound credited most of America’s artistic narrowness. In his poem, Pound said that they had “one sap and one root.” (Line 8). This is obviously referring to the one country from which they came. He would, of course, later come to disdain American culture, and abandon his hope of giving America the artist he thought it deserved at the time. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Hilda Doolittle was born in Bethlehem Pennsylvania in 1886. She attended Bryn Mawr for schooling, with Marianne Moore and they quickly became close friends. Doolittle later attended the University of Pennsylvania with Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. In 1911 Doolittle planned a summer trip to Europe and planned to stay a year, however she ended up staying the rest of her life (Hilda). Doolittle fell in love with the imagist movement and later became the leader of the party. She met her husband in Europe and they married October 18, 1913. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Doolittle is famous for her use of imagery in her poetry and for her love of the Greeks. In her poem, //Helen//, she displays both. The background story of Helen is that she started the Trojan Wars by eloping to Troy with the handsome Paris. Greece came to her rescue and in the process many Greek men’s lives were lost. As Greece moves on, long after the wars, statues are created to embody Helen and to keep her held in high esteem because her father is the god Zeus. H.D. looks at Helen as though she is a normal person and not a god. The opening line in her poem is a startling statement that the entire country of Greece hates. As the poem moves on the reader is instructed that all of Greece hates Helen. The statues that were created to praise her are a sham and should not still be standing. The reference that H.D. uses to the color white not only tells the reader that this is not the living Helen but it is a statue, and it also symbolizes purity. H.D.’s references Helen’s statues agree that she does not deserve to be pure by saying, “the wan face when she smiles” (Doolittle). This statement means that someone looking at the statue can see Helen is smiling, but she is saddened. In the last line of the poem H.D. says, “white ash” (Doolittle) here she is suddenly saying that the purity Helen once had has been burned away over time. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">H.D.’s Poem, Leda, is about the Greek myth of Leda and the swan. As the myth goes the Greek god Zeus, transforms himself into a swan and rapes the innocent girl named Leda and then leaves her there to wallow. H.D. sheds a different light on the situation, that Leda is content with the idea of making love to a God. The poem starts out with the description of the water ways, and the union of the tides. She then moves on to the description of the swan and the different colors that it possesses. When thinking of a swan one thinks of color, white and pure, the color of this swan is red, the color of love. The way that H.D. relays that this is a special sawn is by the color of the down feathers which are purple, a godly color. The poem continues and H.D. goes into how the sawn makes Leda feel cared for and comfortable, for example, “the level ray of sun-beams/ has caressed/ the lily with dark breast” (Doolittle). The leveling of the sun to the horizon shows a dark and light complex, where the caressing shows that the swan is being gentle and calm. The lily is referring to Leda, who is engaging in the interaction and not fighting the oncoming relations. Another line that leads one to believe that Leda is not being raped but rather loved by Zeus is the next stanza, “Where the slow lifting/ of the tide,/ floats into the river/ and slowly drifts/ among the reeds,” (Doolittle). The slow steady tide is related to the passionate love making that a couple would engage in, and there is no resistance. The last stanza in the poem holds a key line in the poem, “no more regret” (Doolittle), Zeus is no longer raping Leda, they are partaking in adult relations together. Leda feels that she has done right by her god to sacrifice her body for his pleasure. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The poets of the modern movement are all different people and different relations to the world, but they are all connected by the idea the world needed a new outlook on life. Their ideas started a revolutionary new way to interact with society on every level.

<span style="display: block; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">Works Cited <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Corn, Alfred. //Notes on Ekphrasis.// //Poets.org//. n.p., 2008. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Doolittle, Hilda. //Helen//. //The// //Norton Anthology: American Literature//. 7th Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Doolittle, Hilda. //Leda//. //The// //Norton Anthology: American Literature//. 7th Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Ekphasis: Poetry Confronting Art.” //Poets.org//. n.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Ezra Pound.” //Norton Anthology: American Literature.// Volume D. Seventh Edition. Julia Reidhead. New York City, 2007. 1479. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Ezra Pound.” //Poets.org.// n.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Hilda Doolittle”. //Poets.org.// n.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Marianne Moore”. //Poets.org//. n.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Moore, Marianne. //Poetry//. //The// //Norton Anthology: American Literature//. 7th Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. 1532-1533. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Pound, Ezra. “A Pact.” //Norton Anthology: American Literature Volume D.// Seventh Edition. Julia Reidhead. New York City, 2007. 1481. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Pound, Ezra. “To Whistler, America.” //Norton Anthology: American Literature Volume D.// Seventh Edition. Julia Reidhead. New York City, 2007. 1479. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Stevens, Wallace. //Asides on the Oboe.// //The// //Norton Anthology: American Literature//. 7th Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Stevens, Wallace. //Of Modern Poetry. The// //Norton Anthology: American Literature//. 7th Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">“Wallace Stevens”. //Poets.org.// n.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">"William Carlos Williams". //Poets.org.// n.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2010