20th century poetry eng 3

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20 th Century Poetry By Stephany Villarnovo

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Page 1: 20th century poetry eng 3

20th Century PoetryBy Stephany Villarnovo

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First Poem:

“Languages”

By Carl Sandburg

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There are no handles upon a language Whereby men take hold of it And mark it with signs for its remembrance. It is a river, this language, Once in a thousand years Breaking a new course Changing its way to the ocean. It is mountain effluvia Moving to valleys And from nation to nation Crossing borders and mixing. Languages die like rivers. Words wrapped round your tongue today And broken to shape of thought Between your teeth and lips speaking Now and today Shall be faded hieroglyphics Ten thousand years from now. Sing—and singing—remember Your song dies and changes And is not here to-morrow Any more than the wind Blowing ten thousand years ago.

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This poem speaks of the history of languages and how they change throughout time. The speaker of the poem talks about how languages can die and go through a change of course. With the metaphor he includes of comparing languages to a river that begins to flow in a different direction suddenly, he is saying that languages can easily be altered with time not on purpose but because like nature, it just happens. The poet also speaks of how the words we may speak today may be the hieroglyphics ofthe future generations. This poem coincides with the 20th century because during that period language took a dramatic shift. When comparing 19th century or 18th centurywork to 20th century work, a person can tell how language has changed. Words have become shorter, expressions have evolved, even people’s accents have changed. So with that being said, it is evident that these changes that have occurred in the 20th centuryInfluenced Carl Sandburg to compose this poem.

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Second Poem:

“The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”

By Ezra Pound

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While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played about the front gate, pulling flowers. You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums. And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. At fourteen I married My Lord you. I never laughed, being bashful. Lowering my head, I looked at the wall. Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back. At fifteen I stopped scowling, I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever. Why should I climb the look out? At sixteen you departed, You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies, And you have been gone five months. The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead. You dragged your feet when you went out. By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses, Too deep to clear them away! The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind. The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I grow older. If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang, Please let me know beforehand, And I will come out to meet you As far as Cho-fu-Sa

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This poem is a letter from a wife to a husband. In the letter, the wife reveals thatboth her and her husband are very young. This detail already conveys a 20th century influence because couples during this time married at a young age. As the poem progresses we see that their relationship was rushed and naïve. In the short span of 2 years the couple has had to separate because of unknown reasons but they are stilltrying to make it work. This “long-distance” relationship which was foreign to prior centuries highlights the popular relationship that started during this time. This piece of poetry is highly influenced by 20th century history because of the relationship that is portrayed in the writing.