English IVB

Events of the Times Influence on Literature Poets of the Time Characteristics Example/Discussion

Events of the Times Advances in Industry World War I Great Depression World War II Cold War Begins What are the positive and negative

factors influencing the Modern Period?

How might this have influenced literature?

Modernism was a deliberate attempt to distance the arts of the 20th century from any work that had come before. The screaming pace of industrialization and the brutality and loss of the first world war led artists to decry the upper-class-feeling decorativeness of the immediate past, not to mention THE PAST in a general way. Pared down, daily experience, communicative - these were the sought-after qualities. Nothing was meant to feel "styled" for effect.

Other Goings-On Communism:

Russia, Germany, China. What do you know

about communist governments that grew during this time?

Modern Era was after (and in direct response to) the Victorian Era.

Development of the English Language

The changes that took place in the 20th century were reflected in the fads, fancies, and language of popular culture.

Breakdown of social norms Separation of meanings and

senses from the context Spiritual loneliness Alienation Frustration Disillusionment Rejection of history Rejection of outdated social

systems Objection to traditional

thoughts and traditional moralities

Objection to religious thoughts

Two World Wars' effects on Humanity

Stream of consciousness Juxtaposition of

characters Classical allusions Personification Quotation Pun Satire Irony Unconventional use of

metaphor Symbolism Psychoanalysis Discontinuous narrative

William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) Considered by many the greatest poet of the

20th century Visionary who developed his own set of beliefs

to answer his questions about life and help him interpret the future

T.S. Eliot (1888 – 1965) Poet, playwright, and influential literary critic

W.H. Auden (1907 – 1973) His poetry defies categorization – a true

Modern

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spritus MundiTroubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepwere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Please copy these questions on your own ½ sheet, marked clearly with your name, today’s date, and the class period.

1. What were Modern poets attempting to achieve? (1 point)

2. Name two common themes a reader is likely to encounter in a poem from the Modern Period? (2 points)

3. Based on the historical context you have been given, briefly explain two ways that you can identify “The Second Coming” as a definitively Modern poem. (2 points)