This blog is a part of my classroom activity,
Here is the blog link of a task : http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/
Here is my interpretation of ten short poems, with modern metaphors and symbols.
1.) ‘The Embankment‘- T. E. Hulme
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
In a flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.
In this poem, the poet is missing his life as a “fallen gentlemen”, the metaphor contains complexity by using
word ‘gentleman’ rather than ‘man’. Poet is recounting his experiences of past and
that enjoyment, also the words like “flash of gold
heels” but now in the cold winter
night he only needs a blanket rather than anything else and he has not blanket
so he requests God to give a blanket of stars, but here the word he has used is
“Star-eaten blanket” which suggests that
blanket of God is in poor condition but though there is a need of blanket
suggests spirituality is in poor condition but in cold winter night of
brokenness and sexual perversion the blanket of spirituality can give us life.
2.) "Darkness" - Joseph Campbell
Darkness
I stop
to watch a star shine
in the
boghole -
A star
no longer, but a silver
ribbon of light.
I look
at it and pass on.
In the poem poet presented the view of night that how the sky has became
dark without stars and there is night everywhere. Night is mostly presented to
show beauty of moon and peace of mind but in ‘The Embankment‘ by T. E. Hulme
the night has represented as negativity. Here poet wants to see shining stars
from ‘boghole’ (land surface having a miry or songy bottom) he is not able to
see stars, but there is “a silver ribbon of light” (the
silver ribbon is a sign of awareness towards the brain disorders, stalking
awareness) and poet looked it at that there is no stars but light is still
there.
3.) 'Image' - Edward Storer
Forsaken lovers,
Burning to a
chaste white moon
Upon strange
Pyres of loneliness and
drought.
The poem as per its title “Image” presents an image of the modern people
and their way of living, they requires purity like moon. They all are burning
with various diseases like sexual perversion and nothingness which T. S. Eliot
has also presented in The Waste Land and in these four lines this image
of loneliness of modern era is presented.
4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra
Pound
The apparition of these faces in
the Crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough
The word “Metro” in title clearly suggests the hasty lifestyle of modern
civilization. “these faces in the Crowd” suggests that there are together but isolated. The metaphor of “wet, black bough” suggests that they are from same
tree(city, civilization) but that civilization is like “withered stump” and
they are like petals, isolated from flower without identity.
5.) 'The Pool' - Hilda Doolittle
Are you alive?
I touch you
You quiver
trembling like a sea-fish
I cover you
with my net
What are you-
banded one?
The first line of poem, “Are
you alive?” was the question asked by T. S. Eliot and many literary
writes in their works, the modern people are suggested as trembling like a sea
fish and when they are covered by net, again they are banded or controlled but
still not alive. The poem recalls us to Wordsworth’s poem “London 1802” which
has the same metaphor for London.
6.) "Insouciance" – Richard Aldington
In and out of the dreary trenches
Trudging cheerily under the stars
I make for
myself little poems
Delicate as a
flock of doves
They fly away
like white-winged
Doves.
The poet presents that how people are living their life in insouciance
way with carelessness. They try to express their feelings in literature as poet
says “I make for myself little poems” the
way of living is with no excitement “In and out of
the dreary trenches” but though all are walking on
their path with such cheer, the reference of “white-winged
Doves” (originally a bird of desert thickets) is also used
for modern culture of living life and feeling of isolation is there.
7.) Morning at the Window - T. S. Eliot
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement
kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaid
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
The poem has a imagery of morning that how people starts their day that
plats are rattling in kitchens, on streets there are people walking but with damp souls and because of that the atmosphere seems
gloomy. The fog and twisted faces gives
negative glimpse and an aimless smile suggests artificiality of Modern
civilization. their smiles hovers in the air but it is artificial and that is
the reason that it cannot touch the heart, so poet said, “And vanishes along the level of the roofs.”
8.) The Red Wheelbarrow -William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chicken.
The poem has such agricultural metaphors like “wheel”, “rain” and “chicken”
but the interpretation could be that so much depends upon wheel, without wheel
the cart cannot work, one cannot transport anything without wheel, the red
colour suggests the aggressiveness but that red wheel is now covered with rain
water and not able to work. The chicken word also suggests a young
inexperienced person.
9.) Anecdote of the Jar- Wallace Stevens
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
The poem is about the state “Tennessee” in
United States of America. Poet placed a jar on the hill in Tennessee and
because of that untidiness and wilderness has grown around the hill the jar was
on the ground but was tall and like port. The word “dominion” suggests that the
jar which was outsider at hill has made its place strong slowly and steadily. There
was nothing which can be produced by jar, but though it was dominion upon the
hill.
10.) ‘l (a‘- E. E. Cummings
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
The first reading of poem can confuse us but it is all about the
experiment with structure of poem and play with words. The meaning if we search
on internet it is “a leaf falls on loneliness” but
the poet has parted loneliness and (a leaf falls), which suggests modernist way
of writing. It was a time when people were alone and self cantered and even
nature was not praising him, “a leaf falls” suggests the disconnection of
people with nature and isolation with natural world.
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