Poetry of the 20th Century

Historical AtmosphereBy the beginning of the 1900s, the masses of

Western civilization were living differently than before, owing to significant developments and innovations in technology, science, medicine, and socio-ideological norms.

For the first time in the course of history, poets were thinking and writing from a global perspective, particularly in terms of the widespread social, economic, political, and intellectual changes that were taking place.

More than any other time in history, the 20th

century was the most violent. Lethal weapons began to be used for mass destruction.

Unsettling the Foundations: Major Political Events

• World Wars I and II

• The Russian Revolution

• The Cold War

• The use of atomic weapons on Imperial Japan

• Feminist Movement

• African-American Civil Rights Movement

• War in Viet Nam

• Environmental Crises

Developments in Art

In the art world, a number of new styles of expression emerged, such as Dadaism, Cubism, and Surrealism, to name several.

Dadaism is an anti-war cultural movement that began during World War I, and peaked during 1916-1920. Artists like Marcel Duchamp rejected conventional art styles and prevailing standards by exhibiting found objects. It was essentially a celebration of

anti-art.

Left: Marcel Duchamp. Fountain. 1913.

• Cubism, begun in part by the Andalusian-Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), introduced multiple perspectives into a two-dimensional image. Using geometric shapes, dark and light shades, and forceful lines, a new type of image was created. Picasso was most influential in his creation of a new way of depiction the human body. He used shapes to depict real bodies, and let them lie in a larger space, leaving them very open and free. Cubist paintings relied mostly on geometry and shade as opposed to light and enclosed objects.

Left: Pablo Picasso. Woman Playing the Mandolin. 1919.

What is Poetry?

• It is language that is sung, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words and the basis of sound as well as sense

• It is a more condensed and compressed medium than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of special words or phrases (i.e. poetic diction) peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor and simile.

• All cultures have their poetry, using it for everything from sacred ritual to obscene insult, but it is generally employed in those utterances and writings which call for heightened intensity of emotion, dignity of expression, or subtlety of meditation.

• Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness of ideas, whether solemn or comical.

• The three major categories of poetry are narrative, dramatic, and lyric, the last being the most extensive.

Characteristics of 20th Century Poetry

Most of the poetry of this period, whether American, European, or Canadian, reflects the overwhelming sense of alienation, loss, and despair that characterizes the social, political, and cultural contexts of the world.

Poets began experimenting with language in ways that rejected and/or reinvented traditional conventions of writing in an attempt to make sense of an increasingly volatile and chaotic existence, where nothing was certain.

Left: Edward Munch’s The Scream (1893)

Modernism

Working in the wake of World War I and early 20th century industrial advancement, it was a particularly innovative period for poetry, marking a sense of cultural crisis and radial rupture with the past. Regarding modernist ideals of poetic language, Pound stated that the point was to break from the old and to “make it new.”

• Ezra Pound• T.S. Eliot• H.D.• Marianne Moore• Wallace Stevens• William Carlos Williams• Gertrude Stein

War Poetry

• During and after World War I, a number of poets wrote about their experience on the battlefield. Many died, while others survived; the result is a convoluted body of work in which many voice their disillusionment with trench warfare, patriotic ideals, and military leaders.

• Wilfred Owen• Siegfried Sassoon• Rupert Brooke

Beat Poetry

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their work took as its premise a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality.

• Jack Kerouac

• Bob Dylan

• Gregory Corso

• Allan Ginsberg

African American Poets

The election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States calls to attention the struggle of African-Americans towards civil liberty in the 20th century. African-American poetry is largely rooted in social activism, and appears in a variety of forms, the most prominent of which are music, rap, spoken word, and blues.

• Langston Hughes

• Gwendolyn Brooks

• Maya Angelou

• Rita Dove

Female Language, Female VoiceThe feminist activity of this period

enabled many women to expose the assumptions that support male-dominated cultural practices in the workplace, the family, education, religion, medicine, and sexuality. The result is one of the century’s most significant achievements: the development and emergence of the female poetic voice.

• Sylvia Plath• Adrienne Rich• Anne Sexton• Amy Lowell• Sara Teasdale• Elizabeth Bishop

Canadian PoetsAlways a country of regions,

isolation and survival against Nature are arguably the most prevalent theme in our national poetic identity, whether it concerns geographical landscape or complex interpersonal relationships.

• Leonard Cohen• Margaret Atwood• E.J. Pratt• Irving Layton• Robertson Davies

British PoetsSome of the greatest and most

influential poets of the 20th century were located in England, Wales, and Ireland, and concentrated much of their poetry on ‘Old World’ elements, whether it is masks, music, or mythology.

• Dylan Thomas• W.B. Yeats• Seamus Heaney• Ted Hughes