Over the class of the following several yearss. you will finish a writing assignment. In the assignment. you will show your apprehension of the dogmas of modernist literature by rewriting a Romantic verse form in a manner that incorporates typically modernist qualities in footings of linguistic communication. manner. literary elements. and subjects. The assignment is broken down into four parts.
Part 1: Choose a Romantic Poem
Romantic literature champions the beauty of the universe and the built-in goodness of human existences. and Romantic poetry is extremely structured and deeply traditional. Modernism often defines itself as a reaction against and a rejection of romanticism. Modernist poets viewed Romantic poesy as a leftover of the 19th century. Modernists did non believe that composing as the Romantics did in the 1800s could efficaciously capture their twentieth-century universe or their experiences in that universe.
Get down this assignment by taking a Romantic verse form from the 19th century that you intend to rewrite in a manner that incorporates typically modernist qualities. You can happen legion illustrations of nineteenth-century Romantic poesy on pages 83–112 of your Journeys anthology. For illustration. William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. ” which appears on pages 90–91 of your anthology. is a well-known Romantic verse form. Note: You may non utilize this verse form in your reply.
Part 2: Briefly Explain the Romantic Poem You Chose
In a individual paragraph. depict the Romantic verse form that you selected. Focus on the linguistic communication. manner. literary elements. and subjects of the work. This measure of the procedure is of import because these are the facets of the work that your modernist revision of it will alter. Here. as an illustration. is a brief account of Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” :
Most of Wordsworth’s verse form describes how a “crowd” of Narcissus pseudonarcissuss near a lake looked as they fluttered in the zephyr. This poem uses formal linguistic communication. has a fixed rime strategy. and employs an even metre. The talker is really closely linked to the poet. and neither the voice nor the position in the piece of all time displacements. The work contains a figure of similes—one compares the talker to a alone cloud. another compares the Narcissus pseudonarcissuss to stars—and the flowers are personified to do the descriptions of them more graphic. Thematically talking. the verse form is about how. even long after holding seen the flowers. the talker feels comforted and happy whenever he thinks of their beauty.
Part 3: Make a Modernist Rewrite of the Romantic Poem You Chose
Get down your revision. To make so. conceive of yourself as a poet in the early 20th century. and conceive of your revision as an effort to update the out-of-date elements of the nineteenth-century work you selected. Remember that modernist verse forms
• Capture the cynicism and disappointment many people felt toward outdated nineteenth-century thoughts
• Focus on the complexnesss of modern life
• Highlight the disaffection of the person in the modern universe
• Break with past literary traditions and manners
• Employ mentions to diverse civilizations. belief systems. and histories
• Use experimental linguistic communication and techniques. such as pulling a distinguishable line between the poet and the talker and composing from multiple positions and in different voices
Your revision must integrate at least three of the six listed features of modernism. Here is an illustration of a modernist revision of the first stanza of Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” :
Part 4: Briefly Explain Your Modernist Rewrite
In a response of at least two paragraphs. supply an account of the stairss you took to rewrite the Romantic verse form you selected. Your account should indicate out at least three typically modernist qualities in your work with respect to elements such as linguistic communication. manner. literary elements. and subjects. Here. as an illustration. is a brief account of the modernist revision of the first stanza of Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” :
In the first stanza of my revision. I tried to drastically alter the temper of the verse form. I did so by first altering the gap simile. associating the talker ( who is most surely distinct from myself as the poet ) to a World War I winging one looking down on an empty town devastated by war. This image non merely calls to mind the devastation that people in the early 20th century witnessed. but besides the solitariness felt by the person when witnessing such desolation. I introduced ambiguity by non placing the nationality of the pilot to whom the talker compares himself: He may be a adult male seeing the devastation of his ain town. or he may be one of the work forces who brought devastation on the town during conflict.
Then I decided to alter the daffodils—a symbol of the beauty of the natural universe in Wordsworth’s poem—to a crumpling edifice on an abandoned and ugly street. I thought these images helped convey a sense of loss. I used the word crumblecracking—an invented term—to call to mind how the broken bricks of the edifice expression. This type of experimentation with linguistic communication is typical of modernist poesy. Finally. I used the word forsaken non merely because it suggests forsaking. but besides because it calls to mind the last words of Jesus on the cross. This allusion so rapidly blends into the mention to a fabulous figure. Tefnut. the Egyptian goddess of rain and birthrate. This allusion hints at the possibility of refashioning a new universe out of the fragments of the old. yet the “sagging” infirmary attests to how difficult such a Restoration would be. Thematically. I was seeking to picture the solitariness and the disaffection of the talker in this creaky universe.
