Characteristics of Modernism►Written between the

two World Wars, 1918-1939

►Experimental, challenging and difficult

►Searched for new forms of poetic expression abandoned standard

line length, rhymes and stanza forms

wrote in more colloquial (conversational) verse

►Used symbolism—all external objects are symbols of a deeper reality

►Was often concerned with relationships

►Often began arbitrarily

Characteristics & Key Figures► Industrialization►The City►War► Language and the

Arts► Fragmentation,

despair The death of God

►Mythology, anthropology

► Innovation►Time (future, past)►Aesthetics ►A Movement of

Movements►Key Figures

(Darwin) Marx Freud Nietzche Eliot, Joyce, Pound

Leading Poets

► Edwin Arlington Robinson► Robert Frost► Carl Sandburg► William Carlos Williams► Ezra Pound► T. S. Eliot► Claude McKay► E. E. Cummings