Mina Loy

Mina Loy's poetry is certainly a piece of modernism.  I enjoyed her poetry because although it was somewhat light, unlike T.S. Eliot, it was also very powerful with meaning.  Sort of had the best of both worlds.  In her poem, "Branscusi's Golden Bird" she eclectically describes a sculpture by Branscusi.  While she is describing something, her poetry still doesn't quite fit in with imaginism.  Her poetry uses maybe harsher language than would be described in an imaginist's poems.  Particularly in lines 9 and 10, where she uses the word "naked" to describe the sculpture.  The word "naked" is a very raw word that, in my opinion strikes out to the reader.  Modern poets definitely preferred vocabulary that was taboo or different than the diction used in previous literature.  I enjoyed these poems, particulary because they were easy to read and understand but still different in the sense of being modern.

T.S. Eliot The Wasteland

Eliot's The Wasteland was one of the most influencial and important poems of the modernism period.  The random structure and prose style of it holds true to the modernist time period in which it was written.  The style and structure, let alone the content, is a testament to the new and upcoming break away from tradition that was modernism.  The poem was quite difficult to read.  It was filled with allusions and references, which in my opinion, is what makes the poem.   The sporadic stories and allusions are what make it so puzzling and interesting.  It sets it apart from poetry and literature that had been seen before, also making it a staple in modernism.  The poem, which seems to be set in the time period in Europe following WW1, is broken up into different sections and stories that all tie together the idea of this corrupted society that has now become a "wasteland".  The first section, "The Burial of the Dead", sets the stage for the mood of the poem.  The somewhat confusing, and rigid words and sentences he uses sort of sets an eerie tone or mood like you would feel in a "wasteland" of nothingness.  This section seemed to be the most important part of the entire poem.  The heavy presence of death reiterated the image of a corrupted land in which minds and bodies were being expelled, figuratively and literally, at the  expense of its inhabitants'.  The death and corrupted ideals expressed fit with the post war era that might leave a sort of "wasteland.  Also in this first section he identifies human fear and loss of faith, which is one of the main ideas in modernism.  In the second section, "A Game of Chess", he addresses the concept of sexual corruption.  He alludes to stories about unnecessary and unwanted sexual acts, all expressing and adding to the corrupted game of society that's left after the war.  The third section seems to explore the same area of sexuality and corruption, warning against using sexuality as a sort of an outlet for ones personal problems.  In the fourth section, "Death By Water", Eliot enlists the help of the story of Phlebus the Phoenecian, who, while handsome and popular and self-thought to be invincible, drowned.  This idea that "everyone dies no matter who you are", goes back to his  first section in which he focuses on death and fear of death.  There is nothing to fear about death, it is inevitable, particularly in this post war wasteland in which most seem to be "dead" anyway.  The final section, "What the Thunder Said" tells about a drought.  This drought could be seen as a metaphor and symbol for the wasteland itself.  The dried up land of a drought could be symbolic of a dried up society.  In this section he also speaks about death and dying frequently, similarly to the first section, so as to come full circle with his idea of death, fear, corruption, and the "wasteland" his society has become.