My interpretation of ten short Poems

This blog is a part of my classroom activity,

Here is the blog link of a task : http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2016/06/modernist-poems-activity-identify_25.html

      Here is my interpretation of ten 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.

          The concept of present and past that how the thinking of writer has changed before and now.

             First he was watching ecstasy and now he watches poesy, once he found ecstasy and now its poesy. And then he prays god that give me this kind of thinking and save him from the cold winter night of dark. Sky is a home of stars but the word star-eaten blanket suggests that the householders themselves have destroyed the half of house but though poet wants to live there because he is feeling comfortable.

         In this poem there are some symbols like gold heels, old stars, etc. And through these types of symbols it becomes interesting, because these all are ornaments for poem.
 

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.

               Poetry suggests modernization that people wants see the shining stars but there is an artificial ribbon. People are walking in darkness and they wants to see the shining stars or we can say brightness but there are only a silver ribbon which has an artificial light. The poet looked at it without any feelings and expressions and he left the place, where there is still darkness.
       In this poem stars and ribbons are used as a symbol. And those are new metaphor in poem.
 

3.) 'Image' - Edward Storer

          Forsaken lovers,

       Burning to a chaste white moon

       Upon strange Pyres of loneliness and

       drought.

           Here in the poem there an image of modern lovers and their feelings. They wants love like a white moon (represents purity)  but they are on pyres of loneliness which suggests lover are staying together but there is no love between them and the word “Drought” suggests that there is lack of emotions and feelings as well as faith between them.
        In this poem "white moon" used as a symbol.
 

4.) "In a station of the Metro" - Ezra Pound

                 

  The apparition of these faces in the Crowd;

  Petals on a wet, black bough

              The poem very significantly compared the mechanical life of people with a machine. Station is a place where most of people meet every day but still there is not any relation between them. They are looking very strange as poet used metaphor that “petals on bough” petals grows on flower not on bough, and the black and wet bough suggests something wired and unlikely.
         In this poem black bough used as a symbol and it gives the poem very sad tone .
 

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 poem has an undertone of a feeling of independent life where it is very hard for an individual to survive. So the metaphor used “trembling sea fish” and power (net) controls this kind of individual.
           Here in this poem sea fish used as metaphor but in real it is not about that but it is something else.

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 concept which poet has presented is about staying detached with problems of world and live individual life happily, like staying in utopia. The poet is writing poetry for himself and living happily under the sky. The metaphor “a flock of doves“ suggests living in world but individually, like in flock of dove not any bird is connected with each other in modern world people are living in same country but not having emotions.        
            For example if we compare it with village life. So in village people know everyone personally and they also help to each other but in city people don't know about their neighbors. So here in this poem poet try to highlight that harshness of their life.

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.

                Here Eliot has presented the routine life of people who are totally detached with the nature and its morning beauty. And they are working mechanically without any excitement. The wind which gives pleasure is presented as an aimless smile of emotionless people.
              In the description of the poem poet used new symbols like plates and all those things and itself suggests their way of living life. And they are not connected with natural environment. So their life become aimless and they are doing worthless things during their life.

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 so much complexity, apparently the first line is not connected with the other lines of poem but it can be said that once which wheel was so useful is now cannot work because of rain water (connection of nature). The white chicken may be trying to hide from rain and wheel is also beside that chicken.        

          Red wheel, white chicken these all are symbols and through these poet try to say about human beings. It may be connected with white people and their life and for that he use white chicken.

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.

             Here the concept is how an artificial thing could change the natural place, poet has placed one jar upon hill and then the condition of hill was changed. The jar has no life but nature has, nature first did not like jar but when that wilderness felt that jar will not move then it was no longer wild, and jar got the dominant position.
        Through this poem we can understand that how the life becomes mixer of both the things. And indirectly we can say it is hybridization. As same in our country we are eating both the things pizza as well as rotala. 
 

10.) ‘l (a‘- E. E. Cummings

l(a     
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness

             Like a leaf falls alone, in modern time people were living in one country together like leafs live on a tree but when they fall it is only their fall. There was no strong relation between them. So here we can say that poet use leaf as a symbol and through that he want to talk about people living in New world. Their relations are not strong and they are living aimless life.                  

          So, after all in the end I want to say that these all poems are about new era in which people are living free, aimless and fallen life. In these all ten poems we can see various modernist metaphors and symbols like flock of dove, jaar , white chicken, red wheel, plates, etc. While in old era poets were using natural elements and things like garden, flower, rain, butterflies, etc. So from those new metaphors poets try to say about the new way of living life. And how they are living their life that we can see through these various symbols and metaphors.