USAmerican Modernists and Why They Are Special

The Modernist movement arose worldwide after the first World War. As a result of exposure to the horrors of war, the arts changed in dramatic ways. No longer was art about the lovely things in life. Books and poems criticized leaders and exposed human nature. Visual art became grotesque and disturbing. Thoughts grew darker. Where, in the past, things had been glossed over by prettiness there now existed a raw angst. The world was no longer a place where people were inspired by beauty. Rather, a sense of distrust entered the hearts of humanity and the beauty of the world was replaced with the disfigurement that war had brought. People's thoughts were thus turned towards the exploration of that darker side that had before been hidden. As the reality of the losses of the war reached the hearts of Americans, they began to see past the facade. Leaders in this enlightenment were artists. They were able to express most adeptly what the American people were beginning to understand. Their talents enabled them to reach a nation through their visual depictions and, most poignantly, through their poetry.

By employing new methods within their poems, the members of the American Modernist movement awakened a new sense of wonder and curiosity within the readers of the nation. Through their unique forms and deviant use of language, the traditional styles of poetry were abandoned to establish a new form of expression. The structures of the past were no longer able to encompass the deep levels to which these artists intended to reach. Instead, newer, freer forms developed as ways to articulate the radical emotions of post-war America. Free verse poems dominated, their forms laced with juxtaposition, fragmentation, figurative language, and vivid images.

The poets that were part of the American Modernist movement served as representatives of a stage of rebellion against past conservatism. While their words expressed the changes of the human mind and explored deeper into the darkness than had ever been seen, their lifestyles also reflected the new angst that plagued the post-war nation. These men and women served as human beings that lived out the new state of mind, rather than just preaching it. They lived in the moment, often struggling with drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and, for some, poverty. Poets of the era were the leaders that people chose to follow inasmuch as they took ideas away from their works, but, as citizens, their unconventional and chaotic lives were the stuff of gossip, not of glory.

The American Modernist movement revolutionized art and expression. Conservatism was a thing of the past. The new world order had brought about changes in the minds of humanity, and the poets of the era reveled in these opportunities to express their complex feelings through their works. In exploring the minds of human kind, a new darkness entered the scene. The world was no longer the place it had been; war had stripped away the innocence of earlier times. Raw emotions emerged. People no longer looked for the bandage that was the sweet poetry of the past. Americans were ready to explore, were inspired to do so. As America was preparing to open its mind to change, the American Modernist poets opened the doors and led Americans through so that they could finally begin to explore what it was to be human.

The greatest thing that a poet can strive for is to be an inspiration to others. The poets of the American Modernist movement led in a way that has inspired people since their words were first read. Poetry should awake emotions, bring to life visions and dreams, and it should in some way disturb the mind, shake it out of a fog so that one can truly see. The American Modernist poets worked as lenses to focus readers on new goals and help them to see things as they truly are. They were able to provoke a reaction that has served to change the world since their time. No longer is the world blind to itself. There is a full spectrum that has been brought to life under the guidance of the American Modernist poets.

VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. "Chapter 6 Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945." Outline of American Literature n. pag. Web. 2 Jun 2010. .

Jackson Pollock's "Troubled Queen"

Though more impressive at its full size and hanging on the wall of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the painting Troubled Queen by Jackson Pollock sparks a sense of the rebellion and surrealism of the American Modernist movement, even in this internet-accessed image. As one of Pollock's transitional pieces between his more concrete painting style to his better-known dripping technique, Troubled Queen captures the essence of a turbulent mind. By beginning with Pollock's title for the work and moving down into his specific color scheme and the images that come through the seemingly chaotic swirls, one can draw out the sense that Jackson Pollock had for analyzing and expressing the inner workings of a human mind.

Jackson Pollock's title Troubled Queen outlines the images that appear upon the canvas. If one looks closely at the swirls of paint, three faces emerge from the pandemonium. These faces are distorted, as if shaped from a nightmare. It is here where Pollock's title of the work indicates the tone of the painting. These nightmarish visages represent the fears of the mind and the burdens of life.

Pollock's color scheme also ties into the title of the painting. The dominant color, purple, has always been known as the color of royalty, that is, of a queen. The other colors, such as the splattering of yellow and blue, bring to the purple the sense of chaos due to the random shapes formed by flicking and dripping. The greys and greens lend to the dreamlike (or nightmare-like, as the case may be) quality of the work.

As a whole, Jackson Pollock's Troubled Queen serves as a representative of the American Modernist era. The painting explores the inner workings of the mind and brings them to life on a canvas. Here, some of the deepest troubles of humanity are exposed in what one could say is a disturbing way. His unique style lends a new perspective to the concept of the human imagination. The inner workings of the brain are not always light and pretty, and Pollock is able to express the reality through Troubled Queen.

Explosions of My Human Mind

As I myself am human and was confronted with paints and some canvas, I found myself drawn towards the abstract expression of my thoughts. These paintings are explorations of movement with both paint brushes and tubes of paints used as markers on the canvas. In times of great mental distress, it feels as though the energy of my mind flows directly through these mediums and are expressed on the page before me. Just as American Modernist poets explored human minds through their poetry, so do these paints explore my own mind and emblazon it upon canvas.

Exploring "A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts"

A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts

by Wallace Stevens

The difficulty to think at the end of the day

When the shapeless shadow covers the sun

And nothing is left except light on your fur--

There was the cat slopping its milk all day,

Fat cat, red tongue, green mind, white milk

And August the most peaceful month.

To be, in the grass, in the peacefullest time,

Without the monument of cat,

The cat forgotten in the moon;

And to feel that the light is a rabbit-light,

In which everything is meant for you,

And nothing need be explained;

Then there is nothing to think of. It comes of itself;

And east rushes west and west rushes down,

No matter, the grass is full

And full of yourself. The trees around are for you,

The whole of the wideness of night is for you,

A self that touches all edges,

You become a self that fills the four corners of the night.

The red cat hides away in the fur-light

And there you are humped high, humped up,

You are humped higher and higher, black as stone--

You sit with your head like a carving in space

And the little green cat is a bug in the grass.

Wallace Stevens' poem A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts serves as a metaphor for the human condition within the dream state. Just as a rabbit lives in fear of its predators and longs for the time of day wherein he may take a rest from the strenuous task of avoiding predation, so also do people long for their time of rest where they no longer have to worry about what dangers or obligations lie around the corner. They enter their dream land in deep sleep where everything exists merely for them.

The first stanza of the poem alludes to that time where the day is ending and a sense of calm covers the earth. Stevens' diction calls to mind a feeling of melting as the structures of a stressful day dissolve into dreamlike peace. The only thing that remains is a gentle lightness that is relief.

The next stanza is a review of the fears of the day. The cat is representative of the ordinary stresses of the daytime: work, studies, survival in general. The colors emphasize the detail with which one sees one's fears, just as a prey animal views from a distance its known predator, observing it even until it understands its mind.

As the poem progresses, a sense of peace overcomes the detailed worry of the rabbit, representative of the peace that is offered by sleep. As the sun sets, the world is transformed into a place that is free of the fears that had so plagued humanity during the daytime. The memories fade into the background as the sense of peace pervades the stillness until there only remains one's own world, the world of dreams. Stevens' poem recalls the sentiment expressed by Joseph Conrad in his novella Heart of Darkness: "We live, as we dream alone." Within one's dream world, everything is, in fact, meant only to effect the dreamer. Dreams take the thoughts and imaginings of life and bring them together into a world that is not required to make the sense that daytime requires. The images and feelings fall together in a way that can only be expressed as a dream.

Within this ghost world, the dreamer is present in all things. "The whole of the wideness of night is for you/A self that touches all edges, /You become a self that fills the four corners of the night," (Lines 17-19). Unlike the waking world, the dream world is completely made up of only one person's existence. The night becomes fully one's own.

As the dreamer is pulled deeper and deeper into the land of dreams, the fears of the day recede into near oblivion. What once seemed a great thing to dread has become "a bug in the grass."

As an American Modernist, Wallace Stevens takes it upon himself to explore the workings of the human mind and the conditions that lead to these mechanics. Through A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts, Stevens delves into the relief experienced by entering the safety of dreams. He realizes that the need of an escape is an essential part of the human existence. His title for the poem establishes that as one enters the land of dreams, one sheds the demands of the day and becomes the ruler of the ghost world that has been created. The sense of peace that overrides all demands of the day captures the thoughts of the inner mind and develops a kingdom where even the smallest may rule in bliss.

An Interlude with USAmerican Modernist Poems

Humanity i love you
me up at does
next to of course god america i
pity this busy monster, manunkind
dying is fine but) Death

one t
-- e e cummings

Rhapsody on a Windy Night
What the Thunder Said
-- T. S. Eliot

These Fought in Any Case
The Logical Conclusion
--Ezra Pound

The Desolate Field
A Goodnight
--William Carlos Williams

A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts
--Wallace Stevens

A Million Young Work Men
--Carl Sandburg

Poems of the American Modernist movement place into vivid imagery, whether with form or with uses of the English language, what most people are merely able to describe as the human mind. These poets, however, take a step beyond what most people are able to comprehend on a direct, that is, a literal, level. Their works encompass the enigmas of existence, throw light into the unexplored recesses of the human condition, and reshape language to give readers glimpses into the mysteries of the mind.

By manipulating the shapes of words, American Modernist poets bring to life images that convey their messages in a powerful way. e e cummings, a leader in the Modernist movement and whose techniques many other writers chose to emulate, fused visual art with poetry. Many of his poems formed pictures that were shaped out of words, for instance, his poem one t, which depicts a snowflake falling. By creating visual interest for readers, the poets of the American Modernist movement were able to capture audiences and to spread their enlightenment.

In a similar way, the sounds and meanings of words were utilized in order to convey an alternate meaning to a poem. In cummings' pity this busy monster, manunkind, wherein he plays on the flaws of humanity. His opening lines "pity this busy monster, manunkind,/ not" warn of the disease that plagues mankind. Other poets also change language to establish their reasonings. Ezra Pound's dedication to the poem The Logical Conclusion expresses his distaste for the ruination of the pleasure that comes from literature due to overstudy and dissection of wonderful works. It reads: "Against the 'germanic' system of graduate study and insane specialization in the Inanities." Here, he plays with the word "Humanities", a word referring to reading and analyzation of literature. The authors of American Modernist poems are able to challenge society and expose the human condition by creatively manipulating language to make powerful assertions.

Other techniques of American Modernist poets include the use of vivid imagery and extended metaphors. In the Wallace Stevens poem A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts, a rabbit at night represents human being in a dream world. The vivid imagery of What the Thunder Said by T. S. Eliot conveys deep meaning rooted in religious stories of the Bible and Hindu mythology. Every word is carefully chosen to set the tone and asks readers to take a closer look at what is being said in each work.

Each poem that emerged from the American Modernist movement is heavy with deeper meaning due to the then-revolutionary techniques utilized by the writers of the time period. The poets' messages about the human condition and their explorations of human minds have touched generations of people and caused many to look past the surface of all works of literature and to explore their own minds. By using dynamic techniques, American Modernists brought to life ideas that had before then merely lain dormant in the minds of humanity. Using visual art in conjunction with words, transforming normal language to add greater meaning, and creating images through metaphors and descriptive diction the poets of the American Modernist movement impacted people throughout the world and brought to light both the flaws and unique abilities and thoughts of humanity.