A Few Random Poetry Themed Writings

Modernism in Brooks, Jarrell and Bishop

            Modernism is a movement of art which is characterized by a break with traditional forms, themes, and methods of expression ("Modernism," def. 3).  Modernism rejects some conventions of Victorian poetry in favor of a more malleable style that expresses less sentimentality.  Modernism breaks from formalist styles like the Italian sonnet, which embodies sentimental love over most other themes.  Some common themes of modernist poetry are alienation, fragmentation of identity, and the impersonality of war.  Alienation and fragmentation are shown in Gwendolyn Brooks' "a song in the front yard," while the impersonality of war is highlighted in Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner." Some modernist poems, like Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish," are modernist by noticing miniscule details and relying on abundant imagery. 

            Gwendolyn Brooks’ “a song in the front yard” is modernist in its illustration of alienation and fragmentation.  The speaker is alienated by white American society.  The speaker begins by explaining how she has been stuck in the same role: “I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life” (1).  The front yard is a metaphor for the way a minority should act in order to draw positive attention to the group as a whole.  This place represents a life of following the rules.  The speaker's identity is fragmented because she is forced to choose only one of two states of being.  She wishes to experience something new: “I want to go in the back yard now / And maybe down the alley, / To where the charity children play” (5-7).  The speaker's attraction to these forbidden places expresses a desire to hold the values of the front and back yards within a single identity. 

            Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is modernist in its interpretation of war.  It shows a casualty of war in a nonchalant way.   This small free verse poem contains only one rhyme with the words froze and hose.  The word froze connotes emotional coldness.  The speaker shows impersonality in the way his body is removed from the ball turret: "When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose" (5).  By rhyming the words froze and hose, the poem links emotional coldness to the way in which the hose was used to clear the turret of the body.  The ball turret is a small sphere-shaped enclosure in an aircraft used to control the machinegun.  It was made to accommodate only small men. Jarrell's note claims that it made the gunner look like a "foetus in the womb" (Nelson 713). By relating war to a child in the womb Jarrell connects the poem to the cold reality of birth and death.    

            Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" embodies modernism through its imagery and by pointing out the strong points of a simple fish.  Bishop's use of imagery is a common modernist practice.  The speaker begins without any poetic language by simply describing the act of catching a large fish.  The poem gains momentum by using poetic imagery to paint a picture of the fish's skin: "shapes like full-blown roses / stained and lost through age" (14-15).  The speaker describes the hooks in the mouth of the fish as "medals with their ribbons / frayed and wavering" (61-62).  Like a collage, Bishop's imagery comes together to create a vivid image of the scene.  Showing the importance of small unnoticed things, Bishop describes the fish in a reverent way.  The fish is presented as a survivor and the five pieces of fishing line in his mouth are "a five-haired beard of wisdom / trailing from his aching jaw" (63-64).  The beard is of wisdom because the fish has already managed to escape this same situation many times.  The poem does not focus on the aching jaw of the fish or try to elicit sympathy, but instead celebrates the fish's past success of survival.  

Connections of Humanity and Nature in William Stafford's Poetry

            William Stafford is a poet who is concerned with the natural world.  Much of his poetry deals with the ways that humanity and nature intersect.  Often the effects of humanity have negative consequences on the natural world.  In "Traveling Through the Dark," this intersection is shown by the common occurrence of hitting a deer with a car.   "At the Bomb Testing Site" refers to nuclear testing from the vantage point of a lizard.  Stafford's concern with the natural environment extends to history as well in "The Indian Cave Jerry Ramsey Found."

            Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” connects man and nature by meshing together images of a car and a deer: “By the glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car / and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;” (5-6).  He intertwines the car and nature by claiming that “under the hood purred the steady engine” (14). The speaker has come across a pregnant doe that has been hit by a car. Because the fawn may still be savable, the speaker contemplates the correct course of action. His decision shows how the needs of mankind often take precedence over the natural world: “I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—, / then pushed her over the edge into the river” (17-18).  The speaker hesitates but ultimately decides that the best course of action is to roll the deer off the cliff to prevent injuries to other motorists.

            Stafford’s “At the Bomb Testing Site” focuses on a lizard, a representation of nature: “At noon in the desert a panting lizard / waited for history, its elbows tense,” (1-2).  History in this case refers to the title “At the Bomb Testing Site.”  The lizard and his surroundings represent something that has been perverted by humanity and technology.   The extent of humanity’s interference is described as “the flute end of consequences” (8).  The image of a flute suggests consequences that are forthcoming.  The entire poem connects to nuclear testing that occurred within the desert before the consequences were fully known. These consequences, the easy spreading of radiation through the wind, are a direct result of human interference in the desert.

            Stafford is concerned with mankind’s relationship to nature in a different way in “The Indian Cave Jerry Ramsey Found” by depicting a Native American cave.  The idea of an Indian cave has connotations to nature because of the Native American lifestyle that stresses closeness and harmony with nature.  Although the poem shows Stafford’s obvious concern with history, it also depicts a person disturbing something.  The cave is already an intersection between man and nature, and has begun to slip back into nature by being covered with “Brown, brittle, wait-a-bit weeds” (1).  It is being disturbed as the speaker says that “cool / history comes off on my hands” (5-6).

Themes of Rebellion in McKay and Millay

            The poets Claude McKay and Edna St. Vincent Millay are well known for their themes of rebellion.  McKay's work shows rebellion by denouncing racism and fighting back against racial oppression.  His poems involve violent imagery.  The poems of Millay rebel against sexism and gender roles.  She rebels against the ideas of Italian poetry by using its forms and twisting the traditional meaning.  Both poets use the sonnet form for their poetry and rebel against the same group of patriarchal white males.

            The poetry of McKay involves fighting for rights and dignity by condemning inhumane treatment.  His choice of diction is blunt and violent.  "To the White Fiends" rebels against the white society of his time that kept African Americans marginalized.  He offers a violent and rebellious challenge: "Think you I could not arm me with a gun / And shoot down ten of you for every one / Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?" (2-4).  Looked at in the context of lynching, McKay's poems are violent because they are a response to violence.  McKay offers a reaction to lynching in "If We Must Die.”  The speaker immediately rebels against indignity: "If we must die, let it not be like hogs" (1). The poem also issues a direct call to action: "we must meet the common foe!" (9). “Mulatto” claims that the speaker is the son of a white man and for this reason “I will dispute his title to his throne, / Forever fight him for my rightful place” (3-4).  McKay's poems express strong opposition to racial injustice.

            Edna St. Vincent Millay's ideas of rebellion take root in her adaptation of sonnet forms.  She first rebels against traditional love poetry by using a different theme than those common in the Petrarchan sonnet.  She uses the sonnet to condemn traditional roles of gender and attitudes that women are supposed to have regarding men.  In “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” Millay expresses a cynicism toward those who define themselves in terms of romantic success: “By all the needs and notions of my kind, / Am urged by your propinquity to find / your person fair, and feel a certain zest” (2-4). She claims that society has urged women to need men. In “Love is Not Blind,” Millay rebels by questioning the way men lust after beauty: “Well I know / What is this beauty men are babbling of; / I wonder only why they prize it so” (12-14). Millay claims in "Love is Not All" that love is not the defining factor of a woman’s life: “Love is not all; it is not meat nor drink” (1).  It serves little real purpose and gives no tangible benefits.  

            Born just several years apart, McKay and Millay were contemporaries.  Although their messages are different, they rebel against the same group of predominantly white males.  Their poetry depicts rebellion in a similar way by twisting the sonnet form to their own purposes and away from the original sonnet themes.  They challenge popular beliefs in society that serve to oppress groups like African Americans and women.  For McKay the sonnet form is a predominantly white form of writing.  For Millay the sonnet form is used for classic love poetry and is a form used mostly by men.  The poets use their work to affirm the value of their respective race and sex. McKay's “To the White Fiends” not only adheres to his violent message, but also affirms the value of his race: “Thy dusky face I set among the white / For thee to prove thyself of higher worth;” (11-12).  In "Love is not blind," Millay affirms the value of the feminine through her blunt words: "I see with single eye / Your ugliness and other women's grace" (1-2). Seeing with single eye implies the ease in which she sees the finer traits of women and the negativity of males.

Works Cited

Bishop, Elizabeth. “The Fish.” Nelson 631-33.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “a song in the front yard.” Nelson 766-67.

Jarrell, Randall. “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” Nelson 713.

McKay, Claude. “If We Must Die.” Nelson 315-16.

---. “Mulatto.” Nelson 318.

---. “To the White Fiends.” Nelson 315.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed.” Nelson 320-21.

---. “Love is Not All.” Nelson 327-28.

---. “Love is Not Blind.” Nelson 321.

“Modernism, n.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed. 2002. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 November 2011 < http://www.oed.com>.

Nelson, Cary, ed. Anthology of Modern American Poetry. New York: Oxford, 2000. Print.

Stafford, William. “At the Bomb Testing Site.” Nelson 730.

---. “The Indian Cave Jerry Ramsey Found.” Nelson 730.

---. “Traveling Through the Dark.” Nelson 729.