Six Modernist Moments in Poetry

by David Young

Overview

This study of six modernist poems by six different poets demonstrates the multiple facets of modernism. By showing not only what the poets and poems have in common but also by exploring their remarkable diversity, David Young reveals that the modernist narrative is really many narratives at once. Young believes that modernist poetic practice can best be demonstrated through close attention to particular poems. In this composite portrait of high modernist poetry, each of the book's six chapters reads one key modernist poem in the light of emergent modernism. The six poets discussed here—four writing in English, one in German, and one in Italian—emerge as distinctive practitioners of a common aesthetic, one that challenged received ideas and patterns of thinking from a variety of perspectives. “Making it new” was very much what modernism was all about, and these six examples demonstrate that fully. Along with the four poems written in English, the two non-English poems are presented and discussed in Young's own translations. He describes the provenance of each of the six poems, puts it in the context of its time and the poet's career, and surrounds it with references to other poems that are quoted generously. In this way, each poem is not only fully explicated but also presented as a kind of preeminent example representing other poems of its type. Combining close reading with contextual discussion, this book is a significant contribution to the fields of poetry and modernism. The impeccable scholarship is presented in an accessible, engaging manner. Written for general readers as well as for scholars, it will shed a new and timely light on some of the 20th century's finest poems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780877459545
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David Young has been active as a poet, a critic, and a translator over many years while teaching at Oberlin College and helping edit FIELD, a journal of poetry and poetics, and the translations and poetry of Oberlin College Press. Among his most recent books are At the White Window and The Poetry of Petrarch. He has also recently co-translated, edited, and published Eugenio Montale: Selected Poems.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	ix
1	Rainer Maria Rilke Writes "The Bowl of Roses"	1
2	William Butler Yeats Writes "Among School Children"	24
3	Wallace Stevens Writes "Sunday Morning"	46
4	William Carlos Williams Writes "January Morning"	68
5	Marianne Moore Writes "An Octopus"	91
6	Eugenio Montale Writes "Mediterranean"	118
	Conclusion	145
	Notes	151
	Works Cited	167
	Index	173

Editorial Reviews

Subtly, with a many-faceted attention and care, David Young takes us on a journey through six modernist poems and reveals why and how these works continue to be luminous presences in the lives of so many poets and readers.”—Susan Stewart, Princeton University

“Rilke, Yeats, Stevens, Williams, Moore, and Montale: these writers have been like Stevens's 'old chaos of the sun,' an unquenchable source for much of the best 20th-century poetry. Never are they more challenging or exciting than in the long poem. David Young, one of the premier teachers of poetry in the United States, chooses a representative long poem by each and then generously guides us through each one. His intelligence and curiosity are keen, his voice melodious. Young adapts his discussion as needed to bring out each poet's utmost individuality yet also well shows what they have in common.”—Peter Schmidt, chair, English Department, Swarthmore College

From the Publisher