MODERN POETRY IN ENGLAND

A. R. Humphreys

British Council Lecturer and Lektör in the Ed. Fakültesi - İngiliz Lisan ve Ed.
Şubesi - İstanbul Üniversitesi.


Modern poetry is an outgrovvth of the modern world, and as the
thought and experience of to-day are very complex, the poetry they
inspire is neither simple in itself, nor easy to classify. This paper covers
the poetry mainly of the past 25 years, with reference however to poets
writing before the first World War who contributed to the foundation
of modern poetic thought and technique. The period covered therefore
is one of social and international difficulty, and the poets reflect the
urgent concern with hunger, unemployment, and war vvhich preoccupy
the modem world. Not only were social traditions in chaos: In the
sphere of art, the decate of 1920 s was one of feverish experiment as men
sought appropriate ways of expressing their response to the world
around them. Despite the furor of experiment, much fine music, many
sensitive poems and novels were vvritten. But success was frequently
achieved only through intense personal struggle - moden poetry is
marked by passionate currents of urgent thought.

A dominant concern of 19 th century English poets was the creation
of a beautiful world of dream. 20 th century poets have instead
turned their eyes to the condition of their fellovvs, have sought to take
the world as it is and express it in vvords. This needs both physical
courage - modern poets like many of the predecessors have taken an
active part in politics or war - and mental courage, for a modern poet
must dominate a bewildering mass of material: His work shovvs the
influence of science, anthropology, theology, psychology, politics, sociology,
and he must fight against the enervating despair vvhich comes
from the contemplation of war and suffering.
Against this social background, modern poetry can be considered
from the point of view of its technique and its subject - matter.
A technical revolution has been brought about in the past
30 years, mainly by Erza Pound and T. S. Eliot, both Americans,
and the example of G. M. Hopkins, a Welshman. The work of
W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet, has also been İnfluential. This receiving of
stimuli from many sources is part of a öOO^years old tradition in English
literatüre. Pound and Eliot have practised a manner in vvhich
economy of vvords, pregnancy of ideas, vvide literary experience, and
dramatic contrasts of images are the main characteristics. Their vvork,
especially that of Eliot, the greater poet, is difficult, concentrated, and
very influential. Eliot's main theme is that of a lost, unfertile land
waiting in a crisis of impotence for a redeemer, through whom will
take place a painfuî rebrrth into fertility, order, spiritual grace. His
verse is revolutionary in technique because of its compression, diffi- *
culty, intensity, and high degree of individuality.

G. M. Hopkins' work, though he died in 1889, only became influential
after 1930. His poetic language is violent, irregular and subtly
sensitive, resembling in some ways the late verse of Shakespeare. W. B.
Yeats (1865-1939) was one of the greatest poets of the past hundred
years. Hopkins gave poetry a passionate, tortured strength:
Yeats gave confident richness and beauty expressed in imaginâtive
half-colîoquial speech. His feelings were passionate, his thought haunting
and rich: he was interested in philosophy, Irish folk-lore, politics;
he organised the modern Irish dramatic movement and became a
senatör of the Irish Free State. In poetry he progressed from unreal
decorative verse towards living, sparse, intense expression. His vocabulary
can be direct, homely, vivid, or rich and symbolically magnifficent.
His poem Sailing to Byzantium deals with his progress away
from the transient delights of the senses towards the rich splendours
of the intellect and of age-old philosophic wisdom and art.
The generation of poets becoming mature between 1925 and 1933-
Cecil Day Lewis, Louis Mac Neice, W. H. Auden Stephan Spender,
George Barker, Dylan Thoma.s, and others- was influenced by Pound,
Eliot, Hopkins and Yeats, but has found its subject-matter in the
world around it. Day Lewis is the most lyrical and clear of the group:
Auden is at times compact and difficult, at other times loose and
colloquial: Mac Neice has the best eye of any, with a remarkable
power of descrining town or country. Spender is a poet and critic of rich
feeling, and admirable honesty. George Barker's work is rich and violent.
Whatever their individual traits, they ali live in the world of crowds,
factories politics and they ali want to bring back to man the joy of living.
Their work is sometime pessimistic, but the grimness is tempered by a firmset
courage, the pessimism of the present enlightened'with hope for the
future, and a determination not to lose what the nobility of life can
give us even now. Of self-pity they seem to be devoid.

Their gifts are mainly-an accurate imaginâtive vision of the world
in which they live: the artistic discipline which comes from hard
thought: wide sympathies for the common man: a sense of their own
individuality and also of their community with others. Their technical
skill and the intensity of their thought produce a poetry in which the
attention of neither writer nor reader can relax. After reading them
the work of later nineteenth-century poets seem unendurably slack,
relaxed. Eliot's example has imposed a control of rhythm and image

which continually surprises with its alertness. They prefer the bare
lonely landscapes of the north to the richer beauties of the south, and
their work is simirlarly bracing, exhilarating. As for their sympathies
with the common man, they derive from the social crisis the world is
suffering. During the 1920 s, poetry became more exclusive; and the
public more indifferent. But during the 1930 s, poets realised that there
was something more important than poetry-the anguish of suffering
man. And though their work is difficuît, it has won a considerable
audience which admires its integrity. it is too early to cali this a decisive
rebirth of popular culture; but along with the increasing demand
for good drama, music and ballet which has become insatiable since
the outbreak of the war, it shows that there is a wide public for
serious, uncompromising creative work, desiring the growth of spiritual
freedom even amid the tragedies of the time.