Modernism

The works of e.e cummings, Genevieve Taggard, and T.S. Elliot offer different perspective of the modernist writer. My personal taste enjoyed the work of cummings the greatest, and the work of Elliot the least. Elliots The Waste Land was quite hard to read. I feel it is because there are an equal amount of foot notes as there are words in the work itself. I had a flash back of trying to study the Communist Manifesto while reading this (and the Manifesto was easier!).

cummings offered a more politically based outlook of the modern times. He reflects on the lives lost in The Great War in next to of course god amicica i. In this work he contemplates the effects of the war and dead as related to america's reputation as the beautiful, "why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter they did not stop to think they died instead then shall the voice of liberty be mute?" cummings does not use line breaks throughout this poem, giveing it a fast flow. This reflects the war and the fast way in which soldiers lost their lives. He is definatley a modernest in that he focuses on the sadness and discontent of the inter war period. The poem somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond is probably my favorite of those read. I can't put a finger on why it is my favorite but it leaves me in a comfortable yet borderline somber mood. He is great with his wordage and flow.

Taggard doesn't seem to focus on political viewpoints as cumming does. She seems like a feminest and likely a supporter of the progressive movement. She writes poems that reflect the sadness of the times (as does cumming) but does so in focusing on women and children. She reflects the aspect of death and poverty in a war torn world.

Ok, on the other hand, T.S. Elliot frustrated the hell out of me. I tend to think I am a very good reader, but this work was a little tedious. I had to read it a few times jsut to get a general feel for what it was about. It is definatley a reflection of sadness. Of a changed world where unhappiness reaches most aspects of life (both the natural world and the human world). The foot notes completely took the excitement and meaning away from the story.

Elliot (ESPECIALLY Elliot) and Taggard used the more fragmented style of the modernest era while cummings seemed to like the flow of words. Some of his work was fragmented as well, ie. O sweet spontaneous, but even his fragmented work seemed to make better sense and flow better that Taggard and Elliot.

I feel bad knocking on Elliot as such, but maybe devoting two or three weeks to this story can help it to make sense, lol. I did enjoy the works of the other authors though, very much.