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This essential guide to modernist poetry enables readers to make sense of a literary movement often regarded as difficult and intimidating.Provides close examinations of key poems by T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, and othersConsiders key techniques employed to orient and disorient the reader, such as diction, rhythm, and allusionExplores the ideological implications of subject matter and the literary forms and structures of modernist poetryPlaces modernist poetry in relation to its Victorian and Romantic predecessorsEncourages readers to engage with the texts and make their own interpretations, moving away from the question of what the poem says in favour of considering the effect of the poem on its reader
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Praise for Reading Modernist Poetry “The impressive achievement of Reading Modernist Poetry is that it so accessibly explains the poetry (including Yeats, Eliot, Pound and William Carlos Williams) and the very wide range of theories that have been invoked to account for its complexity. Its method is to start from the basics and then proceed in a common-sense manner, and yet it uses that mode to explain why the poetry rejects common sense and insists on the necessity of difficulty. The end result is not only a book that students will be able to use very fruitfully (and its comprehensive section on ‘Further Reading’ will also help in this respect) but also a genuine contribution to the criticism of modernist literature.” Ian Gregson, Bangor University Reading Poetry The books in this series include close readings of well known and less familiar poems, many of which can be found in the Blackwell Annotated Anthologies. Each volume provides students and interested faculty with the opportunity to discover and explore the poetry of a given period, through the eyes of an expert scholar in the field. The series is motivated by an increasing reluctance to study poetry amongst undergraduate students, borne out of feelings of alienation from the genre, and even intimidation. By enlisting the pedagogical expertise of the most esteemed critics in the field, the volumes in the Reading Poetry series aim to make poetry accessible to a diversity of readers. Published: Reading Eighteenth-Century Poetry Reading Modernist Poetry Patricia Meyer Spacks, University of Virginia Michael H. Whitworth, Oxford University Forthcoming: Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry Reading Romantic Poetry Reading Victorian Poetry Patrick Cheney, Penn State University Fiona Stafford, Oxford University Richard Cronin, Glasgow University Reading Modernist Poetry Michael H. Whitworth A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition first published 2010 © 2010 Michael H. Whitworth Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www. wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Michael H. Whitworth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, De