Concetti Chiave
- The early 20th century was marked by vibrant originality in poetry, reflecting the changing modern world through various movements.
- The Georgian poets maintained Victorian influences, focusing on English elements and sentimentality, publishing during George V's reign.
- War Poets offered socially-aware war criticism, using unconventional language and experimental techniques to convey their messages.
- Imagism, initiated by Ezra Pound, emphasized clear, precise imagery and free rhythm, avoiding moral commentary in concise poems.
- Symbolism, influenced by French poets like Baudelaire, utilized indirect statements, allusive language, and free verse for personal interpretation.
The first decades of the 20th century were a period of extraordinary originality and vitality in poetry. A variety of trends and currents gave shape to a changing world and contributed to expressing the nature of the modern experience.
The Georgian Poets
The Georgian poets were the first major group of the post-Victorian era. They were still influenced by the Victorian Romantic tradition. They are usually defined the "Georgian Poets" because their work appeared in a series of five anthologies called "Georgian Poetry" because published during the reign of George V.
Their poetry represented something of a reaction to the decadence of the 1890 and tended towards the sentimental.
The War Poets
A whole generation of promising young poets, the so-called "War Poets", wrote remarkable poetry whose values lie on the unconventional, anti-rhetorical way they use for a socially-aware criticism of the war, and in a certain measure of experimentalism which emerged in the choice of a violent everyday language.
Imagism
Modern poetry officially began with Imagism, a movement which flourished between 1912 and 1917. The name "Imagism" was invented by the American poet Ezra Pound.
Imagists used hard, clear and precise images and a rhythm which was freed from metrical regularity. They also felt free in the choice of any subject matter, their poems were usually short and contained no moral comment.
Symbolism and free verse
French Symbolism, a movement which had started in France with Charles Baudelaire, also influenced the new poetry.
The name "symbolist" itself was first applied by the critic Jean Morèas, who invented the term to distinguish the symbolists from the related decadents of literature and of art. The style of the Symbolists was characterised by:
- indirect rather than direct statements;
- the use of allusive language and development of the multiple association of words;
- the importance given to the sound of words;
- the use of quotations from other literatures, revealing cosmopolitan interests;
- the use of free verse;
- the possibility of the reader to bring a personal meaning to the poem.
Domande da interrogazione
- Chi erano i poeti georgiani e quale era la loro influenza?
- Quali caratteristiche definiscono i "War Poets"?
- In che modo l'Imagismo ha influenzato la poesia moderna?
I poeti georgiani erano il primo gruppo importante dell'era post-vittoriana, influenzati dalla tradizione romantica vittoriana. La loro poesia rappresentava una reazione alla decadenza degli anni 1890 e tendeva verso il sentimentale, mostrando simpatia per elementi specificamente inglesi come la campagna.
I "War Poets" erano una generazione di giovani poeti che scrivevano poesie notevoli per il loro approccio non convenzionale e anti-retorico, utilizzando un linguaggio quotidiano violento per una critica sociale della guerra, mostrando anche un certo grado di sperimentalismo.
L'Imagismo, iniziato da Ezra Pound, ha influenzato la poesia moderna utilizzando immagini chiare e precise e un ritmo libero dalla regolarità metrica. Gli imagisti si sentivano liberi nella scelta dei temi, con poesie brevi e senza commenti morali.
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