1. The Modern period
1914—1945

2. Modernism Background:
- commercialization, industrialization (mass production): threatens individualism; sense of despair
- wars: loss of belief and certainty
- society is becoming worse
- the world is incomprehensible
- there are no solutions to problems: more questions than answers
- breakdown of traditional values

3. Characteristics of modern literature (1)
Attitude towards what is significant
- Antihero vs. hero
Gertrude stein: 站在街头无所事事的士兵比在山上英勇冲锋的士兵更值得文学的关注
Focus of description
- internal, subjective, psychological world
Ulysses: 800 pages about 18 hours

4. Characteristics of modern literature (2)
subject matter: internal consciousness / unconsciousness, antihero; strong sense of loss, alienation, loneliness, rootlessness, fragmentation, anxiety, obscurity, absurdity
Stylistic innovations—disruption of traditional syntax and form
Techniques: stream-of-consciousness, juxtaposition of fragmentation, ambiguity, uncertainty

5. Robert Frost (1874-1963) Beloved poet of simple nature lyrics
Ambiguity and dread hidden underneath
A flawed man with personal tragedy
A poet with more than his share of fear

6. Form & Subject Form: regular iambic meter irregular speech rhythm
Subject: confusion
fear
uncertainty
Poetry: “a momentary stay against confusion”

7. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Interlocking rhyming scheme: aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd
Deceptively simple: ambiguous
Rejection of fascination with the dark trees
Strong lure of death
Speaker’s hesitation

8. Design
Sonnet: Italian sonnet – octave & sestet with a rime scheme of abba abba cdecde / cdcdcd (14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter)
Rhyming scheme of “Design”: abba abba acaacc
Inverted order of traditional sonnet structure
White: absence of color, terrifying
Final uncertainty about the universe: design or random?

9. The Tuft of Flowers Interior Monologue with heroic couplet
The link between fellow laborers, the kindred spirits of fellow human beings / workers
Hint of uncertainty: unpredictable world; accidental hope of finding a means of communication

10. Mending Wall Blank verse: unrhymed lines of regular iambic pentameter
Communication is impossible.

11. Home Burial Dramatic dialogue between husband and wife
Blank verse of irregular stanza length
Alienation: great strain in marriage

12. The Road Not Taken Iambic tetrameter with rime scheme of abaab
Simple vernacular language
Feeling sorry and sentimental

13. After Apple-Picking Irregular length of lines and rhymes
Interior monologue (vernacular language)
Tired of the pressure of doing perfect work
Longing for a sleep –a short or long sleep, rest, death?

14. Birches Join of realism and idealism, reality and ideal
He /The birch swinger doesn’t go to heaven but towards heaven.

15. Assignments
Read T. S. Eliot ( )'s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Analyze the modernistic elements in the form and content of the poem, such as the narration, images of the character, symbols, themes.