Modern poetry includes verse created by 20th and 21st century writers, with varying definitions of “modern”. It emphasizes strong imagery, emotional content, and less reliance on rhyme. Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe are early modern poets, while TS Eliot and William Carlos Williams influenced the Beat generation. Modern poetry has taken on new forms, including rap songs and slam poetry.
Modern poetry refers to the verse created by 20th and 21st century writers and poets. The actual definition of “modern” varies, depending on the authority cited. Some people would define modern poetry to include 20th century poets, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. Recognizable aspects of modern poetry include an emphasis on strong imagery and emotional content and a lesser reliance on the use of rhyme. Modern movements such as Beat poetry and Poetry Slams would also be included.
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of literary art. Preliterate societies used rhyming verse as a method of making stories and story passages easier to remember. These verses have been passed down from one generation to another as oral narratives. Some of these were eventually written down and have survived to this day. Epic tales such as Beowulf and The Odyssey were originally written in verse, influencing later poets such as Dante and John Milton.
American poet Walt Whitman, who published his influential book Leaves of Grass in 1855, is one of the founders of modern poetry. His disdain for traditional rhyme and meter led to his being called “the father of free verse” and made him an influence on later writers. Edgar Allan Poe, working a few years earlier, brought his approach to traditional methods. Although he was a literary master who wrote short stories, novels and journalism, he is perhaps best known for a poem, The Raven.
In the early 20th century, TS Eliot fled the United States for England and produced a number of important poems. The Waste Land is considered one of the great works of English literature. It contains many aspects of modern poetry: strong imagery, obscure details of high significance to the poet, and a lack of rhyming lines. William Carlos Williams was another American poet with a strong influence on the Beat generation that would follow him. Rainier Maria Rilke and Pablo Neruda brought these modern influences into their own languages, German and Chilean Spanish, respectively.
The 1950s saw an explosion of modern poetry in the form of the Beat generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. Allan Ginsberg’s Howl caused controversy and gained a devoted following, two surefire signs of a literary movement. In the late 20th century, modern poetry took on new forms, including rap songs, spoken word shows, and slam poetry. Meanwhile, more traditional poets like Tony Hoagland and Charles Bukowski brought their sensibilities to an art form as old as literature itself.
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