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“The characteristic style of ‘Modern’ poetry is an intimate tone of voice, the speech of one person addressing one person, not a large audience…its characteristic hero is neither the ‘Great Man’ nor the romantic rebel, both doers of extraordinary deeds, but the man or woman in any walk of life who, despite all the impersonal pressures of modern society, manages to acquire and preserve a face of his own” (382). Auden

Of all the reading this week, it was this quote that most caught my eye and a passage which I spent most time meditating on. Auden’s words here are significant because they encapsulate very well, not every aspect of what separates poetry of the last fifty years from poems of many years before, nor is it applicable to every poem written in the past fifty years, but it is one facet which holds very true to describing a difference between, as he states it “Modern” poetry, from poetry before hand. Many poems before this time were more of a declaration made by a Poet (a “Great Man”) rather than a poet, to a wide audience, pontificating about a grand idea. Such can be seen in may of the “Odes” which permeate poetry in the past few hundred years.

Many poets of today are more down to earth and have lowercased the “p”, becoming the ordinary folks rather than an other. Personally this is one reason why I am fonder of poetry of the last fifty years than that of centuries past. Poetry of this type is more engaging to a wider range of people, even if is still contains elements which are difficult to understand or ascertain a meaning from. The poetry speaks to the common man or woman and has the potential to present the ordinary in a manner not normally seen and may allow the audience to gain a greater understanding for this idea or object.

This may also be one of my hang-ups with Eliot. For him, the audience should understand a great deal of history in relation to poetry and bring this knowledge to his poetry in order to gain a greater understanding. Eliot would probably greatly dislike the manner in which poetry has evolved and how few pay close attention to poetry’s past. In closing, I enjoyed working with all of you through out this semester and took pleasure in expanding my knowledge in poetry and poetry in theory. I look forward to working with all of you in the future.