Final Exam
Format: 4 Questions, short - essay form (1 page)
Williams
Loy
Stein
Zukofsky
For each author studied, you will be presented with one poem (or short excerpt) and one prose quotation (from the author him/herself or one of the reserve readings on the background and principles of modernism). Somewhat like a traditional "identification" question, you will be asked to venture some observations about the meaningfulness or significance of the quotation, while expressing something of your understanding/appreciation for modernist poetics in general and the author's work particularly.
Ex.
Mina Loy
| [From Songs to Joannes]
We might have given birth to a butterfly
|
Modern poetry, like music, has received a fresh impetus from contemporary life; they have both gained in precipitance of movement. The structure of all poetry is the movement that an active individuality makes in expressing itself. Poetic rhythm, of which we have all spoken so much, is the chart of a temperament. |