Conclusion
The ironic part of Stevens’ poem is how much it coincides with the theories of Romantic poetry without actually being a Romantic poem. The poem even lists some events that you might find in a Romantic work, but “Of Modern Poetry” is ultimately self-reflective. Stevens’ work is reflecting on itself and what it means to be a poem. The poem reaches many Romantic conclusions. Then when comparing Stevens’ work to Wordsworth's definition of poetry it becomes apparent that it is not a spontaneous overflow of emotions, but a well thought out idea. While you might enjoy the poem, it also seems to fall short of having the return quality that Coleridge speaks of or the unchangeable diction. As a theoretic work “Of Modern Poetry” is fairly at home amongst Romantic thoughts, but as a poetic work it fails to meet the requirements set down by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
“Of Modern Poetry” is another step forward for literature, much like the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Coleridge was among the first to begin merging literary theory and criticism to bring about implementable ideas. In Stevens’ work we find an increased application of theory through its unison with literature. This analysis of “Of Modern Poetry” as Romantic literature shows how modern theory spawns from its predecessors. The poem contains many modern characteristics but in the end sides heavily with Wordsworth and Coleridge. “Of Modern Poetry” fails to fit in with other Romantic poems because it is a Romantic poem in theory and a modern poem in reality. The poem is “the act of the mind” and as such it only seems fitting that present day poets would develop ideas out of the remnants of the great poetic minds that preceded them.
Read more about this topic: Of Modern Poetry
Famous quotes containing the word conclusion:
“We must not leap to the fatalistic conclusion that we are stuck with the conceptual scheme that we grew up in. We can change it, bit by bit, plank by plank, though meanwhile there is nothing to carry us along but the evolving conceptual scheme itself. The philosopher’s task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem.... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”
—Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)
“No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him.... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)