This lecture on ppt slides has focused on Introduction to 20th Century Poetry. It has been prepared by Faisal Ahmed, Faculty Member, Department of English, World University of Bangladesh.

1. 20TH CENTURY POETRY
ENG 404
Lecture by FAISAL AHMED
Senior Lecturer, Department of English,
world University of Bangladesh

2. WEEK- 1
LECTURE-1
In the very beginning (week- 1), we will discuss the following:
Introduction to 20th Century Modern Poetry.
Familiarization of the modern poets like Plath, Rich & Hughes.
Understanding of historical background of the war-torn Western world and
America in the Modern Era especially after the World War II.
Distinguish the form and style of Modern poetry

3. 20th Century Modern Poetry
(Form & Style)
(1930s – 1960s/1990s)
◦ The modernist era started early in the 20th century and continued through the mid-
1960s (up to 1990s). Modernist techniques followed less formal, unconventional
writing styles and focused on individualism, self-expression, emotionalism and self-
identity.
◦ The most striking thing in twentieth-century English literature is the revolution in poetic taste and
practice. Various movements and changes had a greater influence upon modern poetry.
◦ Though poets are often influenced by each other and sometimes, share a common outlook,
their style and the ways of writing differ from each other. So modern poetry is essentially a
private art form and it contains very much a story of individual poets. The most famous 20th
Century poets are: T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. H. Auden, Ted
Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney, Rupert Brooke,
Wilfred Owen and others.
◦ In this semester, you will exclusively study the selected poems of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes
and Adrienne Rich.

4. Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963)
◦ Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is credited
with advancing the genre of confessional poetry (see glossary at the end of the
slides).
◦ Plath's poems clearly express the emotional turmoil and internal struggles she faced,
including severe depression and mental anguish over her father's death. She
embraced the modernist period and wrote with honesty and transparency, revealing
her inner thoughts and emotions without holding back.
◦ Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times
with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She died by suicide in 1963.

5. Ted Hughes (1930 – 1998)
◦ Hughes’ poetry is concerned with strong and violent forces of nature. He is influenced
by D. H. Lawrence.
◦ By making the animals and birds the subjects of many of his poems, the poet intends
to express the human condition.
◦ Therefore, his animals are powerful as symbols. Hughes attempts to capture the
mystery of life and experience of animal characterization.

6. Adrienne Rich (1929 – 2012)
◦ Adrienne Rich was not only a 20th century poet but she was our foremost
contemporary feminist poet and an important theorist of the social construction of
gender. However, that dual status sometimes overshadows, and even obscures,
the range of her most ambitious work.
◦ She wrote a number of unforgettable short poems, variously visionary, historical,
political, and polemical. Some of these, along with longer poems like "Diving into
the Wreck," have helped to define the personal and social understanding of a
generation.
◦ Yet her many long poem sequences are inevitably more complex aesthetically
and philosophically, and they demand extended reading and reflection.

7. 2oth Century Poetry
Historical Background
◦ The period between the World War 1 and World War II was known as the crisis period
of 20 years in Europe and America. After the WW II the period was for rebuilding the
European nations and infrastructures.
◦ Likewise other professionals, this period gave the writers and poets a ‘prize culture” –
a term for the values, norms, practices and various kinds of capital that make up the
cultural awards industry, which grew rapidly after World War II. Plath’s letter illustrates
how prize culture promotes literary professionalism: sensing that her natural talent will
not be enough to net prizes in this intense competitive market in the middle of the
modern era. (Zuba, 2016, The First Book: Twentieth-Century Poetic Careers in America)
◦ The world after WW II entered into a phase of capitalism and the prevailing situation
increased the depression of the true writers and poets.

8. GLOSSARY
Confessional Poetry: is a branch of Postmodernism that emerged in the United
States in the 1950s. It is a style of poetry that is personal, often making use of a first-
person narrator. The use of this particular perspective makes it likely that a great
majority of these poems are reflective of the poet's own life.

9. WEEK- 1
LECTUER- 1
The End of the Lesson