The Structure of Modernist Poetry 9781138794795, 9781315759005

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Routledge Revivals

The Structure of Modernist Poetry

First published in 1982, this book provides a descriptive and comparative study of some of the fundamental structural aspects of modernist poetic writing in English, French and German in the first decades of the twentieth century. The work concerns itself primarily with basic structural elements and techniques and the assumptions that underlie and determine the modernist mode of poetic writing. Particular attention is paid to the theories developed by authors and to the essential ‘principles of construction’ that shape the structure of their poetry. Considering the work of a number of modernist poets, Theo Hermans argues that the various widely divergent forms and manifestations of modernistic poetry writing can only be properly understood as part of one general trend.

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The Structure of Modernist Poetry

Theo Hermans

First published in 1982 by Croom Helm, Ltd This edition first published in 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1982 Theo Hermans The right of Theo Hermans to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 81201512

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-79479-5 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-1-315-75900-5 (ebk)

Tbe StruElure al mademisl Paetry Thee Hermans

qp CROOM HELM Lenden & Canberra

© 1982 Theo Hermans Croom Helm Ltd, 2-10 St John's Road, London SW11

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hermans, Theo The strucl:ure of modernist poetry. 1. Modernism (Literature ) - History and criticism 2. European poetry - 20th century - History and criticism 1. Title 809.1'09'04 PN6101 ISBN 0-7099-0002':"3

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn

CONTENTS

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction

9

1. Mallarme's Language: Transposition, Structure

14

2. Apollinaire's Perspectives

48

3. Ezra Pound: Image, Vortex, Ideogram

85

4. Max Jacob: Style, Situation

118

5. Pierre Reverdy: The Poem as Object

152

6. Georg Trakl: Existential Conception and Semantic Ambience

184

Conclusion

223

Notes

238

References

249

Index

261

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PREFACE

In the course of writing this book I greatly benef'ited from the advice and encouragement given by a number of people. Although I cannot mention all of them here, I am grateful to each one. Special thanks are due to Dr Christopher Nash, for the enthusiastic support he offered when I was researching at the University of Warwick, and to Dr Roger Cardinal, of the University of Kent, for helping me in shaping the book in its present form. I also wish to thank Prof. R.P. Meijer and Mr Paul Vincent, both of Bedford College (University of London), for their criticism and suggestions in the final stages. Thanks of a different kind go to my wife Marion - and not just for typing the manuscript. The book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Lucien Hermans (1914-1953).

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Extracts from Guillaurne Apollinaire, CEuvres poetiques, CEuvres completes, Alcools and Calligrammes, and from Max Jacob, Le cornet ades reprinted by permission of Editions Gallimard, Paris. Extracts from Max Jacob, Correspondance (ed. F. Garnier) reprinted by permission of Editions de Paris, Paris. Extracts from Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading, Literary Essays, Selected Letters 1907-1941 (ed. D.D. Paige), Selected Prose 1909-1965 (ed. W. Cookson), The Translations of Ezra Pound (ed. H. Kenner) and Collected Shorter Poems (Personae) reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ud, London, and New Directions, New York. Extracts from Ezra Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska: A Memoir and from Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry (ed. E. Pound) reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ud on behalf of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust. Extracts from Pierre Reverdy, Le gant de crin, Note eternelle du present, Plupart du temps and Nord-Sud, Seif Defence et autres ecrits sur l'art et ia poesie (1917-1926) reprinted by permission of Librairie Ernest Flammarion, Paris.

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INTRODUCTION

The aim of the present book is to offer a descriptive and comparative study of some fundamental structural aspects of the Modernist mode of poetic writing. In its broad application the term 'Modernism' denotes a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon, a conglomerate of styles and tendencies rather than a unified movement. Here it is used in a more restricted sense, referring in the first pI ace to the poetry and poetic theories of a handful of poets associated with Cubism, Expressionism, and Imagism and Vorticism. These movements, and the five individual writers whose work will be considered in more detail (Guillaume Apollinaire, Ezra Pound, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, Georg Trakl), may be regarded as reasonably representative of the Modernist trend in the French, German and English language areas around the First World War. It follows that the typologies and conclusions arrived at in these pages are in principle applicable to West-European Modernist poetry in general. The five poets under discussion here c1early belong to one generation. With the exception of Jacob (born 1876), all were born in the 1880s. The bulk of the Iiterary work considered in the following chapters was written and published between, approximately, 1908 and 1918. These dates represent no more than a convenient framework, and will not be rigidly observed. In 1908 Apollinaire published the important poem 'Les fian