Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities

In Poetry Vol 6, No. 3 the reoccurring them of several poets was the gift of silence and hope. With in the poem After Vespers by Ajan Syrian http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/1201885160734375.jpg on page 112, the narrator describes a woman sitting in a chapel where she sits alone with silence. Silence overcomes her with her blessings and prayes and gives her hope and desire to continue. The same effect of silence was seen in the poem Noon by Bliss Carman on page 117 - 118 http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/1201885181718750.jpg , http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/1201885185890625.jpg the narrator describes a battle field in the mist of noon during the month of June high up in the mountain. The soldiers tents are laid down but are hushed by the journey of the end. God stands in the presence of the courage less warriors as he tries to lifted them up once more. Both poems use silence as a sign of spiritual healing when dealing with their surroundings. With in Syrian’s poem silence was a symbol of a holy spirit which overtook the characters problems and worries with blessings and peace. Silence once again was a facto of God in Carman’s poem Noon. Even after the battles were lost and hope was gone then silence over came the battle field and hope was once again regained because of a spiritual presence. The need for spirituality and hope can be seen in both poems. Due to the unknowing factors of the war and faith of ones country and future hope was needed to get through not only the battle field but the everyday battle one went through at home. Both the home front and the front lines used spirituality as an escape from death and dispar.

The Poetry Magazine does an excellent job in covering topics such as patriotism, religion and the aftermath of the war through poetry. There is a sense of strong love of ones country and the need to protect it in many of the poems. A poem titled “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke illustrates this perfectly. The poem goes on to say how the soldier “gives somewhere back the thoughts [to him] by England given”. Throughout the poem he very much speaks fondly of England as if that was his birth mother and she the only thing worth protecting.  There are also several instances of religion being used as a coping mechanism to deal with the mortal wounds sustained in war. In the “Slavic Song” a soldier tells his mother not to worry about his numerous wounds but rather call the “doctor, the young carpenter” a clear reference to Jesus.  Here we also see the bravery that the soldiers exhibited… The young man comforts his mother and tells her not to worry for he is not badly wounded even though he knows he is about to die. Poetry also touches on the issue of the returning soldiers in poems such as “The Veteran” by Margaret L. Postgate. Postgate tells of a man retelling the many horrors of war to young men but in the end we hear that the storyteller is not even 19 years old yet. This was particularly a touching poem because it showed what happened after the war to all the irrevocably damaged young men that fought so hard for their country. Overall Poetry very much was shaped by the War and the experience it brought.

Due: 6/23 Blog Post

<!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->

A curious case of bibliography in the Poetry Magazine Vol. 1 No. 16, pages 29-32  caught my eye... It was titles "A Servian Epic" and it was indeed not even poetry. This was an editorial that spoke of the power of poetry to influence something as major as war. Although editorials are a fairly reoccurring thing throughout the Poetry magazine this one proved interesting because it spoke of how poetry could actually influence sentiment and in turn real life. We most often think of life influencing art but here the opposite was presented. What if art influenced life? The argument given was that poetry was used to stir nationalism and thus fuel people to go out and fight for their homeland. If the weight of poetry is indeed so heavy then imagine the impact a pen can have on all of us. This entry revealed the influence of poetry even though we often don’t think of poetry as a persuasive genre. Secondly the majority of the themes spoken of here can be seen as almost identical to those we faced in the most recent round of “Servian” wars/ Balkan Madness. Although here the main character provoking the urge to fight is Guslar he is almost identical to the leaders, which followed him in the not so distant future, such as Tito and Milosevic. The following is an excerpt of apiece used to stir nationalist sentiment:

Whoever born of Serbian blood or kin

Comes not to fight the Turk on Kossovo

To him he never son or daughter born,

No child to heir his lands or bear his name!

For him no grape grow red, no corn grow white;

In his hands nothing prosper!

May he live

Alone, unloved! And die unmourned, alone!

This truly touched on my curiosity because I am indeed Serbian and a survivor of the last round of Balkan fighting. The issues spoken of here are ones we’re still struggling with now such as the question of Kosovo and it’s meaning to the Serb people

Due: 6/9 Blog Entry 

<!--EndFragment-->