A Battle Between The Traditional and The Modern

This is an essay about the battle between the traditional and the modern. It has focused on Pound and Yeats’ works in Literature to show the position of each poet’s contribution to modernity. Both poets used different approaches to contribute to modernity. Yeats used classical illusions in his poems to pass the messages and was more focused on culture. This shows his characteristic as a traditionalist more than a modernist (Yeats). Grading his contributions, he is considered the link between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. This is because he focused on culture and grand tradition, which in the nineteenth century was like the identity of the British (Booker p.65). Because of this, he captured many people in the 19th century, and as his work changed to focus on modernity, he contributed to the early 20th century civilizations. Pound on the other hand, was considered modern self consciously. His works incorporated foreign languages and he had ideas that are applicable in today’s modern world; those that were almost irrelevant in the 19th century (Pound). Because of these differences, Pound is placed closer to modernity than Yeats. Yeats’ works are in the early modernity stages while Pound’s works are from early modernity to late modernity stages.

The Battle between the Grand Tradition and the Avant-garde

By 1914, tradition was already broken in literature and virtually everything was taking the trend of modernism. Almost everything was being focused on being modern. This is from cubism, futurism, expressionism, and pure abstraction in painting, abandonment of tonality in music and functionalism, and flight from ornament in architecture (The Arts p. 179). In 1914, modernity was already famous and many people who would b...

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...s. He had unique ideas and was not afraid to use them even during the oppressive times. Placing his works in the line of traditional to modern, his works lie close to modernity than to traditional.

Yeats however, focused on the grand tradition and the British culture. His contribution to civilization could be greater than Pound’s contribution because it came at the right time. His methods were ‘enjoyed’ by the people and so he became the icon. His works lie close to traditional more than modern making them the link between 19th and 20th century.

Works Cited

Booker, M. Keith. Colonial Power, Colonial Texts: India in the Modern British Novel. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972).

Ruthven, K. K. Ezra Pound As Literary Critic, London: Routledge, 1990.---ARS2

The Arts 1914-1945

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).