The More Things Change . . . Or Stay the Same

The late 19^th century was associated with a time that was into developing and industrializing. People started to move into cities and working in industries, rather than on farms. The traditional values of previous decades seemed to slowly disappear from the lives and the minds of the people. Along with all that, poets started to write about modern technology and sciences. The typical neo-classical poetry was considered old fashioned and possibly bogus.

Beauty seemed to be easy rather than hard, old celebrated poetry was left on shelves, and poets were able to see death from modern technology. William Butler Yeats seems to complain in his poem titled, “Adam’s Curse” that people are taking beauty for granted. "Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen" seem to think that beauty can either be bought, made, or occur very easily. Yeats was influenced by the poetic tradition of the past and disapproves the modern views. In “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” Yeats mentions of a pilot who sees his own lonely death because of airplanes. In this he shows modern technology and the destruction it could bring. Neo-classical poets probably would have mentioned only imagining of airplanes, but Yeats actually mentions the experiences and the possibilities. Edwin Arlington Robinson also seems to disagree with the modern traditions. In “George Crabbe” he mentions how people have accepted scientific theory and thrown away poetry books into some shelf. He then goes on and mentions that poetry is a flame that would last forever, where as technology and theories are just flickers. Robinson also touches on how the modern world has forgotten there religious traditions.

“And emptiness of what our souls reveal

In books that are as altars where we kneel”

In “The darkling Thrush” Thomas Hardy writes in common meter and then puts a variation in one line. Poets in the 19^th century seemed to write more freely and about reality. Most of the poems seemed to be negative, rather than flowery and full of optimistic imaginations like in the neo-classical poems.

Poets used to write more positive poetry that were related to their fantasies and imaginations. In the early 19^th century poets started to write about the realities of the modern world, usually showing a pessimistic view. It seemed as if the poets did not like the change from traditional values to scientific theory. Poets were very influenced and attached with the poetic tradition and were not able to accept the changes that industrialization brought.