At most he was a transitional figure. But even this is problematic as his most direct influence was on the poets Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé who became symbolists because of it and not modernists. It's true that he came up with the term "modernity" but I don't think that's strictly the same as "modernism" -- as we know it today.
The trouble with the “origins” theory of poetry is that it forgets that everything is on a continuum. You could take it to extremes and say that Wordsworth was a modernist because he rejected poetic diction, which led the way to free verse though Whitman and to some extent Dickinson. I’ve even heard that some of Blake’s poetry is free verse. So it all melds into a mishmash.
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Luke wrote:
I *think *that's up for debate, if one is so inclined.
Luke
On 7 February 2018 at 16:26, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I didn't know he was a modernist. I thought he was a symbolist or
> something. He did influence Eliot though.
>
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