I can’t make much sense of this view. If Modernism has ‘failed’ what possible measure of success could there be for poetry? People, and not just in the English-speaking world, continue to read, study, enjoy, and write copiously about Eliot, Pound, WC Williams, Moore, Hart Crane, HD, as well as lesser known and later emerging figures like Bunting whose collected poems is just being republished for the fourth time by a major publishing house.
As for influence, an elusive and unquantifiable thing - that ebbs and flows under the moon. Donne might have been considered an unimportant poet for 2-300 years till Grierson’s 1912 edition gradually brought him back into a central position. Who knows what will survive of the last thirty or so years. Quite possibly work from someone we haven’t heard of.
Jamie
> On 5 Feb 2018, at 16:06, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> In my view, was modernism ever successful to begin with? It had some prominence in the early years of the 20th century, but seemed to dribble out around the 1930s. True the avantgarde since then have utilised it and its morphings into other avantgarde styles of poetry etc. But I think (as we all know here) that what we call mainstream poetry has been dominant since the 1940s. If it hasn’t been then why do the avantgarde keep complaining that they are the losers. So for me modernism has failed. As it had to if postmodernism needed a chance for the prize.
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