home

Welcome to Mr. Campbell’s poetry anthology! This anthology will explore ‘The death of Romanticism-the rise of Modernism!’ as its key focus. The romantic era was a literary, artistic and intellectual movement that gained momentum in reaction to the age of enlightenment, where authors and artists sought to recapture the energy of nature, religion and human sensibility. A large portion of the poetry cannon consists of Romantic era poets, such as Keats and Wordsworth, to name a few. Modernism on the other hand representing the radical shift in cultural sensibilities surrounding [|World War I], modernist literature struggled with the new realm of subject matter brought about by an increasingly industrialized and globalized world. The rise of Modernism heralded the death of the romantic era. Gone were the days of discussing love symbolised by natural images and gone were the notions of humanity having a good natured yet confused relationship with God. In its place now stood a distancing, alienation and perversion of nature as well as ‘the death of God’

To see this process in action, one of the most famous and influential modernist attacks on romanticism- Cantleman’s Spring Mate by Wyndham Lewis is available online. Look it up and you'll soon get the picture of how debased some modernist poets can take things! You can find this text by simply googling 'Cantleman full text'.

The poems that your about to read through demonstrate this juxtaposition of different eras. You’ll be able to see how the romantics deal with the subject matter with a close association with nature, and how the modernists take this, abuse it, feed it to the wolves and only leave disillusionment in their wake.

Presented through this anthology are several classic romantic poets, as well as well known modernist poets. The rationale for this particular selection of poems is to re engage student’s ideas about the nature of poetry. The focus aims to show students movements within poetry can be as hotly contested as any sporting match. Also noticing the reactions from literature in response to major technological and global events is incredibly interesting to witness. To see that poetry can speak volumes about the mindsets and psyche of a historical period is something that students may never have had an idea about. It is also a challenging selection of works that will best suit higher ability students. Many of the themes, motifs ideas and general expressions found within these poems will be difficult even for clever students. They will be needing a plethora of instructions about the time periods, political movements as well as background knowledge on the industrial age, age of enlightenment and the global effects of World War 1.

As such, this anthology would suit an advanced English course, of high achieving and had working students. The material does not discriminate for gender, so would suit co educational or single sex classrooms.

Also, teachers should be reminded that the study of poetry is mandatory within advanced English, and this selection of poetry acts as an excellent resource for a fun and challenging method of navigating this section of the course.

= =