English
Plath, Moore, and Brooks
Kristine Tucker on Plath:
The modernist era started early in the 20th century and continued through the mid-1960s. Modernist techniques followed less formal, unconventional writing styles and focused on individualism, self-expression, emotionalism and self-identity. Plath’s poems clearly express the emotional turmoil and internal struggles she faced, including severe depression and mental anguish over her father’s death. She embraced the modernist period and wrote with honesty and transparency, revealing her inner thoughts and emotions without holding back.
Of Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet.org notes the following:
Her poems distill the very best aspects of Modernist style with the sounds and shapes of various African-American forms and idioms. Brooks is a consummate portraitist who found worlds in the community she wrote out of, and her innovations as a sonneteer remain an inspiration to more than one generation of poets who have come after her. Her career as a whole also offers an example of an artist who was willing to respond and evolve in the face of the dramatic historical, political, and aesthetic changes and challenges she lived through.
Explain how the poetry of Moore, Brooks, and Plath exemplifies the idea that “The raw material for poetry abounds, it is everywhere.” Use a line from a poem from each poet in your response.