Social conscience and seclusion became synonymous with each other during the Modern Era, for the purpose of communicating the growing concept of a need for change in the world. Thwarting the group mentality and proliferating alienation seemed to be the only way to do so, as seen in Basil Bunting’s beliefs. The impacts the Modern Era had on Bunting personally are manifested through the political, economical and social isolation during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, respectively; and are indicated through the subject of his poem’s “Coda,” “What the Chairman Told Tom,” and “Nothing” respectfully. The global destruction of the World Wars and its aftermath caused Basil Bunting to feel alienated from the world, resulting in
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Bunting had, “a hard time for him to receive loans from banks because of the lack of financial credibility” (Basil Bunting), because of the unreasonable social stigma poets were subjected to. By way of illustration, in Bunting’s poem, “What the Chairman Told Tom,” Bunting emphasized the unreasonable treatment poet’s faced at the time through the usage of satire to mock the standard of poetry not being a real source of livelihood. For example, in the sixth stanza, the Chairman declares, “My ten year old can do it and rhyme,” which means that poetry is so straightforward and too undemanding to be a job that a child can write it with such ease and even rhyme. Furthermore, in the tenth stanza, the Chairman makes reference to how all poets are “Reds” – being radicals who have unorthodox views to the political system and demand compensation when they do nothing. Regardless, the economic affects of the social stigma poets faced during the Great Depression is evident in stanza five, where the Chairman says, “How could I look a bus conductor in the face if I paid you twelve pounds,” which stresses the fact that poetry is not ‘real’ work because ‘real’ work is only when there is physical labour involved. Regardless, Bunting draws parallels to himself being Tom, and the government being the …show more content…
In fact, the war to Bunting was not an act of patriotism, but instead just another senseless slaughter ignited by a childish feud. Bunting denotes his opinion of the war through the poem “Nothing,” where its subject reflects the Modern Era. But in order to identify the subject of the poem, “we have to look at the figures of speech a writer uses, his images and symbols” (Frye 31-32). ‘Nothing’ is a topic that shows the poet’s growing consciousness and opinions on the issue of existing, with the transformation of technology. In the poem, the lifespan of technology is depicted through the repetition of “man’s craft” in the first line of stanza three and the first to the second line of stanza six, where man’s creations are first celebrated – but just like human life – end and cease to exist in the long run. The formation and termination of technology parallel propaganda’s influence on the patriotism of World War II, in representing that everything has a cycle. The Ministry of Information, who’s job was to, “present the national case to the public at home and abroad” (McLaine 12), was formed on the 4th of September 1939, but later dissolved in March 1946, when the British government saw there was no longer a use for the department, as the war had ended. Bunting’s poem “Nothing” is reflective of the beginning and end of
Bunting had, “a hard time for him to receive loans from banks because of the lack of financial credibility” (Basil Bunting), because of the unreasonable social stigma poets were subjected to. By way of illustration, in Bunting’s poem, “What the Chairman Told Tom,” Bunting emphasized the unreasonable treatment poet’s faced at the time through the usage of satire to mock the standard of poetry not being a real source of livelihood. For example, in the sixth stanza, the Chairman declares, “My ten year old can do it and rhyme,” which means that poetry is so straightforward and too undemanding to be a job that a child can write it with such ease and even rhyme. Furthermore, in the tenth stanza, the Chairman makes reference to how all poets are “Reds” – being radicals who have unorthodox views to the political system and demand compensation when they do nothing. Regardless, the economic affects of the social stigma poets faced during the Great Depression is evident in stanza five, where the Chairman says, “How could I look a bus conductor in the face if I paid you twelve pounds,” which stresses the fact that poetry is not ‘real’ work because ‘real’ work is only when there is physical labour involved. Regardless, Bunting draws parallels to himself being Tom, and the government being the …show more content…
In fact, the war to Bunting was not an act of patriotism, but instead just another senseless slaughter ignited by a childish feud. Bunting denotes his opinion of the war through the poem “Nothing,” where its subject reflects the Modern Era. But in order to identify the subject of the poem, “we have to look at the figures of speech a writer uses, his images and symbols” (Frye 31-32). ‘Nothing’ is a topic that shows the poet’s growing consciousness and opinions on the issue of existing, with the transformation of technology. In the poem, the lifespan of technology is depicted through the repetition of “man’s craft” in the first line of stanza three and the first to the second line of stanza six, where man’s creations are first celebrated – but just like human life – end and cease to exist in the long run. The formation and termination of technology parallel propaganda’s influence on the patriotism of World War II, in representing that everything has a cycle. The Ministry of Information, who’s job was to, “present the national case to the public at home and abroad” (McLaine 12), was formed on the 4th of September 1939, but later dissolved in March 1946, when the British government saw there was no longer a use for the department, as the war had ended. Bunting’s poem “Nothing” is reflective of the beginning and end of