Contemp poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Contemp poetry - Essay Example For many contemporary poets, Wordsworth remains an inspiration as they continue to investigate their own feelings of loss and aging. However, they necessarily approach the subject from a more contemporary viewpoint that has only become more abstracted and disorganized with the increased speed of modern life. These ideas can be traced through the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, Frank O’Hara and Rae Armantrout. Elizabeth Bishop employs imagery of the modern world to highlight the loss of youth and loneliness that she finds in the contemporary madness of everyday life. For example, although â€Å"Filling Station† is a playful exchange exploring synonyms, she uses the everyday image of a backwater gas station to investigate ideas of deterioration, loss of beauty and the feeble attempts of someone to cling to the pure. Everything within the filling station is â€Å"oil-soaked, oil-permeated / to a disturbing, over-all / black translucency† (3-5) which is only interrupted by a small stack of colorful comic books that â€Å"lie / upon a big dim doily / draping a taboret† (23-25). The metaphysical question, â€Å"Why, oh why, the doily?† (30) emphasizes the sense of lost meaning that is embodied in the presence of something beautiful in this world of aged mechanics. While the sense of self is represented in the presence of the doily and the small plant near it, it is nearly entirely subsumed by the oil and grease that permeates everything in the shop, turning all into a postmodern concept of cyborg automaton. The loneliness of the self is complicated by feelings of guilt and shame only acquired through the passage of time and loss in Bishop’s â€Å"Five Flights Up.† While the guilt permeates the poem, the memory of its cause does not make an appearance, indicating the inescapable nature of it in the new world. Any joy in the bird’s or the dog’s greeting for the new day is