CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY

You’ve probably heard the phrase contemporary poetry, but what does it mean and what characteristics
does it have? In this article, we will look at the four different eras of poetry along with how to spot
contemporary poetry using the five basic characteristics associated with it.

First, let’s go ahead and talk about what the phrase means.

It actually depends! Yep, there are actually two different meanings. The first meaning is simply anyone
who has been writing recently. Yeah. It is a time word. For example, we can say there are Victorian,
Industrial, Modern, and Contemporary poets over the past 150 years.

On the other hand, contemporary can be seen as a style of poetry written today. With this, we can divide
poets up into four groups–traditional, modern, post-modern, and contemporary. Actually, many people
divide it into only two groups–traditional and modern or traditional and contemporary.

Experience it.

Characteristics of the four types of poets

Traditional: Typically traditional poetry is anything written with a fixed verse.

Modern: Typically modern poetry is infused with diction and rhythm. However, it is established by non-
metrical means.

Post-modern: Post-modern poetry emphasizes the role of the poet, the role of the reader, and highlights
the cultural place the poem is read. The poem is seen as a cultural artifact.

Contemporary: Typically moves back towards traditional forms. However, it also may include other
characteristics.

Five characteristics of Contemporary Poetry:

1. Contemporary poetry is often written in free verse (unrhymed and with no specific metrical
rhythm).
2. Readers know and can associate with the language.
3. It is brief.
4. The poet laces the poem with images using all the reader’s senses.
5. It invites the reader to interpret the poem without yelling from the rooftops the true meaning of
the poem.
Generally speaking, however, we don’t necessarily differentiate poets in such a way. We can use words
like contemporary-style and modernist poets but it doesn’t always have the meaning we want. The
context of the subject matter is more important than the actual definition the term itself may have.

Nonetheless, context does distinguish poetry eras with good reason. An era does not make a man but men
make an era. Eras take on such personality because of an overwhelming majority of established poets
writing in a specific style. Nonetheless, not all poets during that time frame will write in that particular
style.

A poetic era is a very general term. If someone writes in the era, they don’t always follow the eras form or
style.

Post-modern Contemporary Poetry

Today, there are two groups of contemporary era poets. One group is for going back to traditional forms
and using meter/rhyme. The other group is returning slightly back towards traditional poetry in the sense
of using cadence more than dada-style work we saw in post-modern style poetry (especially in Slam
Poetry: see “Justice in Life” for an example).

As we look at the characteristics above, we can see that contemporary poetry is much closer to traditional
poetry than its post-modern cousin. However, it is still a step away from modern poetry.

Nonetheless, the gap between prose and poetry is once again widening and experts believe we will see the
other side of contemporary authors increasing.

Understanding Postmodern Poetry 

by Karen Y Hamilton

Following World War II, with the bombing of Japan, the cohesive center disappeared
for Americans. People began to move outward from the cities and into newly created
suburbs. Women did not wish to return to the world of housekeeping after tasting the
freedom of war-time employment. Minorities also felt the impact of a newly found
freedom. We split the atom, the center of everything, and in so doing we created
chaos. The Contemporary Poets reflect this chaos.
The characteristics of Post-Modern Poetry include many modernist themes and many
modernist themes taken to new levels. The largest indicator of Post-modern poetry is
the “absence of a single dominant style” (Norton 2649) . Other characteristics include,
“Mix of image with narrative, mix of image with discursive, precise observation,
philosophical reflection, open-ended juxtaposition, multiple stories, alterations in
Point of View, digressions, no coherence or closure, and unexpected jumps &
disjunctive thinking” (Norton 2647). There is also “an apprehension of the invisible
world, fragmentation” (Norton 2646) , and a style that appears to be a “poetic diary or
journal” (Norton 2646).
The contemporary poets see language as a means of reaching the inner self and the
emotion that is difficult to give voice to. The twentieth century ushered in many new
discoveries, most importantly the discovery of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. The
advent of psychoanalysis gave people the means of accessing the individuals inner
self. Modern poets sought to explore the inner workings of the individual as a human
being, giving a concrete language to emotion.
One of the most recognized poets of this time, T.S. Eliot, brought to the world of
poetry an aesthetic form that was full of complex twists and turns, fragmented
language, and a sense of alienation and loss. The Modern poets viewed their art as
more than a venue to affect change in society and the individual, they began to focus
on language itself and how it relates to the individuals perception of the world. As the
world rapidly changed around them, poets like Eliot sought to capture the sense of
chaos and fragmentation with the written word.
In his most famous poem, “The Wasteland”, Eliot manages to lament (and celebrate)
the chaos of modern culture. The poem is chaotic and fragmented, embodying the
very nature of modern society. As the world careened out of control around the
individual with the advent of World War, fractured societies, and multiple religions,
Eliot’s poem whirls through time and space, capturing the insanity and loss in the very
language he uses. “The Wasteland” encompasses a myriad of characters undergoing
extreme stress and anxiety, “Speak to me. /who do you never speak. Speak. What are
you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never know what you are thinking. Think”
(Eliot 495). These characters personify the complex ideologies of the time period.
Different poets used similar ways of conveying emotion into language. Paul Celen
calls his poetry, the “poem, the noem” In German this means “gedicht, das genicht”,
which translates to ‘poem, not poem’; in other words, “poem negated” (Mitchell).
Language can name the pain but it can’t be the pain, language cannot reach the actual
individual feeling. How do you articulate the nothing? Something is there and then
suddenly it is gone. Language is not strong enough to convey the intense emotion.
What needs to be conveyed is so horrific and deep that it is difficult for the average
person to comprehend or if they can comprehend it they draw back from the intensity
of it. The contemporary poets seek to use language to reach that intense emotion.
Wallace Stevens believed that the reality you are experiencing is your emotional state
at any given time. We respond to our interpretations of what happens, not what has
happened. This gives you an emotional state, an emotional state that reinforces and
affects interpretation which in turn affects emotions. As we translate the material
world into words we change the material world (Mitchell).
Gwendolyn Brooks uses irregular lines and sudden rhythm to convey the emotion of
anger and indifference. Her voice is one of passionate observation that expresses love
and rage. In “a song in the front yard”, Brooks explores the class distinctions of the
ghettos. The poem illuminates the human condition of presenting a polished aspects of
our personality to the masses while harboring a wild, untamed personality on the
inside. Note that the front yard is tended carefully, while the back yard is left wild. “I
ant a peek at the back Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl
gets sick of a rose” (Brooks 2780). The outside nurtures something wild within.
Creating a dyad, Brooks makes what is unfamiliar inside, what is familiar is outside.
It is interesting to note that Modern Poetry laments loss and fragmentation, while
Post-Modern Poetry celebrates it. There are notions of whole fragments that don’t link
to any conclusion. Anne Lauderbach suggests that as our lives are made up of strings
of fragments, so is post-modern poetry. Coherence is the falsehood. If we insist on
neatness we will leave out something of significance - too neat is false, you
experience nothing. Fragments create variety (Lauderbach).
In interpreting Modern Poetry it is not necessary to understand the poets exact
meaning. It is sufficient that the reader take from a poem what they need to take,
which may not be what the writer intended. But that is okay because the reader takes
the feeling, they get in touch with the emotion. To paraphrase John Ashbery, “You,
the reader, add the flowers to the field with your interpretation” (Mitchell). The poet
creates an openness, an empty field and the reader connects with the emotion and fills
the field with fragments, creating a whole. The Modern Poets are teaching us to see
the world in different ways than we are used to. Readers have to learn to dance to the
new music.
Finally, modern poetry creates a mythology of human psyche and culture by delving
into how language works, as well as exploring subject and content. A poem is not a
puzzle to be solved but an experience, an event to take part in. The modern poets
created metapoems, which are poems about how poems and language operate. They
have no fixed center, it is “a hymn to possibility” as John Ashbery says. The modern
poet, Anne Lauderbach says, “Depart from the tune - breaking the form is the form.
We explore the world through forms” (Lauderbach). By breaking traditional form and
exploring the complexities of language itself, the contemporary poet embarks on an
adventure of self-discovery, forging new roads into the inner workings of individuals
and their societies.

. Themes for Discussion The Rhetoric of Experiment --The Poetry of Sylvia Plath--The Poetry of
Auden Generation— Poetry after Eliot--The Poetry of Ted Hughes--Larkin and his
contemporaries--Seamus Heaney and Irish Poetry--Modernism and America--Theme of
loneliness and Suffering--Self Reflexivity in contemporary poetry--Aboriginal-Oral Poetry--Dalit
poetry--Love poetry--Feminist and womens voices--Regional poetry--Poetry and Mysticism--
Poetry and Nature--Diasporic writings- Immigrant voices--Indian English Poetry

Neil Corcoran's book is a major survey and interpretation of modern British poetry since
1940, offering a wealth of insights into poets and their work and placing them in a broader
context of poetic dialogue and cultural exchange. The book is organised into five main
parts, beginning with a consideration of the late Modernism of T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden
and ranging, decade by decade, from the poetry of the Second World War and the `New
Romanticism' of Dylan Thomas to the Movement, the poetry of Northern Ireland, the variety
of contemporary women's poetry and the diversity of the contemporary scene. The book will
be especially useful for students as it includes detailed and lively readings of works by such
poets as Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and Philip Larkin.