THE THEME OF LONELINESS IN MODERN AMERICAN POETRY (1890-1950) wth partcular reference to the poetry of ROB INSOB, FROST and ELIOT SYNOPSIS ~ The age-old theme of lonelness has got hghlghted n modern tmes on account of pecular factors lke unbrdled ndustralzaton, urbanzaton and dehumanzaton that have changed men s atttudes and pushed the old values nto the background. The modern people have lost the sense of togetherness; they lve broken, solated lves wth, nothng to do wth one another. Democracy, ndvdualsm and world wars have added more fuel to the fre, and made large masses of humanty feel that lfe s meanngless and purposeless. Tme, the destroyer s equally responsble for the pervasve lonelness n our tme. Ths lonelness has fve promnent facetss the aspects of lonelness resultng from man's alenaton from God, Nature, Socety, Famly and Self. Ths theme has a specal sgnfcance n the Amercan contexts the Amercan dollar-worshp, the craze for success, scence and technology, and change, the Amercan dream of materal gan, the slsyrocketng commercalsm, secularsm and mechanstc sm n Amercan lfe have, n a way, made the U. S. A. the archetype of modernst socety where the paradgm of ths lonelness can be most proftably studed - spread over lfe and mrrored effectually n lterature. The Introductory-chapter of ths study, after posng the research problem, sets out to dstngush between the terms
2 rsolaton', 'alenaton* and 'lonelness*. It then delmts the study to Amercan poetry of the span 1890-1950 offerng some justfcaton for selectng Amercan lterature, and then poetry as most sutable for 'the research, and then goes on to dentfy Robnson, Frost and Elot as the three major poets for nvestgaton. The second chapter dscusses E. A. Robnson as a major poet of the theme of lonelness. The famly envronment, the socal scene and the poet*s pecular sensblty made hm feel that lfe s torture, a burden, ndeed a chan of sufferngs. He came to look upon hmself as a falure from the prevalent standards of gefctng-on, - a msft, a man born and lvng n the wrong tmes. Poetry nevtably became the outlet and the chef solace to hm. The nterestng thng s that he felt equally lonely as a poet and artst n the mleu of the doldrums of the Genteel Tradton n Amercan lterary hstory. Lookng at the bulk of hs poetry and the odds he faced n lfe, one s mpressed by hs perseverance. All the fve types of lonelness are amply reflected n Robnson s poetry n such remarkable strength and volume that he emerges as one of the three major poets of ths theme. The frst secton of ths chapter, whddh treats man's alenaton from God as reflected n Robnson's poetry, takes \ account of hs poems n whch hs belef n God was expressed and then dscusses the many poems n whch he denes the exstence of God. The second secton s about man's alenaton from Nature
3 reflected n Robnson s poetry* It pnponts'how Amercans have come to regard Nature from the materalstc pont of vew. It also establshes, on evdence from hs poetry, that Robnson as a poet drfted away from Nature. Poems are taken up for analyss to ndcate that men and women portrayed by hm feel that they are out of tme wth Nature. Towards the end, t dscusses the theme of man s alenaton from human nature tself, szably and remarkably reflected n Robnson s poetry. Many of hs characters go astray, devate from normal code of behavour and natural mental states. They suffer aberratons - moral and mental. The thrd secton s devoted to tracng man s alenaton from socety n Robnson s poetry. He was a champon of human freedoms and ndvdualsm; hs concern wth ndvdual characters s testmony of ths. He hmself remaned a socally solated creature. Ths personal trat s gven a socal context and a name n that he has depcted through the fctonal characters of hs poetry the tragedes of many people who felt socally solated and neglected. The fourth secton deals wth the theme of man s alenaton from famly. Here t s ponted out that the Robnson home n Gardner was a feedng centre to the poet n hs mbbng the sense of alenaton from famly. Hmself a bachelor, Robnson has very effectvely penetrated the hearts and mnds of hs marred characters and shown the vanty, the prde and the hollowness and shallowness of ther lves. In the last secton an attempt has been made to show how some notable
4 Robnson characters feel self-alenated, and how they represent the dsntegrated Amercan psyche n the post-world War I generaton. The thrd chapter traces n detal the fve types of lonelness n the poetry of Robert Frost, He s a leadng Amercan poet of the second generaton of the twenteth century, n certan senses a New Englander, though born.and brought up n early years n Calforna, and havng had hs early schoolng as poet n Great Brtan. Both as man and poet, Frost's was a soltary journey.-frost, lke Robnson, has created a massve portrat gallery of Amercan characters, a large number of them lonely hunters n the wde and often wld Amercan landscape. The lonelness of the Frostan characters s caused by fear, frustraton, gref caused by death, lack of adjustment wth thngs and other people, and compulsons of journeys undertaken. The dscovery of the heavens notwthstandng, man n Frost's poetry often feels more challenged than rewarded by them. Frost was deeply conscous of the dstance between man and God. God's ndfference and the neutralty of space play a sgnfcant role n underscorng lonelness among Frost's characters. Nature s Frost's obsesson. He always puts hs objects, hs men and women aganst the background of Nature- and ponts out some nterestng smlartes and contrasts between Nature and man and other objects. Man s alenaton from Nature reflected n Frost's poetry has three facets: Nature s hostlty to Man, Man's hostlty to Nature, and Nature s hostlty to tself. Frost's own vews about Nature l
5 equpped wth destructve powers are gven n capsule form n hs famous poem, "Fre and Ice." In "Nether Out Far Nor In Deep" Frost has created a symbol of man s tragc curosty about the nvsble and the unknown. Ths s a succnct mage of modern man cut off from both sea and land, from Nature and \ from hs own knd. Frost had two types of socety before hm: the socety that had not abandoned the tradtonal ways of lfe, and the one that was n transton, beng urbanzed and mechanzed and dehumanzed. He, -lke Robnson, s also a champon of ndvdualsm and democracy. Though Frost duly beleved that man can grow and lve better only n relaton to and n nteracton wth / other men n socety, n hs poetry he has 'gven us remarkable metaphors of barrers that dvde man from man. The walls of human nature no less than the walls of brck and stone cause the gulf dvdng men from men. Robert Frost stayed n the New England countrysde, and delneated the country people wth a mnute eye. Home n hs' poetry s somethng more than t ordnarly means. It s a place where tears are shed and wped, where quarrels and patch-ups take place, where conflctng emotons lke fears, hatred, gref, jealousy and love regn. For loveless and joyless'couples home s a trap. The alenaton of ndvdual human bengs from each other n famly lfe, powerfully reflected n a good number of Frost's poems, s often caused by gref and tensons hangng over the mnds of the consttuent members of the famly. Lfe's
6 trals and trbulatons also enhance the deep dssensons between men and women. Frost has gven us a new nsght for lookng nto the obscure and lttle known'corners of country- ktchens and parlours. Then, he lved n an era of socal, economc, ntellectual and poltcal upheavels. The New England of Frost's tme was becomng more and more ndustralzed and urbanzed, lhad men and women who found ther denttes lost 'and personaltes broken. Hs poetry bears massvp wtness f even among jthe rural New Englanders of ther moments of the crss of dentty. On these above lnes, the thrd chapter of ths thess takes account of the theme of man's lonelness n all the fve aspects, as reflected n Frost's poetry n ts respectve fve sectons. The Inext chapter s devoted to the theme as found n 1 Elot's poetry n all ts fve facets, and treats them n ts fve correspondng sectons. Elot's whole poetry depcts hs own sprtual crss - ndeed a peregrnaton from athesm to belef, of a twenteth-century latter-day knght n serach of the Lght. Secondly, hs poetry tres to explore the possbltes of belef n an age of unbelef. Whle depctng modern lfe, he has shown that the modern cvlzaton has taken us progressvely backwards, and hs concern wth the Sweeneys of the world clearly ndcates that modern people are yahoos, or apes n human shapes, stll n the process of evoluton. Elot's poetry uptc 1925 depcts the sprtual sckness and loss n modem tmes where God s not cared for. Characters lke Prufrock,
7 Geronton, the Sweeneys and the persona of The Waste Land, are all materalsts gven to pervert pleasures of the flesh and to lust. Followng hs converson, the tone of Elot*s poetry changes and hs personae and other characters are found cravng fat the dvne contact and presence. The Arel Poems * Ash-Wednesday and Four Quartets are promnently concerned 1 ' 1 ~ / -1101II. -r-rm-r.m. mw-.mwth.god, worshp, prayer and rtual. The second secton of ths chapter s devoted to the theme of man s alenaton from Nature as reflected n Elot's poetry. Hs sensblty n regard to Nature s altogether modern. He beleved that the modern scentfc and mechanstc way of lfe stood n opposton to the natural and supernatural.* He has also realzed that the loss of fath n God and relgon n our tmes has led to the neglect of nature. In hs poetry he has depcted Nature as fadng, broken and nsdous* Hs famous comment, wth Wordsworth n mnd, that "emoton re collected n tranqullty" s an nexact formula tactly exudes hs atttude towards Nature. Elot was the poet of the modern Waste Land, where nature s blasted and barren, f at all to be found present. When Elot began to wrte n the frst decade of the twenteth century wth ts cultural and sprtual losses, socety, as a whole, had lost ts hold on ndvdual lfe. Elot was shocked and surprsed at ths socal scene. The thrd secton of ths chapter ars ths stuaton, and takes account of the theme of man's alenaton from socety as /
8 depcted n hs poetry. Elot stressed the mportance of culture,; tradton, socal phlosophy based on theology and poltcal phlosophy yoked to theology. He admonshed and warned hs contemporares that the race for materal progress wthout God's Grace s n van. As for the theme of man's alenaton from Famly, burden of.the fourth secton of ths I chapter, t may be noted that Elot held the vew that famly s the fountenhead where culture s properly shaped. By pognantly pantng the modern toursts lvng and eatng n one nght cheap hotels,* he has descrbed the fact that famly as' a factor^ n lfe n our tmes has been threatened and rudely shaken. He has also pnponted through hs poetry the lmtatons of unbrdled ndvdualsm, the gft of democracy. Lastly, tke remarkable conscousness n Elot s poetc sensblty of te crss of dentty n modem tmes has been dscussed nthe last few pages of ths chapter. He has gven us several self-alenated- characters who are vctms of the pressures,of modern lfe. Ihe bref eonelusory chapter has brefly ponted out n sharp locus the salent features of the treatment of ths theme n the work of the three major poets, whose work s! dscussed jn detal n the three man chapters n the body of the thess, and has thrown slantng projectons towards other contemporares and successors on the Amercan scene, helpful, jerhaps, for further nvestgatons and more detaled! treatment jof the subject.