The Modernist period reflects the conflict of the times, from the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties to the devastation of the Great Depression and World Wars. The poetry of this period is characterized most by its break from the past, leading to stylistic choices completely divorced from the characteristics of Naturalism. However, this break is accompanied by an extreme sense of loss, directed both at individuals and at the whole of American society. The pervading presence of loss simultaneously inspired works based in disillusionment and works expressing a sense of hope for change in the future.
Love in this period is complex, rooted in the presence of the loss experienced by the whole of America which reverberates throughout the entirety of the creative canon of this period. A sense of pessimism invades love poetry– rather than the idealization of love seen in the Romantic period, the Modernists consider love within the perspective of the heartbreak experienced within the throes of love and after its loss. Frost personifies a flower and the wind to demonstrate unachievable love and the loss which comes along with it. Hughes’ poetry takes images of nature, which are traditionally considered beautiful and worthy of love, and corrupts them.
