Spinks 1

Jake Spinks

Angela Brownlee

ENGL2130

3 April 2021

Unit 2 Test

Modernism is a literary concept that was prevalent in the early to mid-twentieth century.

Modernist pieces show that life is on a small scale, they show sadness, anger, and disdain for life

in general. “Miniver Cheevy” is a modernist poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson about a man

who resents modern life and wishes he could experience the grandeurs of the past. “Dolor” is

another poem, this one by Theodore Roethke. It is about the repetition and perpetual unhappiness

of modern life. Lastly, “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” describes war, and the governments

lack of respect for the people who fight for it. These selected pieces all represent modernist

values in different aspects of life.

The Poem “Miniver Cheevy” focuses heavily on the idea of the pointlessness of modern

life. Miniver Cheevy feels modern life is irrelevant and wants to experience things of the past.

Miniver Cheevy would be joyed by the thought of the past life, but when modern life was in

discussion, he would be disgusted by it.” Miniver loved the days of old/ When swords were

bright and steeds were prancing;/ The vision of a warrior bold / Would set him dancing.” (Lines

4-8). He hated the modern idea of currency, he felt it had no value. Although he was miserable

because of the currency he lacked. Robinson's poem showed some of the lack of happiness in

modern life, that a lot of modernist poems tended to show.

While “Miniver Cheevy” wanted to abandon the present and go back into the past,

“Dolor” feels the sadness and repetition of but understands that it necessary to maintain this
 Spinks 2

cycle. “Dolor” uses the dull, repetitive, cramped life of a typical office employee to show the

negativity of the modern world. “Endless duplication of lives and objects.”(Line 8). People waste

their lives and potential to make ends meet, that is the cycle of modern life. “Dolor” represents

the meaninglessness of life, a common theme in modernist pieces. Roethke wanted to represent

sadness and pure negativity, while Robinson in “Miniver Cheevy” represented a resentment of

society, and a glorification of past society.

While the last two poems mainly focused on the regular life and how that effects the

everyday people, this poem is more focused on war and the treatment of soldiers in modern war

situations. “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is a poem about the sacrifice people make in

war. It also shows how the governments and higher powers show no respect for the men they put

to death. ” When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.”(Line 5). This poem

compares the inhumane fetal like position the gunners are subject to for hours a baby in the

mother's womb. To take the comparison further than just a physical position, the gunner is also

vulnerable as a baby. The way the gunners are sent to death can also represent the

meaninglessness of life that was mentioned earlier.

The three selections chosen all represent the pessimistic views of modernism in similar

fashions. “Miniver Cheevy” shows the disdain for all of the modern world, while “Dolor” shows

the endless repetition of modern life. “The Death of The Ball Gunner” focuses on the

meaninglessness of life in war, and the lack of respect for human life by higher worldly powers.

The three selections all perfectly show the modernist values, in different writing styles.