David Harvey

Words: 1503
Pages: 7

To posit that Robert Frost is a Modernist writer would take a large volume rather than four or five pages. However, Robert Frost’s poem “Design” shows evidence of modernist thinking, in accordance with the definitions of the movement laid out by David Harvey. Though many of Frost’s poems are meant to contradict the “sprung-rhythmists” (Norton 250) of the time in form and rhyme, “Design” in theme and tone has proven itself to be a modern poem.
When looking at modern writing, the definition of “modernity” must be first understood. In David Harvey’s book The Condition of Postmodernity, he quotes from poet Charles Baudelaire that it is “one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable” and uses this to say, “Modernity...not only entails a ruthless break with any or all preceding historical conditions, but is characterized by a never-ending process of internal ruptures and fragmentations within itself” (11, 12). Modernism is a series of contradictions; the lasting moves along with the fleeting, and creativity motivates destruction as destruction motivates creativity. These contradictions pave the road for artists to understand the world they live in and to “initiate the process of changing it,” according to Frank Lloyd Wright (19). The modern artist has much to
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It is not supposed to be white, as a heal-all is normally blue or violet, giving it the same sense of void as white did to the spider. Its name is also telling. As a heal-all, it can be crushed for poultices or infused in tea to treat many things. Yet in this poem it is a canvas to “death and blight” rather than a cure. The opportunity for help is there, but it cannot be tapped. It is left to watch and remain helpless. In its color it is void, and therefore absent of agency and possibly even capability to help. Frost also calls it “innocent” in the second stanza, asking what it had to do with being there at this scene of