He first organized a modern poetry club to explore the modernization of English poetry. His prediction of "hard (classic verse is coming)" pointed out the direction for the development of British and American poetry at the beginning of the century and became a loud horn for a new generation of poets to attack traditional poetry. Many of his poetic thoughts have had an important influence on the modernist poetry movement in Britain and America.
His poems are few, but they are excellent chapters in the early stage of the British New Poetry Movement, setting an example for future generations. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literature in 2006 pointed out: "Hume is one of the most important intellectuals in English modernist literature, and he is the key director and interpreter of European modern art, politics, philosophy, literature and historical thought", and his thought "promoted the formation of literary direction in the 20th century, especially the modern poetry creation of E Pound and T.S. Eliot" (.
In a word, Hume was a key figure in the formation of British and American modernist poetry, and he played an important role in the beginning of this literary movement.
Hume 1883 was born in graton Manor in the northeast of Stamford, England. When he was young, he dabbled in physics, mathematics and other disciplines, but his heart was always in literature and philosophy. Around 1908, Hume began to form his own literary thoughts, and gathered a group of literary youths to form a small literary group, namely "Poets Club". Young poets such as Ford, Ahldin, Lewis, Bender and Murray are all members of this group. Here, Hume read his poems, systematically expounded his poetic thoughts, and put forward his poetic "image" theory. His notes on language and style written around 1907 were also displayed at the party. "These notes read like a declaration of modern poetry" (Kastan 84). Most members of this "poet club" later became pioneers of modernist poetry.
Hume organized the Poets' Club mainly because he was dissatisfied with the present situation of English poetry at that time. At the turn of the century, English poetry encountered an unprecedented crisis. The so-called poet is willing to fiddle with pen and ink and pretend to be affectionate; Critics are also arty and do nothing. F.R. Reeves pointed out in "The New Direction of English Poetry": "We realize that19th century poetry has a remarkable feature, which is to create a dream world. Of course, not all poems, or all poets, but dreams are indeed its mainstream characteristics "(Leavis 14). The so-called "dream" is wandering, empty and without real feelings. At this turning point in history, "such a bystander is needed to find a way out in the mountains and rivers, and this person is T.E. Hume" (Jones 4). Therefore, it should be said that it is a historical commitment for Hume to organize a "poet club" to explore a way out for English poetry.
1909 65438+ 10, Hume's "Club" members published their collection of poems, named for Christmas MDCCCVIII. This can be regarded as the earliest collection of British and American modernist poetry. They also published their own works in New Times hosted by A.R. Olech. At first, the poet F.S. Flint sharply criticized them. After a heated debate, the two sides became more clear about the development direction of modern English poetry, and Hume and Flint also forged a profound friendship. They formed a new poetry group (never named), including J. Campbell, F. Farr, E. stahle, F. Tom Crete, etc. Flint pointed out: "The core of truly uniting this group is everyone's comments on the poems published at that time (still published now, alas! ) dissatisfied. We often propose substitution ... all this is related to other poems, and Hume is the culprit. He insisted that poetry should be presented absolutely accurately, without superfluous words-we had a lot of discussions on so-called images and actually created a lot of poems. "