Dr Callahan has argued that the 1920’s were the most important moments in the development of literature in the past 200 years. He has tied this change in poetic method to the Poundian maxim “make it new” in what ways did the poetry of the 1920’s try to “make it new”?

The “Pounding Maxim” refers to Ezra Pound. William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound and Langston Hughes all wrote poems very different than anything the world had seen before. What techniques allowed them to be successful? William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes both expressed subjects that poetry had previously considered not to be important (simple things). For example the poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” By William Carlos Williams shows that there is dignity and importance in the simplest things in life. A wheelbarrow is needed for farming and we all depend on farmers for food hence the quote “so much depends on a red wheel barrel”. This essay must be in 5 paragraphs (introduction, conclusion and 3 body paragraphs) and the paragraphs must be organized by concept not by each poet. “The Red Wheelbarrow” and “The Weary Blues” must be used. This essay is all about modern poetry.