An Analysis Of Elizabeth Jennings Let's Have Some Poetry

Jennings sees a relationship between the developments of English literature in general and the development each individual poet has to go through. That was to a large extent the case in her poetry. Whereas her first poems had the directness and simplicity of early ballad poetry, she moved on to elaborate odes and lyrics which can be related to eighteenth century English poetry. In her adolescence her work resembled that of Romantic poets, who were asking questions about themselves and the meaning of themselves and the meaning of life. Eventually she reached the stage where she could use modern language and imagery in order to express her inner experiences, her thoughts about her own time and place (Jennings. Let’s Have Some Poetry 46) but also reflecting the work of poets of the past. For her it is certain that: “a poet is not an isolated person. He is not isolated because he is part of a tradition. Behind him are all the great and the

At first, it was not a positive one because it leads young Jennings to produce chaotic verse. This occurred because at the age of sixteen she was not able to see a strict pattern in Eliot’s poetry. She wrote a kind of verse libre which she imagined to be influenced by him. Later she realized her mistake, and from then onwards Eliot started to be a positive influence on her. Besides Jennings the other Movement poets were also influenced by Eliot. It was the use of modern language which was important to them .His influence on twentieth century poetry is so strong that, paradoxically, it is often not noticed. “Eliot, of course, never ceases to have influence but his influence, on the level of language and rhythm, has become so completely assimilated into the poetic currency of the present time that he is no longer felt as a conscious influence”(Jennings, Let’s Have Some Poetry