ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Modernist poetry in English

Modernist poetry in English is like building with Legos.

When you play with Legos, you can create all sorts of things by putting the blocks together in different ways. You can build a house, a car, a spaceship, or even a robot. Similarly, modernist poets took the language they had and used it to create new forms of poetry.

Much like how you can mix and match different Lego blocks to create different structures, modernist poets mixed and matched different types of language to create new and innovative poetry. They used traditional poetic forms but also experimented with free verse, which doesn't follow a certain rhyme or meter. It can be like putting one block on top of the next in a way that doesn't quite fit the pattern, but still creates something new.

Some modernist poets also used fragmentation, or breaking up words and phrases into small pieces and arranging them in unusual ways. It's kind of like taking apart a Lego figure and then rebuilding it into a new, more unique design.

Overall, modernist poetry is about breaking free from traditional forms and creating something fresh and new. It's like taking your Legos and building something that's never been built before.