Neoclassical Themes
Reason/Rationality
They celebrated logic, intellect, and the power of the human mind. This is how they thought you could find truth. They viewed emotion as weakness.
Emotion Over Reason
They prized emotional experience over logical reasoning in the search for truth.
Fragmentation & Disillusionment
They started to believe the world is broken and meaningless. Poets used unusual line breaks, inconsistent punctuation, or nontraditional forms to reflect chaos or confusion.
Identity & Self
There was a deep search for identity and a struggle to determine where identity comes from. They aimed to answer the question, Who am I? They pushed the idea that identity is fluid, fragmented, or performative.
Order/Harmony
They valued symmetry and structure, inspired by classical Greek and Roman authors. They valued clear organization in their writing and following “the rules.”
Nature
Nature was often seen as sacred or divine. It takes on a godlike quality.
Subjective Truth
The idea that truth was subjective became more widespread. They believed reality and meaning are created by the individual. Poets often left ideas unfinished or unresolved, encouraging the reader to wrestle with meaning themselves.
Subjective Truth
They believed there was not one true or correct way of viewing the world (or anything for that matter). They essentially promoted the idea that there is no such thing as truth. They believed there was no path that led to truth.
Satire/Social Critique
They used wit and irony to expose human flaws and criticize society, politics, or the arts.
Individualism/Rebellion
The self is celebrated and rules are questioned.
Alienation and Isolation
Poets felt emotionally or spiritually disconnected from others and from the world. They struggle with existential uncertainty and express loneliness.
Alienation & Isolation
People often felt emotionally or spiritually disconnected from others in a very confusing world. With the idea that life was meaningless being so common, relationships felt superficial and purposeless.
Moral Instruction
They aimed to teach lessons about virtue, honor, or reasoned behavior. Poetry was seen as a tool for improving society.
Imagination and Subjective Truth
They believed truth can shaped by feeling and intuition. They didn’t believe in one objective truth.
Experimentation & Ambiguity
They believed art should challenge understanding and avoid clarity. Modernist poets often resisted a single, clear interpretation of their work.
Language as Unreliable
They often posed the question, “Can we even trust words?” Writers highlighted how language could distort or obscure meaning.
Man’s Place in the Universe
They explored the idea of a rational universe with man as a logical, though flawed, part of the whole.
Death and Immortality
Literature showed an obsession with beauty, mortality, and leaving a legacy.
Secularism
Reality vs. Illusion
They believed the line between what is real and what is fake is blurred. They promoted the idea that it is hard to distinguish between reality and just mere illusion of reality. Everything is not as it seems.