Essay --

Daniel Nitinthorn Professor John Ganim English 020A December 13, 2013 Progress of Literature Language and experimental form define the Modern period as ideas that were originally forbidden began to surface and writers especially began to express new notions of humanity through these developments. In William Butler Yeats’ â€Å"The Second Coming,† the reader gets glimpses of the combinations of religions and how they represent a cultural language that is on a different spectrum than writing in the Victorian era. Ulysses by James Joyce begins to experiment with form and surfaces ideas so novel that they are too vulgar to show to the general public. There is a change in the culture during this era that is shown through the the experimentation of writing and the topics being written about. â€Å"The Second Coming,† with its christian title refers to the British culture and how it will relate to the rest of the world. It is a poem that talks about the second coming of the savior who will only come after the beast of the apocalypse, or the antichrist. There is a notable change in the language as Yeats refers to this antichrist as looking like an Egyptian sphinx but relates both Egyptian culture and a Christian, British culture. While the Victorian era was heavily influenced by the idea of â€Å"otherness,† the Modern period began to see connections between all of the world’s cultures and how it relates to their own. One of these mixing of cultures comes when Yeats says, â€Å"The Second Coming! †¦A shape with a lion body and the head of a man† (2482). He shows â€Å"The Second Coming,† which is a Christian idea and then brings in the Egyptian sphinx. The mixing of these images presents a language that would not have been heard ear lier as this now relates two... ...ses, as it relates to â€Å"The Second Coming,† is a play on form of literature to help express new ideas that needed to be presented in this new era of culture The experimentation of language and form are focal points in the Modern period. As this new era was forming, there was a call for a new form of literature especially to fill the new literate classes that rose due to an increase in those who had access to education. This new form helped express new ideas of the era that would not have the same effect with earlier language. Ulysses is the major change in form that helped show human consciousness by spilling out the thoughts of the characters. New ideas about culture and humanity rose from â€Å"The Second Coming† due to the improvements in the English language. The experimentation of form and language allow literature to present emerging ideas in a newly formed era.