The Modernism literary era covered the span of both world wars as well as major developments in women’s rights and the rights of people of color. The literature during this time period was characterized by the experimentation and breaking of traditional ways in both prose and poetry.
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.”
During this time, people believed that if you could work hard enough you could have anything you desired. Becoming part of the upper class was attainable by anyone who tried, although that wasn’t really the case. Those who were born into the lower class still experienced struggles that prevented them from making it far in life, and people of color still faced discrimination in the extreme.