Tendencies of Lithuanian poetry modernization in the first half of the twentieth century: relationship between content and form

The aim of this article is to reveal correlation between the Lithuanian poetry content and form during modernization processes in the first half of the twentieth century. Using methods of historical and comparative research on literature the author of the article discloses the ways of poetic form changes, which led to changes in poetry content, and vice versa – the ways in which appearance of new images and themes in poetry forced the poets to break the canons of classical poetry and search for new means of expression. The investigation revealed that the Lithuanian poetry in the first half of the twentieth century, as regards changes in its content and form, passed through three stages of development (1900-1924, 1925-1934, 1935-1945). This classification is based not only on changes of poet generations and the prevailing literary trends, but also on the historical and social processes that had strong impact on choice of themes and expression forms. Literary modernization curve broadly moved from content to form dominant until a harmonious balance has been reached. It was observed that during the period of content prevalence the Lithuanian literature was dominated by social and philosophical poetry, expressing ideas, moods and expectations of the society. The form domination mainly resulted in production of poems expressing a poet’s position and his rebellious mood. When maximal nearness between content and form (the fourth decade of the twentieth century) was reached Lithuanian literature got flooded with “true poetry” – personal lyrics aimed at conveying the poet’s personal feelings and aspirations. All the other types of poetry of that period were also significantly affected by individualism and subjectivism. In this period Lithuanian poetry got the closest to the world literature standards