Hilda 'H.D.' Doolittle, Ezra Pound, and Richard Aldington were the pioneers of modernist poetry, writing in rejection of the formalism of Victorian poetry and European society. World War I had a profound effect on the further development of the modernist movement. The poetry that followed World War I reflected the disillusionment of those who had experienced the tragedy and horror of modern combat. T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' is an example of the disjointed and fragmented verse arising from this disillusionment.
