Modernism manifested itself in the late 19th century and early 20th century when human nature underwent a fundamental change. The field of art was not an exception to this change. Artists around this time found themselves striving to depart from the ancient conventions of art. In poetry, this transition compelled poets to make brazen efforts in the quest to isolate their works from the conventional Victorian and Romantic approaches employed by their predecessors. The transition allowed poets to transcend the rather restrictive conventions that prescribed how far they could delve in their literary endeavors. This essay compares the poetic styles employed by Wallace Stevens on Sunday Morning and William Carlos Williams in To Elsie with a focus on how each represents a different approach to modernist expression. The literary style as employed in each poem shall be considered separately before conducting a comparison of the findings to give ample room to systematically handle each poem independently in depth and outline its approach to modernist expressions in a non-biased manner. Williams is an acclaimed poet who produced numerous poems, which attracted both positive and negative criticisms. This aspect implies that he had both proponents as well as adversaries as far as his poetic life is concerned. In To Elsie, Williams addresses three matters of serious concern to him at the time, viz. “a despoiled America, the alienated and self-alienating human condition, and the ravished Eden of imagination” (Thompson 31). Right from the introduction of the poem to the end, Williams cuts out an image of a reckless person moving dangerously in an undesired direction. People do not have time to take even a single moment of their life to reflect on the importance of their surroundings to find out just how much a change could come from the surroundings. This description typically embodies the modernist poetry in the sense that it departs from an organized and luscious setting that would be appealing to the audience or forge an atmosphere of peace in the mind of a reader. In To Elsie, the author successfully creates an air of futility concerning the pursuits of the folks described within it. The mere reason why people resort to these pursuits is in itself futile as evidenced in the statement, “Devil-may-care men who have taken to railroading out of sheer lust of adventure” (Williams 218). A plethora of motives drive people to take up occupation of some sort. However, to posit that the anticipation of adventure causes one to seek employment somewhere is a demonstration of lack of focus in life, which amounts to futility. Additionally, Williams’ choice of language here is notable. He uses the word ‘lust’ instead of desire or some other palatable word to describe these people’s drive to indulge in an adventure to create an atmosphere of anarchy in the poem. Besides the clear depiction of chaos and futility in the poem, there is also an indication of almost a total collapse of moral values in society. In the statement, “sheer-rags succumbing without emotion save numbed terror under some chokecherry or viburnum, which they cannot express” Williams (219), the poet gives an image of women who give in to sexual advances from men without having second thoughts about it, and they do so under some hedges or viburnum. This observation is a clear depiction of the moral decay in this society, which is a characteristic of moderni