Make it New in Modernism
One of the most influential poets of the period was Ezra Pound, who proclaimed the maxim "Make it New!" on frequent occasion and even made it a title to one of his books.
Pound and his buddies disagreed with the Futurists and Dadaists, who wanted to jettison everything from the past. In fact, Pound & Co. sought out ancient traditions and used them in their work.
A scholar as well as a writer, Pound researched the latest scholarly work on the Chinese and Japanese literary traditions and produced "translations" (more like poems influenced by these traditions than literal translations) of classic Chinese works.
Pound felt that rather than throwing out every outmoded idea and tradition, poets and artists had to gather up odds and ends of the past and repurpose them. The resulting works would preserve civilization, even in an age where everything seemed to be up for grabs.
Chew On This
Pound's poem "The River Merchant's Wife" is a Chinese translation, relic of a tradition thousands of years old. Then how is Pound following his own advice—is he making this poem new?
T.S. Eliot's technique in The Waste Land sticks bits of this and that into the text of his poem. It's a verbal Pinterest page. Wait a sec… is this "making it new," or is just "making it a collage"?