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English Advanced T.S. Elliot quotes techniques and effects for each poem
advanced english (ENGADV)
University of Sydney
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Theme The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Preludes Rhapsody on a Windy Night
The Hollow Men The Journey of the Magi
Emotional and moral decay
Intertextual references (e. John the Baptist, Lazarus, Dante’s Inferno ) prove Prufrock’s lack of imagination. Lines 111- 119; “No! I am not Prince Hamlet...” is an insertion of iambic pentameter to imitate Prufrock’s unimaginative personality.
Decay process evident throughout structure - opening stanzas of length and digression (representing Prufrock’s personality), ending stanzas short and vague (representing decay and unwillingness to continue).
The assimilation of the man’s soul with the street (“trampled by insistent feet”) to show the extent of urbanisation and how this causes the decay of the human condition.
The paradox of the “infinitely gentle/infinitely suffering thing” reduces pain in the a modern world where pain is commonplace to merely a “gentle” emotion.
Eliot presents us with an aggregation of negative urban images, “Burnt-out ends.. scraps..- blinds.. feet,” which reflect the disintegration of the modern world.
“The conscience of a blackened street/Impatient to assume the world” is a metaphor for the spread of immorality in the modern world.
Dichotomy of natural light of moon and artificial light of streetlamp represents contrast between romanticism and modernism.
Streetlamp symbolises rise of urbanisation & thus decline in traditional values.
Street-lamp puts things in bad light, reflecting modernism’s approach to reality. e. gross imagery of cat, woman, moon.
Gross imagery of moon symbolises decay of love in modern world. Imagery of “paper rose” as symbol of love.
Olfactory imagery of “female smells”, “cigarettes” and “cocktail smells” conveys the heightened value of sex and thus decaying value of love in modern day.
“I could see nothing behind that child’s eye” synecdoche shows the ultimate emotional decay through the manipulation of the innocence of a child.
Gross imagery of “rancid butter” symbolises Eliot’s perception of the reality of life —> modernism.
“the eyes are not here/there are no eyes here” symbolises the hollow men as ‘soulless’, an allusion to ‘eyes are the window to the soul’.
Our “dried voices” when compared through similes to “wind in dry grass” or “rats feet over broken glass” represent a lack of energy and emotional decay.
Allusion to Brutus’ speech (“between the motion and the act”) in truncated verse indicating a loss of meaning and colour contrasts Shakespeare’s values - in this dead, empty world, there is nothing between the motion and the act.
Lifelessness and aridity are recurring images throughout the poem, “This is the dead land/ this is cactus land.” This reflects his perceived moral ‘dryness’ in modern society.
The decay process is evident in the structure of the poem - a sense of decay does not come about until the final stanza.
“I had seen birth and death,/But had thought they were different” shows Eliot’s consistent stance that the modern man leads a life devoid of any significance, and thus birth is of no greater significance than death, showing the decay humanity, reducing life to simply the binary opposites of birth and death.
Theme The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Preludes Rhapsody on a Windy Night
The Hollow Men The Journey of the Magi
Spiritual decay • Presence of existentialism (shown through “I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker”) challenges of traditions of Eliot’s context - a pure contrast to anything remotely spiritual.
- Epigraph when depicted with Prufrock’s detachment from life throws into darker contrast the decay of religion represented throughout the poem, symbolic of the incline of modernism.
• Repetition of the Lord’s
prayer and its disintegration (“for thine is/for life is/for thine is the”) and its replacement with “this is the way the world ends”, symbolising the decline of spirituality and spiritual knowledge.
Allusion to Aristotle’s philosophy that God is pure existence (“between the potency and the existence”) is juxtaposed by the spiritually devoid hollow men.
Religious allusion to 1622 sermon to establish the tone of the poem, which can be connected with both Eliot’s and the Magi’s rebirth to Christianity.
Religious allusion to Christ’s resurrection “at dawn” establishes a more “temperate” tone for the stanza, confirmed by the lyrical imagery of the scenery.
Frequent references/allusions to Christ’s death and rebirth (“three trees on the low sky”) is mirrored by the journey of the Magi and Eliot’s journey to Christianity himself.
Allusion to “old white horse” symbolises death of old ways and references God’s cleansing of evil on earth - relates to Eliot’s perception of what the modern world needed - a spiritual cleanse.
Theme The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Preludes Rhapsody on a Windy Night
The Hollow Men The Journey of the Magi
Time • The characterisation of Prufrock as he obsesses over time (“There will be time, there will be time”). This prevents his move forward and further exploration of the world.
Repetition of “I grow old, I grow old” - symbolic of his obsession with his limited time on earth and his existential despair.
“I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” is a metaphor for the passing of time - time is measured in mundane actions to represent his lack of his personality and purpose.
4 temporal shifts (quadriptych) create structure, symbolising the mundane routine that humans in the modern world endure.
Shift in perspective (perspectivism) to separate the poem and create structure - with each voice comes a new tone, creating diversity.
Circular narrative to showcase mundanity of modern life and its meaningless cycle.
Title implies each section is a prelude to a major event - irony - each stanza seems to reflect an aftermath, a comment on the superfluous mundanity of the modern dilapidated world - even the constant world is ruined. (life that is a prelude only to emptiness.)
“Masquerades that time resumes” shows the progression of time is futile to those stuck in the modern mundane life.
Time motif is Eliot’s modernist way of trying to create structure out of feelings and memories, paired with exposing the decay of humanity through time signals.
Quincuncial ordination - temporal shifts creates structure for poem and builds momentum - the reader dances through the time-ordered memories.
Contrast between the structure and the title - “Rhapsody” suggests spontaneity but (despite the free verse and irregular rhyme scheme) the poem is strictly structured chronologically, evident in the temporal shifts in time. The definitions of time create a sense of order and disconnection from the emotive side of the poem associated with romanticism (typical of modernism).
• Chronological
structure, shown by anaphora of ‘then’, in the form of a dramatic monologue using informal syntax (“it was (you might say) satisfactory”) to connect with the responder.
- “running stream” is symbolic of the timelessness of the journey, connecting the spiritual, emotional and physical.
- Theme of circling negativity symbolises Eliot’s difficult conversion to Christianity, evident in the anti-climax (“it was (you might say) satisfactory”).
Theme The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Preludes Rhapsody on a Windy Night
The Hollow Men The Journey of the Magi
Alienation/emotional detachment
Characterisation of Prufrock as an observer is a comment on human’s growing emotional detachment from the world, and is also a representation of romanticism’s phase into modernism.
Long opening stanzas occasionally interrupted by rhyming couplets and tercets (e. “In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo”). These interjections provide setting for the poem; a reminder that while the women come and go, Prufrock does not engage with them.
Through the irony of the title, emotional detachment is further enhanced.
Synecdoche to represent characters as individual parts, rather than whole (“prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.”)
Motif of blinds/shutters implies alienation - persona is on the outside, looking in (“raising dingy shades in a thousand furnished rooms”).
Transition to first person affirms the narrator’s isolation and his transition from the observer to introspective. His quick return to observer (“wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh”) symbolises lack of alteration in perspective.
Characterisation of each persona as isolated and focused on the mundane conveys Eliot’s criticism of modern world and the extent to which he saw it.
The moon is portrayed as perhaps a prostitute who “winks a feeble eye” (eye motif), her attempt at seduction. She is a symbol of alienation with her lonely position in the sky and her “dust in crevices”, confirmed by the declaration that “She is alone”.
Use of synecdoche to convey a fragmentation of humanity (“the hand of the child”, “eyes”).
“I have seen eyes in the street/Trying to peer through lighted shutters” showcases the concept of an alienated observer by implying the eyes are on the outside looking in, or even perhaps on the inside looking out. This controversy reflects Eliot’s perception that alienation is inherent in the modern world.
“the eyes are not here/there are no eyes here” symbolises the hollow men as ‘soulless’, an allusion to ‘eyes are the window to the soul’, representing their emotional detachment from the spiritual world.
Paradox of “we are the hollow men/we are the stuffed men” symbolises a lack of connection to human emotion.
Frequent use of synecdoche, symbolising the fragmentation of the hollow men’s lives - they speak in parts because they have no whole.
The Magi feel alienated with their new ideas (and alienated from their past) - their conversion to new beliefs led to their alienation and inner despair, evident in their renewed perception of their society (“with an alien people clutching their gods”) and in their collapsed, anti- climactic ending in which they “should be glad of another death.”
English Advanced T.S. Elliot quotes techniques and effects for each poem
Course: advanced english (ENGADV)
University: University of Sydney
