Review Of Preludes (part 2)

Review Of Preludes

The poem ‘preludes’ written by T.S Eliot belongs to Modern poetry of English literature. Eliot writes the poem as an introduction to the modern metropolitan. The versification of the poem is done depending on the various times of the day.

Through the poem Eliot brings out the realities related to a metropolitan social context.

·         Pollution

·         Loneliness or isolation

      -even morning is associated with unpleasant imagery.

·         Individuality

-Lack of family concept

·         Pretension

·         Destruction of nature

·         Monotony

·         Physical and psychological impurity

·         Reversal nature

·         Alienation

·         Sufferings

·         Corruption

·         Lack of diversity

Eliot highlighting the inability of changing these issues and emphasising the need for adaptation.  The above mentioned realities can be taken as the themes of the poem.

Techniques      

·         Figurative language

·        Critical and sarcastic tone

·        Gradually makes the poem personal

·        Images

·        Negative images

Preludes (Part 1)

Preludes 

I

The Winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways

Six o’ clock.

The burnt out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

II

The morning comes to consciousness

Of faint stale smells of beer

From the sawdust-tramples street

With all its muddy feet that press

To early coffee-stands.

With the other masquerades

That time resumes,

One thinks of all the hands

That are raising dingy shades

In a thousand furnished rooms.

III

You tossed a blanket from the bed,

You lay upon your back, and waited;

You dozed, and watched the night revealing

The thousand sordid images

Of which your soul was constituted;

They flickered against the ceiling.

And when all the world came back

And the light crept up between the shutters

And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,

You had such a vision of the street

As the street hardly understands;

Sitting along the bed’s where

You curled the papers from your hair,

Or clasped the yellow soles of feet

In the palms of both soiled hands.

IV

His soul stretched tight across the skies

That fade behind a city

Or tramples by insistent feet

At four and five and six o’ clock;

And short square fingers stuffing pipes,

And evening newspapers, and eyes

Assured of certain certainties,

The conscience of a blackened street

Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by the fancies that are curled

Around these images, and cling;

The notion of some infinitely gently

Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hands across your mouth, and laugh;

The worlds revolve like ancient women

Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

T.S Eliot (1888-1965)

T.S Eliot

T.S Eliot

The full name of Eliot is Thomas Stearns Eliot. He was born in September 26, 1888, St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family. He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was considered as an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic.

He is considered as one of the major poet in twentieth century. T. S Eliot is considered as the father of Modern Poetry. Breaking away from the Victorian tradition Eliot introduced a new subject in a new style. Eliot brought all things both beautiful as well as ugly into poetry.

Eliot died in January 4, 1965, Kensington, London, United Kingdom.