11 T. S. Eliot

"Not with a bang but a whimper."

According to the speaker, how does the world end? from "The Hollow Men"

a desolate and unproductive landscape

Both part III and part V suggest a particular kind of landscape in which the hollow men exist. What kind of landscape is it? from "The Hollow Men"

yes

Did T. S. Eliot win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Modernism is a style of writing in the 20th century stimulated by a growing sense of uncertainty, disjointedness, and disillusionment among certain members of American society; it sought new themes and techniques to express the uncertainty, bewilderment, and apparent meaninglessness of life; used shifting points of view and stream of consciousness; themes were implied and not directly stated, writers used symbols and allusions to suggest themes. Modernist writers believed that poetry should reflect the genuine, fractured experience of life in the twentieth century. The poem "Preludes" portrays the disjointedness of life by using shifting points of view and images in an urban setting.

Explain how the poem "Preludes" illustrates Modernism. Include a description of the characteristics of Modernism.

This phrase from Julius Caesar (italicized) suggests that all positive action seems dreadful to the hollow men, who live in a kind of nightmare.

Explain the allusion of "Between the motion / And the act." from "The Hollow Men"

This cut-off phrase from the Lord's Prayer suggests that the hollow men cannot fully pray and therefore cannot get beyond their situation.

Explain the allusion of "For Thine is the Kingdom." from "The Hollow Men"

The only hope of hollow men is heavenly mercy, perhaps from a compassionate figure like the Virgin Mary. In Dante's Paradiso (italicized), Paradise was described as a "multifoliate rose," or a rose with many leaves. Also, the rose is a traditional symbol for the Virgin Mary.

Explain the allusion of "as the perpetual star / Multifoliate rose." from "The Hollow Men"

Many people are afraid of taking risks and therefore put off decisions and action. He also has feelings of insecurity and self-consciousness.

How does Prufrock resemble many people?

Using parts of the body to stand for the whole person disunifies the person, fragmenting him or her into meaningless parts. The theme of the poem is the drudgery of everyday urban life, the repetition of unfulfilling tasks. The mood is bleak and dreary, one that could be caused by fragmentation.

How does the use of synecdoche affect the theme and mood of "Preludes"?

"world" coming back refers to the visibility of people and objects in the morning light; it implies a cyclic return rather than a renewal

How does this synecdoche add to the mood of "Preludes"? ". . . all the world came back"

"eyes" are the eyes of all these city people; it reveals the closed state of mind of people in this environment; by referring to people only as "eyes" or elsewhere as "feet" or "fingers," the poet hints at their lack of wholeness

How does this synecdoche add to the mood of "Preludes"? ". . . and eyes / Assured of certain certainties"

"hands" represent peole who are raising the shades; the image suggests a monotonous sameness

How does this synecdoche add to the mood of "Preludes"? "One thinks of all the hands"

"morning" stands for everyone who is waking up and so reinforces the impersonality of the poem by suggesting a shared consciousness

How does this synecdoche add to the mood of "Preludes"? "The morning comes to consciousness"

"street" refers to the people, objects, and whole life of the street; suggests a spiritual dimension behind the sordid appearances and tired cycles of life

How does this synecdoche add to the mood of "Preludes"? "You had such a vision of the street / As the street hardly understands"

the lighting of the lamps, the raising of the window shades, the vision of the street, and the notion of "some infinitely gentle / Infinitely suffering thing."

In "Preludes" each stanza moves from some sordid or desperate image to some actual or metaphorical illumination. What are some of the examples of illumination?

as a scarecrow

In "death's other kingdom" what disguise will the speaker wear? from "The Hollow Men"

Dingy window shades are being raised.

In Prelude II what is taking place "in a thousand furnished rooms"?

Some experts say that the author is referring to himself; the two parts of himself are the one that is eager to take action and the one that struggles to hold him back.

In the following quotation from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," to whom do "you and I" refer? "Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky"

Prufrock is confused and uncertain, as are people in the Modern age.

In what way does Eliot use Prufrock as an embodiment of the general sentiments of society as a whole?

The cycle here is evening to day to evening again with little change or variety.

The symbol of cycles, or cyclic progression, says one critic, "is almost Mr. Eliot's trademark." What cycle do you find in "Preludes"?

an allusion to Dante's Paradiso (italicized), in which those "with direct eyes" are blessed by God in Heaven

To what is the reference "Those who have crossed / With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom"? from "The Hollow Men"

The phrase is a traditional cry used by children on Guy Fawkes Day. Guy Fawkes was executed for participating in a plot to blow up the king and both Houses of Parliament in 1605. Each year on November 5, children beg pennies to buy firecrackers which they use to destroy stuffed dummies representing Fawkes.

To what is the reference for "A penny for the Old Guy"? from "The Hollow Men"

a line from Heart of Darkness (italicized) by Joseph Conrad; Kurtz traveled to Africa hoping to improve the lives of the natives, but finds that, instead, he is corrupted by the worst elements of native life; horrified by what he had become, Kurtz died in the jungle; he took materialism as his demigod and accepted its domination and submitted his spirit to it

To what is the reference for "Mistah Kurtz, he dead"? from "The Hollow Men"

Modernism

To what movement did Eliot belong?

The inhabitants of this city are laborers in the working class. Clues are broken blinds, stale smells of beer, and dingy shades.

To what social class do the people in "Preludes" belong? How can you tell?

England

To where did Eliot move just before the outbreak of World War 1?

Polonius in Hamlet (italicized)

To whom do these lines allude? "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; / Am an attendant lord, one that will do / To swell a progress, start a scene or two, / Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, / Deferential, glad to be of use, / Politic, cautious, and meticulous; / Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; / At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -- / Almost, at times, the Fool."

bleak, hopeless, enervated, anxious

What are some words that could be used to describe the tone of "The Hollow Men"?

The ancient women are "Gathering fuel in vacant lot."

What are the "ancient women" in the simile doing in Prelude IV?

perhaps skyscrapers or any falsely worshiped material objects

What aspects of modern life might the "stone images" in part III represent? from "The Hollow Men"

The "you" in the poem "heard the sparrows in the gutters."

What did "you" hear in Prelude III "when all the world came back"?

The Waste Land (italicized), ""The Hollow Men," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Preludes," Ash Wednesday (italicized), Murder in the Cathedral (italicized)

What did T. S. Eliot write?

He is apprehensive and uncertain and procrastinating.

What do Prufrock's constant references to time early in the poem indicate?

The hollow men, sightless, grope together and avoid speech.

What do the hollow men do in the "hollow valley . . . this last of meeting places"?

A prelude is a brief musical composition that is played before the main piece. The 4 small poems in "Preludes" are small pictures of everyday urban living, which may be building up to something bigger, like getting ready to go to work in the morning or looking for meaning.

What does the title of "Preludes" mean?

He feels the other guests are superficial and very aware of his own shortcomings.

What feelings about the other guests at the party does Prufrock convey?

a cactus

What is a prickly pear?

a shadow

What is it that forever falls between the idea and achievement, preventing the hollow men from accomplishing anything?

fear of taking action

What is one interpretation for "the Shadow" in part V? from "The Hollow Men"

the inner landscape of his emotions, memory, and intellect as he meditates on his life

What is the most important part of the journey of J. Alfred Prufrock?

Nothing like them had been heard in English poetry.

What is unusual about these lines from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"? "like a tedious argument/ Of insidious intent"

dreariness, futility, loneliness, and depression; futility and dreariness, beneath which a great suffering is occurring

What mood is evoked in stanza 1 of "Preludes"?

1. details and images: hollow men stuffed with straw, a cactus land, a twilight kingdom 2. words and their connotations: hollow, meaningless, fading, death, shadow, whimper 3. syntax (the way in which words are put together): "Shape without form, shade without color" (parallelism); "The hope only / Of empty men" (ambiguity)

What parts of "The Hollow Men" contribute to the tone?

sound

What sense is stimulated by the following examples of imagery from "Preludes"? "The showers beat / On broken blinds and chimney pots," "you heard the sparrows in the gutters"

touch

What sense is stimulated by the following examples of imagery from "Preludes"? "You curled the papers from your hair, / Or clasped the yellow soles of feet"

sight

What sense is stimulated by the following examples of imagery from "Preludes"? "the burnt-out ends of smoky days," "a gusty shower wraps / The grimy scraps / Of withered leafs about your feet / And newspapers from vacant lots," "a lonely cabhorse steams and stamps," "the lighting of the lamps," "sawdust-trampled street / Wit all its muddy feet," "all the hands / That are raising dingy shades / In a thousand furnished rooms," "the thousand sordid images," "light crept up between the shutters," "short square fingers stuffing pipes," "evening newspapers," "ancient women / Gathering fuel in vacant lots"

smell

What sense is stimulated by the following examples of imagery from "Preludes"? steak, "faint stale smells of beer"

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

What was the first poem published for Eliot, as influenced by Ezra Pound?

He focused on frustration and despair of life in modern urban societies.

What was trend-setting about the works of T. S. Eliot?

Harvard

Where did T. S. Eliot go to college?

to an afternoon tea party; he wants to tell a woman of his love for her

Where is Prufrock headed, and what does he want to do?

ttps://youtu.be/EE0gv00qnG4

Where is the video of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by Zach Jones that we watched? YouTube, 7:12 minutes

J. Alfred Prufrock

a stuffy and inhibited man who is pained by his own passivity and who invites the reader or some unnamed visitor to join him in a journey; where he is going is open to debate

an urban setting on a rainy evening in the winter

setting? 1st part of "Preludes"

epigraph

technique: 'Mistah Kurtz, he dead. / A penny for the Old Guy." from "The Hollow Men"

allusion

term? a brief, often indirect, reference to a person, a place, an event, or another literary work

synecdoche

term? a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole ("Five thousand tongues applauded") or the whole for one of its parts ("Wall Street believes"); Eliot sometimes uses synecdoche as a symbol

epigraph

term? a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component; it may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context

stream of consciousness

type of writing? "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

The Waste Land (italicized)

work? a literary masterpiece that would revolutionize English verse; had an enormous impact on other writers, critics, and the public; is regarded as one of the finest literary works ever written

The Waste Land (italicized)

work? a profound critique of the spiritual barrenness of the modern world; it is filled with allusions to classical and world literature and to Eastern cultern and religion

Ash Wednesday (italicized)

work? an exploration by T. S. Eliot of religious themes, which was a radical change from his earlier writings; indicates that Eliot felt that religious belief could be a means for healing the wounds inflicted on a person by the spiritually bankrupt society depicted in The Waste Land (italicized)

"Ash Wednesday"

work? an exploration of religious themes after the author became a member of the Church of England; suggests that he came to a belief that religion could heal the wounds inflicted by society

"Preludes"

work? one of the early poems by T. S. Eliot that shows drab and seedy images of city life; the poem is remarkable for finding hope amid the futility and dreariness of modern life

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

work? the first important poem of T. S. Eliot; its publication created a stir in the literary world because Eliot used techniques that had never before been used; he focused on the frustration and despair of life in modern urban societies and set the tone for other poems of his early career

The Waste Land (italicized)

work? the most famous poem of T. S. Eliot, regarded as one of the finest literary works ever written; the poem contrasts the spiritual bankruptcy that the author saw as the dominant force in modern Europe after World War I with the values and unity that governed in the past; the impact of this poem on other writers, critics, and the public was enormous;