Current critical debate discusses contemporary poetry in terms of the Pound, Stevens or Williams’ era, forgetting T. S. Eliot, the poet who presided over the literary scenario for almost half a century. Eliot’s bookishness, political conservatism and religious leanings, together with the Modernist cultivation of an erudite, culturally charged idiom, have constituted a serious source of critical discontent. For the adepts of Marxist hermeneutics, his work came to represent “a privileged, closed, authoritative…
T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri of New England descent, on Sept. 26, 1888. He entered Harvard University in 1906, completed his courses in three years and earned a master's degree the next year. After a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, he returned to Harvard. Further study led him to Merton College, Oxford, and he decided to stay in England. He worked first as a teacher and then in Lloyd's Bank until 1925. Then he joined the London publishing…
T.S. Eliot is often regarded as a poetic genius of his time and frequently, to this day as well. He lived a fairly, normal life as he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri then later attended Harvard University. Eventually, he left the United States for Sorbonne, England and returned to Harvard to study some more and ended up back in England where he became under the influence of Ezra Pound. Pound recognized Eliot’s poetic talent and assisted in many of his publications and influenced his work. What stood…
Eliot’s Hysteria. It is clear that the woman’s laughter has led her to lose control of herself, as she leans back mouth open shaking manically. The two men that are described in the piece are frantically attempting to regain control of the situation, however…
T.S. Eliot’s Preludes is a poem in which he portrays the isolation of an individual from society. His imagery is clear and he uses many techniques to achieve this. The central theme of the poem is about the feeling of despair at the decline and dissolution of modern civilization. This poem was written in 1917, when there was a worldwide questioning of the values of modern western civilization. Due to many factors, especially the First World War and the economic depression, many artists, poets and…
Poetic Devices 1. Alliteration- The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Ex: She sells sea shells by the sea shore. 2. Assonance- The repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds. Ex: The blue moon rose too soon. 3. Enjambment- The continuation of a sentence from one line to the next line. When you are reading poetry, do not stop at the end of a line. Read through until you hit punctuation that tells you to stop. Ex: “The setting sun/ slithers into…
Eliot’s Tradition and the Individual Talent T. S. Eliot is a well-known critic, poet and writer who has done a great amount of literary work. Eliot has his own views for judging and analyzing poets and poetry. In "Tradition and The Individual Talent", Eliot has given some significant ideas, which are essential to understand in order to understand Eliot’s perceptions regarding poetry and poets. T.S Eliot’s critical essays are the one, which cause a mind to think over a situation, he has described…
T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is a complex and fragmented poem that underwent major revisions before it was published in 1922. The published version we see and read today is actually shorter in comparison to what Eliot had originally written. According to James Torrens’s article “The Hidden Years if the Waste Land Manuscript,” Eliot had mailed “54 pages of The Waste Land, including the unused parts” to John Quinn, a “corporation lawyer in New York City,” which had shortly disappeared after Quinn’s…
ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOL (INDEPENDENT) English Language and Literature Department Poetic Devices and their Likely Effects Alliteration Gains reader’s attention through repetition of a consonant sound, appeals to the sense of hearing, emphasizes words, links lines, unifies stanzas (or the poem as a whole), and enhances flow of poem. Draws attention to particular words or lines through repetition of a vowel sound, appeals to the sense of hearing, enhances the development of the image created by the words…
individual words. "It's raining cats and dogs." Foot: the time period into which the beat of the poetic line is divided. A foot is made up of several syllables, some long and some short. Meter: refers to how the feet are put together to form lines of poetry. The combinations of long and short syllables give poetry a musical feel. Rhythm: the pattern of long and short syllables in a poetic line. In modern poetry, some words receive greater vocal emphasis than others. Lyrics: what poets…