Ts Elliot Essay

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TS Eliot – Essay TS Eliot – a prominent poet of the early 20th Century – is well known for the way he creates a sense of commonality in his poems in regard to mood, themes and overall meaning. Eliot does this through his use of certain style, structure and literary techniques and as a result marks himself as a contributor to the Modernistic movement and its character. This essay will discuss commonality across Eliot’s poetry, and particularly focus on his use of negative moods (such as loneliness and lack of companionship), the tendency for his characters to be indecisive and have a lack of action, the despair and suffering that is obvious throughout his works, his narrative structure and the similarity between overall meanings. This analysis will focus on four of Elliot’s poems: ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ (from ‘Prufrock and Other Observations’), ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’, ‘Portrait of a Lady’ and ‘Preludes’. Eliot’s poetry reflects a generally negative mood towards topics such as romance. The fact that Eliot had a miserable marriage could have affected these jaded views. His negative prospect on loneliness and alienation could also have been a result – a result that can be seen in ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’. This poem is set in the early hours of the morning, which is a time of loneliness – a time when most are asleep and when the few that are awake rarely wish to disturb the silence. “Twelve o’clock, along the reaches of the street, held in lunar synthesis” (ln. 1-3) Eliot clearly makes this point by starting a new stanza with the time for this very reason, to emphasise the fact that the main character is alone in his walk through suburbia. The isolation of a character is also a main idea which features in ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ too, except Prufrock (the protagonist) is socially – instead of physically – isolated. He may want to
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