How has T. S. Eliot utilised specific elements of his form to engage varying audiences intellectually and emotionally? T.S. Eliot’s ‘Preludes’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ explore the self-consciousness caused by the intense pessimism of a toxic urban world, which leads to passivity and a lack of agency. Eliot uses varying elements of the form of poetry to present the major concepts of his modernist context, the conflict between the individual and society, disempowerment and time and the ritualistic nature of life, which also allow him to intellectually and emotionally engage a present day audience. Eliot portrays life as tarnished through urban decay, which is typical of the modernist era.
MIGRANT HOSTEL A tone of instability and insecurity is set within the first stanza where the accumulation of the nouns “comings and goings”, “arrivals” and “sudden departures” suggests a sense of chaos and highlights the lack of stability within the poet's life. The use of enjambment of “wondering/ who would be coming next” allows the emphasis to fall heavily on “who”, illustrating the transient nature of the hostel environment and putting emphasis on the uncertainty of who is to arrive next. This constant change becomes unsettling and prevents the poet from finding a place of belonging and further hindering his self-identity, leaving him lost and confused. The physical and emotional divisions set up by different nationalities is further
In the novel Triage written by Scott Anderson, both Ahmet Talzani and Joaquin Morales seem to embody a fatalistic view of life, one in which reasons have to be created. Triage is ultimately a novel where there is a lack of hope. After Marks incident in Kurdistan we are instantly made to feel like the worst is yet to come with the use of strong and colourful language. Hope is distinguished when the whereabouts of Colin is unknown, and throughout Marks recovery there are constantly reminders that Mark will most likely never recover. Anderson shows that war has a damning effect on war journalists as well as soldiers, and that their loved ones and families are also heavily affected.
In the very beginning of the soliloquy Wolsey is depicted with a bitter tone speaking of how “little good” the court had done for him. He goes on to describe the stages of one’s downfall; which in this case is symbolic to the changes of seasons and the sequence in which they take place and then proceeds to elaborate his dreary tone by speaking of his lack of depth and high blown pride that now must be hidden. The shift in Wolsey’s tone happens dramatically when he claims the world to be something in which contains glory and vanity and states that he “[hates] ye!” This phrase alone depicts Wolsey’s hostility and complex feelings. He later quickly shifts to a tone which contains one of self pity by calling himself a “wretched” man that does by the monarchy. The use of shifts in tones varying throughout the soliloquy reflects Cardinal Wolsey’s struggle to cope with such shocking news.
This is highlighted with "shut", "bleached" and "dark-clothed". The cleaver use of "shut shops", "sun blinds", "sovereigns", "kings and queens" compounds a critisasation of authority, Larkin does this through sibilance. Larkin then presents the loss in the next stanza with the repetition of the theme of innocence this is highlighted with the quotation "dresses", "never such innocence", "little" and "never such innocence again". This created a sense of destruction and how the war has taken the innocence of so many young people. Also the use off an oxymoron "restless silence" foreshadows the tragedy that is to come.
Larkin’s focus on a sense of isolation and remoteness is ironically established though the continued travelling through the landscape, this is highlighted through the repetition of “swerving” conflated with the enjambment that ensures his sense of movement. Nick and Meryl similarly feel as though they are disconnected yet still moving, their day to day life is a repetition of the previous day yet they desire to have connection and find it difficult to achieve this, evident when Nick indicates that he cannot commit to a relationship, Meryl cries “ So what if I wanted you to like me! Is that such a crime?” And it is in the tone of depression and anguish that reveals her isolation. The persona in ‘Here’ criticizes the nature of urbanisation, revealed through the cumulation of “Cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, electric mixer, toasters washers, driers –” then clearly shows that he is disconnected from the town, there is no sense of community in such a large town where “ a cut price crowd, urban yet simple” reside. The isolation is further explored where derogatory tone shows the sense of alienation, away from the main town that he gets the person begins to see “ its mortgaged, half built edges Fast shadowed wheat fields, running high as hedges, Isolate villages, where removed lives Loneliness Clarifies ” Larkin’s use of pun on “ where removed lives Loneliness clarifies” taps into the postmodern context, there is ambiguity in this and can be interpreted in different however in context it shows that as the villages are isolated from the other towns, so are the people who live in the village, once again there being no sense
Caesura is used within the poem, to give a sense of inconsistency; the lack of punctuation gives this uneasy feeling, where we know that something just isn’t right. The descriptive language that is used emphasizes the sheer number of casualties, and makes the reader feel disconnected from the events being described. Dawe has offered the simile, “Telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree”, to help describe the misery that we as his audience, could never fully understand. War can have devastating
T.S Eliot was a primary figure throughout the period of modernism; a time of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I. The modernist writers challenged the linear nature of writing, demonstrated throughout Eliot’s poems where he replaces the logical exposition of thoughts with collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions. The fragmentary nature of the writing results from T.S Eliot’s view (and the modernist view) of the world as fragmented, because in an era characterized by industrialization, rapid social change, advances in science and the social sciences and the loss of traditional beliefs, T.S Eliot and other modernist writers felt a growing isolation and sense of destruction within society. Eliot’s poetry therefore becomes a critique of this new, fractured society in which the loss of traditional values and spiritual purity result in emotion detachment and a sterile, meaningless existence. The first of these societal critiques, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is written as a dramatic monologue and explores through the voice of its middle-class male speaker a bleak and superficial world bereft of cultural depth and the fulfillment of personal relationships.
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 poem “London” describes Blake’s dislike of London and how he views it as the downfall of modern society; he continually repeats the word “Chartered” and sees the city as fake, regulated and unnatural. Wordsworth, on the other hand, expresses his feelings towards London in the form of a sonnet. This – along with his admiring language such as “Majesty” and “Splendour”- make it clear to see that he adores the city. The moods created in the two poems vary greatly, from dismal and hopeless in Blake’s, to proud and ecstatic in Wordsworth’s rendition. In the following essay I will explore in greater detail the emotions and romantic aspects of the poems, and the opinions of the writers and audiences.